Enjoy your garden, grow your own crops and meet fellow gardeners
A Million Trees
Derbyshire County Council has launched a project to plant a million trees across the county by 2030. The total so far is around 67000. The majority of trees being planted under the Millions Tree project are native broadleaves and conifers including oak, hornbeam, poplar, aspen, birch, cherry and Scots pine. These trees help improve biodiversity by providing habitat for native wildlife as well as capturing carbon.
Find out more and add your newly planted tree to the interactive map by following this link:
https://milliontrees.co.uk/about-the-project/
RHS ARTICLES
Follow these links for articles about water conservation, new ideas about lawn care and tips for tomato growing
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https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-jobs/water-collecting-storing-and-using
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https://ww.wildaboutgardens.org.uk
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https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/features/fast-tomatoes
Bulb Lasagne!
I'm quite pleased with my first attempt at a bulb lasagne, featuring Narcissus 'Thalia' from Sarah Raven, and some lovely tulips whose name I've forgotten. Sorry! (I'm also quite excited to see that the wisteria in the background has some flower buds on it for the first time. It was planted 6 years ago!)
Please send me your bulb lasagne pictures if you have any, to the email address on the members section.
Organic Slug and Snail Controls
There was an interesting article in this month's Gardening Which, brought to my attention by Cathryn. They have trialled a number of controls which avoid the use of the turquoise pellets!
If these little beasts are making your gardening life a misery, here are some products you might like to try, with the comments from Gardening Which.
SLUGS-A-GOGO (£19.95 for a 1.2kg bag from Sarah Raven)
This barrier is made from strong-smelling, dried, granulated seaweed and seemed to put the pests off. The trial reported less overall nibbling when this product was used.
WESTLAND GROWING SUCCESS ORGANIC SLUG STOP BARRIER PELLETS (£9.25 for a 2.25kg bag from B&Q). These were easy to apply and prevented the lugs and snails getting to the plants. They need to be applied in a thick layer but last well.
WESTLAND GROWING SUCCESS SLUG KILLER ADVANCED (£8 for a 575g pack from Marshalls). These pellets actually kill the slugs and snails: they minimised damage effectively but broke down after a week and needed to be re-applied.
There is more information on this and other gardening topics at https://gardening.which.co.uk/hc/en-gb/categories/201667989-General-pests-and-diseases
Allotme
I've recently found out about the Allotme scheme. The idea behind the scheme is to pair up those who have a garden that is too big for them, or that they don't want to maintain, with someone who has no land and would like to grow vegetables or other items.
It's a chance to make the most of all the growing spaces around us. Obviously, we're all still keen to grow plants and make our gardens lovely places to be, but if you know someone who has land they don't use, or someone who would like to start gardening, it might be worth directing them to the website.
It may be that the scheme has yet to get going all over the country but it's an interesting idea!
Plant Notes from Majorca
March 2023
I've just returned from a visit to Palma in Majorca, where it wasn't baking hot, but not snowing as it is here!
Like you all I'm sure, I'm always on the watch for different plants in different countries. Sometimes one recognises a huge plant which in the UK would be in a small pot on a warm windowsill!
In Majorca this time I noticed that the verges and other public spaces were covered with yellow oxalis, a variety I've never seen before.
I'm still quite thrilled to see trees heavy with oranges and lemons, many of them growing in public spaces. They don't seem to get vandalised: I like the idea that anyone can help themselves, although I've not seen it happen yet!
Which plants have you enjoyed seeing on your travels?
Welcome
to Fiona's Blog
Broomfield College Visit
Members of the society enjoyed their visit to Broomfield College Open Day on March 5th.
It was a lovely visit -although cold! The Winter Garden was an inspiration with gorgeous colours and scents.
If you weren't able to go, have a look at the pictures below.
This is an Early Warning of our Plant Sale which will be taking place on May 13th this year. Are you able to grow a few extra plants to sell? Are you splitting perennials and able to bring your spare plants? Don’t forget to include a label in anything you plan to donate.
At our meeting on March 10th, we will be asking you to jot down what plants you have available, just to give us a rough idea of what there will be on offer. Watch this space for further plant sale updates!
Has anyone had chance to visit the Garden Museum which is near Lambeth Palace in London? I haven’t yet but it’s definitely on my list of things to do this year. In the meantime, the website, https://gardenmuseum.org.uk is worth a browse.
If you have a contribution, please send it to me via email: fionaandpatfolan@yahoo.com
At the moment I’m enjoying the hellebores in our garden: always a great display for minimum effort.
The Autumn 2022 Newsletter
