Gardening Society

june 2008

We have enjoyed several days of glorious warm weather which really got the garden growing, but these past few days of cool gloom have put everything into a sulk!

By the time you read this the Sydling ‘Open Gardens Weekend’ will be over and done with and hopefully will have been another success. The amount of effort that goes into preparing a garden for presentation to the paying public is colossal but very worthwhile. Would we have such neat and tidy gardens if we didn’t open them once a year?

It was most encouraging to see nearly 50% of the membership at the Castle Gardens discount evening on 12th May.

Membership renewals are coming along very well with only a few ‘stragglers’. We seem to be settling down to a steady number of about 65 and it is good to be able to welcome several new members into the Society.

Forthcoming events have been publicised with a ‘flier’ to all paid up members, with a returnable application form, and are:-

10th June Evening visit to Holworth with our picnic suppers. Please arrive at 6:30 pm
Cost £3 per head. Use own transport

21st June Coach trip to Denmans Gardens and West Dean Gardens.
Cost and further details to be advised.

9th July Evening visit to the premises of ‘Olives-et-al’ at Sturminster Newton.
Only nine places remain available. Please arrive at 7:00pm. Use own transport.

Meanwhile enjoy your gardening and your gardens.

may 2008

On 8th April we were entertained by Amanda Patton. She lectured us on the very broad subject of “Plant Partners”. She instilled in our minds the necessity to plan our garden design so that we could enjoy a well-ordered garden with a continuity of colour or shape. The emphasis was to develop a good structure in the garden. She advised that, when planning a garden one should buy plants to suit the situation, rather than buying on impulse and then trying to fit them into the available space.

On 13th May we have our annual visit to ‘Castle Gardens’, Sherborne (be there at 6.45pm) for our “discount evening”. Hopefully they have overcome the disastrous fire which destroyed so much of their structure a month or so ago.

On 10th June we will go to Holworth for our summer evening visit- picnics to be taken. This will be an ’own transport’ event. Details of how to get there from me - 01300 341553.

The visit to “Olives-et-al” on 8th July is restricted to 20 persons. This will be strictly members only and ‘first come, first served’. There are 13 places left so please let me know as soon as possible and before 31st May.

april 2008

After a generally calm, sunny and pleasant February we are now plunged into a period of vicious and chilling winds, just in time to lacerate all the new tender shoots currently appearing on plant life. The grass is growing fast but it is a bit too early to think about mowing.

38 members enjoyed a convivial evening on 11th March when, after the brief business of the A.G.M., a truly splendid buffet supper was taken and a gardening [mainly!] quiz attempted. Varying degrees of success threw up a winning team with 48 pts out of a possible 57 only one point ahead of the second team.

Membership renewals are coming in well with 46 to date. Thank you to all the prompt ‘renewers’.

Our next meeting on Tuesday 8th April promises to be of great interest and we will have the pleasure of welcoming noted garden designer Amanda Patton to speak on the subject of “Plant Partners”. Amanda Patton has recently received a commission from Bradstone to design their show garden for the forthcoming R.H.S. Hampton Court Palace Show in early July; a great honour. It is to be hoped that we can offer an excellent turn-out of members for this meeting and, of course, any and all visitors & guests will be most welcome.

An apology. Inadvertently, but as it turned out fortunately, during the preparation of the new 2008/2009 membership card the dates for our two outings this year were missed off. These dates are:-

Saturday 21st June.: A morning visit to Denmans Gardens in W. Sussex, the home of distinguished Landscape designer, John Brookes MBE, who has published eight books on garden design and has notable designs in various parts of the world. The gardens at Denmans are particularly interesting and should be looking at their best in late June when we visit.

In the afternoon we shall visit the equally notable gardens at West Dean House (where an excellent café serves good food), a short distance north of Chichester. Here there are excellent walled Kitchen gardens, many glasshouses with a wide variety of planting and wide ranging gardens on the estate. Of special note is the Harold Peto pergola – 100metres long terminating at a Gazebo with an unusual floor surfaced with knapped flints and horse molars! There is also a splendid arboretum to be seen.

