Terling & Fairstead Gardening Club

The subject for Gardening Club’s first meeting of the year was `Expert Tips for Propagating Success`. The expert giving us the benefit of her expert knowledge was Christina Lavelle – a gardening writer and Writtle lecturer living in Colchester. Christina is nothing if she is not practical so her timely advice came just at the right time for anyone considering growing their own plants from seeds this spring. Her most useful tip was her recommendation to mix Perlite – pure white granules of inert volcanic ash mined in Greece, Turkey and the US – or Vermiculite – a pale brown, very light, flaky mineral that’s also inert material. This is mined in the US, Russia, China and Brazil. Both should be added 50/50 by volume to multi-purpose compost to increase the amount of air and water that’s available to germinating seedlings and speaking from years of experience myself it makes a real and noticeable difference to germination!

Another simple tip was to clearly label all seedlings. This sounds so obvious but the sowing date and the variety is really helpful  information to have when it come to pricking seedlings out into post several weeks  and several memory lapses later.

Our March speaker was Helen Sheard – an extremely talented florist who has run successful florist shops in Jersey, arranged flowers for cruise Mediterranean ships and worked as a florist in the Caribbean. Helen now works as a senior lecturer on floristry at Writtle. Her theme for the evening was “Decorating the home for Easter”. Unfortunately her wonderfully creative displays using materials most of us can forage from our gardens and hedgerows , was delivered to a small but very appreciative audience. Helen’s first challenge was to create two Easter arrangements that could be created by a child – the idea being to inspire members to try out her ideas for Mothering Sunday and Easter gifts. Assisting her we were lucky enough to have Jackie Murphy’s two very talented daughters (Abigail 9 years and Isobel  8years). They both created lovely arrangements which they took home to decorate their home.

For our April meeting on Tuesday, 10^th April 2012 we are fortunate in having a visit from Sue Buckingham,  a very enthusiastic and popular lecturer with professional and specialist expertise as a field botanist. She is also an accomplished photographer who runs classes for adults on wild flower identification. With her husband John, a well known bird and wildlife photographer, she has travelled widely and provides the botanical interest in the natural history, wild flower and bird watching holidays that they organise in the UK, Europe and worldwide. They are honorary wardens at Brenchley and Foxhole Woods, a reserve owned and managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust. In her talk, Sue will explore the wild flowers of the woods, Downs, heaths, coast and waterways of Kent and Sussex. This is an unmissable opportunity to listen to a real expert who will be able to answer all those questions you have on wild flowers and how best to establish a very fashionable wild flower meadow – to attract bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.

Guests and new members are always welcome. Please see details on the back page.

HOT OFF THE PRESS

The Terling & Faisrtsead Gardening Club are organising A Queen’s Diamond Jubilee BBQ lunch on Sunday, 10^th June 2012. The event (for that is what it will be) will be held at Terling Fields. Tickets for Members & their Guests will go on sale during the April meeting.

Tickets will be in short supply!

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Poppy Field at Ranscombe Reserve on the Kent Downs

 Helen showing us the professional way to make a hand tied Spring flower bouquet