Community Gardening Comes To Hurst Green - 12th March 2016 2pm to 4pm - A Date For Your Diary

For some time, we have been banging on about the support that Hurst Green Gardening Club has been providing to local groups such as Hurst Green Creative Community.  This group is trying to encourage more community-based events and projects in the local area.  We have also supported Mighty Oaks Youth Group, based in the Community Centre at the rear of the Pollard Oak shops (click here to read our earlier article).

I hope therefore that you have all been admiring the new planter at Hurst Green rail station.  It was planted earlier in 2015 by members of the club, along with members of Hurst Green Creative Community and Mighty Oaks Youth Group.  We have subsequently replanted the summer display with lavender (as a more permanent framework), and with pansies and spring flowering bulbs, so do keep an eye on its progress!

Installation of the planter, constructed by the Men In Sheds project

The initial summer planting

The winter plumage - a framework of small lavender with
pansies and bulbs (which are now starting to appear)

As some of you may now be aware, there are plans to develop a Community Garden in the grounds of the Community Centre (the place where many of us vote).  There are a number of areas earmarked for development, including the main patch beyond the car park which is currently laid to grass, and which hosts a single Garden Bench of Solitude.  In addition, at the rear of the car park there is (was) a badly overgrown area which has now been cleared, and kindly composted by the Council.  It is suggested that, since some trees have been left, this area might become a space planted and presented as a small area of woodland.  Some members of the Club spent a happy few hours (well, one hour, really - Ed), planting a small area of bulbs into the cleared area in order to give some idea and interest as to what the area could become.  The official launch event of the Community Garden is on Saturday 12th March, at the Community Centre, between 2pm and 4pm.  Please do come along and find out the plans for the future of the space - nothing has been decided yet, and there is plenty of time for everyone to have their say.  The Community Garden is envisaged as an area for relaxation, enjoyment, health, well-being, and education (along with many other advantages), and is an attempt to beautify a rather drab and overgrown area for the benefit of all.  From our own Club's point of view, it will also serve as an introduction to gardening for many people who might otherwise lack the resources, knowledge or space in which to learn and understand many aspects of horticulture.  And that has to be, in the vernacular, A Good Thing For All.

The proposed area for the main Community Garden,
showing the Garden Bench of Solitude

At the rear of the car park, this area of scrub has been neglected for many years.

However, with thanks to the council, it has now been cleared and composted.
One proposal is for this to become a woodland area.

Initial bulb planting in advance of the plans and specifications.

We should stress that the project is being organised and run through Hurst Green Creative Community.  The intention of a Community Garden is that the community as a whole should get together in order to specify, design, build, plant and maintain it.  Hurst Green Gardening Club is offering to support the project with knowledge and practical help and advice - we are not committing to actually building or planting it under the auspices of the Club as a whole (although we would hope that some members of the Club might offer to do so under their own steam, as it were).  There are some practical things that we can do immediately, however; one of the big costs of the project is likely to lie in the planting of the completed garden, and it would be a grand gesture if any member of our Club could think of the Community Garden when taking cuttings or planting seeds over the next few months, and take a few extra for the project; all annual, perennial, fruit and shrub contributions would be welcomed.

Oh, and if you are interested in helping in any way at all, major or minor, please let Jane, Jilly or Jeremy know.

World Book Day 2016 - Share your gardening favourites!

To mark this year’s World Book Day on March 3^rd, we thought we would run a mini competition with a (very small) prize chosen from the entries at random. We would like you to nominate your favourite gardening book, fiction or non-fiction, and just write a couple of lines about why you like it. Don’t worry if it’s short - we are not looking for an A-level essay!

The entries will appear on the Hurst Green Gardening Club blog on 3^rd March, anonymously, and the random winner will be announced at the March meeting on March 9^th.

To enter, email us back to hggardeningclub@gmail.com. We are looking forward to receiving your suggestions!

A Belated Word About Christmas Trees ...

This article was really supposed to be published in December, but as usual life seems to have got in the way!

As you all (hopefully) know, we publish a monthly Events Guide  to vaguely garden-or-plant-related-type happenings in the area (click here to see the online version).  We thought therefore that we ought to take our own advice in the Events Guide and visit some of the wonders that we advertise.

First up was the annual Festival of Trees at Westerham church.  This event has been running for a number of years; nearly one hundred Christmas trees were decorated by local clubs, families and business, and the effect was stunning.  It is held in aid of St Mary's Church, with donations rather than an entry fee, and was very well attended.  We recommend a visit in 2016, even if planning for Christmas seems a long way off.