Saturday 20th September: A visit to RHS Rosemoor.

Finally on Tuesday 8th July we shall make an evening visit to the premises of ”Olives-et-al” at Sturminster Newton. Numbers are restricted to 20 and all those wishing to make this trip (own transport) are asked to let either me or Sheila Fanshawe know by the end of May.

May your gardening be stress-free!

March 2008

On Tuesday 12th February a good turn-out of thirty members was treated to a most informative talk and demonstration on the subject of 'Soft and Hard Fruit Growing'. Our speaker, Malcolm from The Gardens Group, was well-informed and gave us a great amount of useful advice, not only on the growing but on the maintenance, feeding and health protection of fruit bushes and trees. He had previously addressed us some three years ago on the tricky subject of ‘pruning’ and gave us a brief reprise during this talk.

The snowdrops have been particularly good this year although a good two weeks earlier than usual as it appears have all the early bulbous species. Hopefully we will not suffer a late cold period to lay everything low again.

This month on 11th March we have our AGM and it would be nice to see a really good turn-out for this meeting. There will be the usual ‘American Supper’, together with a Quiz to keep the mind active, so bring a plate to share, whatever liquid refreshment suits you and a sharp mind!! Glasses and bottle opening facilities will available.

Members are again reminded that subscriptions for next year, commencing 1st April 2008, are due during March and can be received at our meetings or by sending to our Membership Secretary, Monica Skilling. A form is printed below for this purpose and can also be used as an application for new membership.

February 2008

Looking back to my report in last February’s issue of The Chalk Stream, I see that I had to apologise for the poor quality of the December ’06 speaker. How refreshing then to now thank Sheila, Lene and Gerry for such a wonderful display of skilful “Flower arranging for Christmas” which they gave us in December ’07; what a contrast!! The fortunate few who won the raffle prizes went away loaded with the results of their efforts.

In January a most encouraging turn-out (on a nasty wet and windy night) of 34 members and visitors enjoyed a return visit by Malcolm Shennan. He had entertained us greatly last year, on the subject of “Special plants for special places” and this year gave us a very comprehensive illustrated tour of The Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, which lie a short distance outside of Cape Town, nestling beneath the Table Mountain escarpment. We were treated to his now familiar relaxed, humorous and well-informed delivery and saw a great many very high quality slides of the beautiful plants and flowers that grow in the gardens; and of a gloriously plumaged Sunbird lurking among the shrubs! We were exhorted to make the effort and go to see for ourselves. “The flights are a bit expensive but it is worthwhile and there is only a one hour time difference!”

On 12th February we have our annual speaker from Castle Gardens [The Gardens Group] who this year will speak all about the growing of fruit. Should be interesting.

Tuesday 11th March sees our A.G.M. when we will dispose of the ‘business’ as quickly as possible before enjoying the rest of the evening with an “American” buffet supper. Please bring a plate to share and, of course, whatever takes your fancy to drink. Glasses will be provided. There will be a light-hearted quiz to keep everyone amused (I hope!).

Members are reminded that subscription renewals fall due during March and that the form printed in the chalkstream can be used for this purpose. Any and all new members are most welcome.

december 2007

On 13th November 23 members of the Society were given a talk by Mr Peter Slimon from "The Friends of our National Parks". This is a Charity that works to protect and enhance the Parks of the British Isles and promotes understanding and enjoyment of them for the benefit of all.

Peter showed us photographs of most of the Parks and explained the ongoing threats from inappropriate housing and industrial develop-ment, road traffic, quarrying and misuse by off-road vehicles. Military hut on Yes Tor, Dartmoor National Park
He invited members of the audience to join the Friends of our National Parks.

Our next meeting on Tuesday 11th December is a demonstration by Gerry Maclachlan, Lene Wade and Sheila Fanshawe entitled "Flower Arranging for Christmas".

MILITARY HUT ON YES TOR DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK

November 2007

Here we are, dry again but markedly cooler, with light frosts up our end of the village in the third/fourth weeks of October. The leaves on some trees are all gone but the majority of species are hanging on strongly. Clearing up is easy with the rotary mower set high. This also gives only a light trim which supposedly inhibits the dominance of moss. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Remarkably, sweet peas are still flowering and several of the roses are providing lovely colour late into the season. I am sure that all will soon change!

On Tuesday 9th October, instead of the advertised ‘Gardeners Question Time’ [now dead and buried], 25 members were given a most interesting talk by Nigel Hadden-Paton from Cattistock on ‘The Truffle’. Methods of truffle hunting by dogs and pigs, propagation and cultivation by the planting of “infected” saplings were well illustrated with some interesting digital ‘slides’ followed by a short video. Several members took advantage of the chance to purchase various products after the talk.

On Tuesday, 13th November, Peter Slimon will talk to us about National Parks, which promises to be most interesting. Gerry and I will be away so Sheila, Lene, Gilly and the other committee members would be most appreciative of some ‘muscle’ to assist with the setting out and clearing away of tables chairs etc.. Please turn up at 7.00pm. Thank you.

At the December meeting the Pre-Spring order forms for composts etc, together with 25% discount vouchers for bulbs, seeds etc for use at “The Gardens Group” centres will be available. These are for use only in January & February.

October 2007

Back to the theme of the weather! It is still peculiar, with scarcely any rain worth the name since mid-August and not much in immediate prospect. Leaves are falling from the trees a good month ahead of ‘schedule’ but the grass still grows.

On 8th September 25 members and guests made the trip to RHS Wisley for a truly great day out. The weather was perfect with not too much sun and everyone confessed to having enjoyed their day, and some serious shopping in the plant sales and gift shop areas! The Glasshouse at RHS Wisley. Image: Martin Harvey

Of particular interest was the new glasshouse, set on the edge of a new and very large pond surrounded by new plantings, all in what used to be a field, and with tropical and dry & wet temperate zones containing much of the plant material moved down from the now disused glasshouses up the hill. The mystery of so much empty floor space in the dry zone is now clear; the space is leased for corporate functions, so much of the displays [at the time of our visit, massed Fuchsias] are mounted on wheeled trolleys for ease of removal.

Thursday 20th September saw our first evening meeting of the season at which we were treated to a very interesting and well presented talk on the cultivation and care of wildflower meadows and gardens by Pam Lewis, the owner of Sticky Wicket in Buckland Newton. Her main interest has now shifted to this area, away from straightforward gardening and she is now taking a two year sabbatical to ‘regroup’. The garden will be closed to the public during this period and may only be opened for group visits thereafter. We await the outcome with interest.

Diary notes for October are:-

Thursday, 4th at Corfe Mullen Village Hall. A talk by leading bulbous species authority Brian Mathew on “The A-Z of Bulbs”. Well worth going to. Details from Robin Maclachlan.
Tuesday, 9th. Our next meeting when Nigel Hatten-Paton will talk on the subject of “Truffles”.

In June 2008 the AGS Dorset group are hoping to run a 3day/2night trip to Cambridge to visit the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, the gardens of wine expert Hugh Johnson [who wrote for some years in the RHS magazine ‘The Garden’ under the pen-name of ‘Tradescant’] and Capel Manor College [hosts of “Gardening Which” etc]. Expressions of interest are required by Wednesday, 10th October. Again, information from Robin.

September 2007

I think that I have written more than enough in the past few months about this year’s weather, so will write no more!

The past two months have seen some activity in the Society. On 10th July some 28 or so members enjoyed a very pleasant evening with charming and informative hosts looking round the delightful gardens at Rampisham Manor, followed by picnics taken around the lake. We were finally driven away by the setting sun after a beautiful evening and by the need to leave our hosts in peace!

The evening of 14th August was scheduled for the Garden Party at Pound Cottage but because of the weather was, reluctantly, transferred to the Village Hall where 42 members and guests spent a jolly evening over a magnificent ‘American Supper’.