The annual Tree Festival in Westerham

A section of the tree decorated by Weterham Horticultural Society

Out third visit was to Standen, the National Trust property just beyond East Grinstead, in order to see the Christmas tree decorated by Dame Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan.  It was certainly eye catching, though the jury is definitely still out on the result - we suspect that this is rather a "marmite" tree, and that you either "love it or hate it".

The tree at Standen decorated by Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan (top)
and in close up (below)

Trees illuminated at night at the
Château de Marqueyssac

Those eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we haven't mentioned the second visit, jumping straight from one to three ... not a mathematical mistake, but rather a victim of circumstance.  We had tickets for Glow Wild at Wakehurst - the park is lit up after dark and you have to follow a candle lit trail.  We have done a number of these illuminated walks over the years (including at the Château de Marqueyssac in the Dordogne, France - click to follow the link) and they can be great fun and spectacular too - there was one a few years back at Sheffield Park which was highly enjoyable, and we do recommend going to one if you are able, particularly as younger (and even older) children and grandchildren seem to love them too.  Anyway, just as we were leaving the house and climbing into the car, dressed up warmly (looking like we were venturing to Lapland), we received a text message cancelling the event for that evening, owing to the arrival of Storm Desmond.  As the event was pre-booked tickets only, and all days were full, we could not go another night and there are consequently no photos for you to admire, and no descriptions or recommendations to give out.  Just as bad, and more upsetting for certain members of the party, this meant that there was no mulled wine and no hot soup or other foody items that we were looking forward to as our dinner that evening.  As we had not been to the supermarket, we had to make do with a cheese sandwich in front of Dad's Army at home (Diddums- Ed)

We then popped into the Tree Festival at Oxted URC, which is very similar to the Westerham event, although slightly smaller.  Again it was well attended and well put together, but we forgot our cameras and there are no photos!

With the disappointment of Glow Wild behind us, we made an impromptu trip to RHS Wisley, for their illuminated event.  Rather than being a walk through illuminated trees, this was more of a display of illuminated flower and plant-based installations, such as huge tulips and daisies.  A number of the displays were interactive (which all the children at the event seemed to love).  We arrived in late afternoon, but the displays really became much more effective once dusk had fallen.

Illuminated flower "sculptures" at RHS Wisley

Hopefully, this will have given you all food for thought for visits at Christmas later this year.  Also, please do remember to take an Events Guide and to look through it as it takes a great deal of work - but it is encouraging how many of you have said that they love reading it and going to the events in it.  Now we are going to focus on Easter Bunny events (for the chocolate, I assume - Ed), which at our current rate of progress should be posted some time in September!

January Meeting 2016 - Alpines

The Alpine Bank as you enter Faversham.
Photo courtesy of the alpine garden society.

Our first talk this year was by Tim and Gillian Ingram, from the Alpine Garden Society.  We were all very impressed by their encyclopaedic knowledge of alpines, and judging by the conversation at tea, many members were very taken with the alpine bank at Faversham (a photo of which accompanies this article).  The bank is planted and maintained by volunteers and is ideal for alpines as it is well drained on account of the slope.

Unfortunately for all of us gardeners in Hurst Green, alpines are not too keen on clay soil - there are unlikely to be many planted in the new Hurst Green Community Garden, which will hopefully be emerging in 2016 - more on this in a later post.  Although clay is good for maintaining nutrients in the soil (at least it's good for something - Ed), those of us who have it (which is most of us, after all), are in practice restricted to growing alpines either in raised beds - which is how the Ingrams do it - or in pots.   Unfortunately, this does restrict the range that can be grown as some don't take well to having their roots contained - it is particularly frustrating to visit an alpine show or the alpine stands at RHS shows, to then find a specimen that you really, really fancy, only to discover that it thrives best in open, sandy soil.  Over the years, we have come to the conclusion that it does not matter how attractive or well planned a garden is, the true gardener will always be yearning for the plants that they cannot grow rather than being satisfied with the ones that they have.

Gillian and Tim's garden, Copton Ash, (click to visit their website) is open for the National Garden Scheme (known as the NGS or The Yellow Book scheme) regularly throughout the spring.  The garden is about an hour away, as it is in Faversham, but if you are in the area it is worth checking to see if it is open, using the link to the online NGS garden finder (click the words).