On Saturday 8th September we take a coach trip to visit the gardens at R.H.S. Wisley. The new glasshouse, built to commemorate the bicentenary of the R.H.S., will surely be one of the more popular attractions with its three climate zones: dry temperate, wet temperate & tropical. There are still 12 seats available on the coach for anyone who would like to come with us. Full details available from Robin Maclachlan [01300 341553] apply before 5th September please.

The first indoor meeting of the season will be a presentation by Pam Lewis about her wonderful garden at ‘Sticky Wicket’, Buckland Newton. This should be a most interesting evening but please remember that it is to be held NOT as usual on the second Tuesday but on THURSDAY 20th September.

In October instead of the previously advertised ‘Gardener’s Question Time’ we will be having a talk, illustrated with slides and film, by Nigel Hatten-Paton on the subject of that elusive and highly prized underground fungus the Truffle.
R.M.

July 2007

This year has seen a truly magnificent succession of blossom and the roses are better than I have ever seen them. Although April was warm and dry after a wet March May was most disappointing and uncharacteristically cool. Has everyone experienced difficulty in achieving germination in direct-sown vegetable seeds? I have sown some of my French beans three times and still have poor results with some of them. Are there any suggestions from the experts?!

Saturday 2nd June saw our visit to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. 23 members enjoyed a wonderful, if tiring, day out in perfect weather and with trouble-free journeys there and back. The Gardens were in great condition but due to the early season many of the Spring displays were over and done with. The much vaunted new Alpine House proved to be something of a disappointment; the structure is very modern but with such a small floor area, for its obvious great cost, there is scant room for a truly representational selection of plants.

This month sees our evening picnic visit to the Gardens at Rampisham Manor on 10th July from 6.00pm onwards. I have had some expression of interest but would appreciate it if members intending to come will let me know in advance, so that the owners can be forewarned.

Similarly please let me know if you are coming to the ‘Garden evening’ at Pound Cottage on 14th August.

On 8th September we visit R.H.S. Wisley again. There are several new features and greenhouses since our last visit. As before we need to assemble a group of 24 members in order to keep the cost within reasonable limits. Because of our affiliation with the R.H.S. we have free entry to the Gardens, so the total cost is not likely to exceed £20. Would all those wishing to join this trip please fill in and return the form in the chalkstream below to me at Pound Cottage [DT2 9PE] by or on 14th August.

Enjoy your Summer of gardening and your Summer holidays.
R.M.

Below are some details of recent meetings:

It seemed like a good idea at the time. To invite a speaker to talk about Heligan, in advance of a visit in the summer of 2006, made a lot of sense. It would inform us and cheer us up in the darkness of winter. We would have some inkling of the place before we actually went. So we looked for and found a speaker. Sadly, in the event, it was all rather disappointing. Much of the time was spent on topics other than Heligan, slides were out of date, and the information given was not entirely relevant. This Heligan "talk" did little to encourage or enthuse anyone.

Every time the Heligan or Eden projects are suggested, members tell us 1) that they have been there already, or 2) they have friends or relatives in the area, or 3) they have problems with long coach journeys. Any or all of these reasons may be valid and the membership will show its support or not in any case. We know that there is a certain amount of interest in the Hampton Court Flower Show and we intend to raise this at the next meeting of the Society on 14th February.

10TH JANUARY 2006: ROSES - CHRIS & JUDY YATES

This was a good evening, despite the fact that the title of the talk was incorrect. I have to say that we did wonder. We hope that not too many people turned up to learn about roses on chalk. Our apologies if you did.

The Scented Garden at Little Bredy is well-named. Chris and Judy Yates garden there and specialise in scented plants. The garden is open 2.30pm to 8.00pm on 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th June, and on 4th, 11th, 18th, & 25th July 2006. It is 8 miles west of Dorchester, 10 miles east of Bridport, and 1.5 miles south of the A35. Park on Little Bredy village green by the round bus shelter. There is a 400 yard walk to the garden (not ideal for the disabled). Admission is £1.50 for adults, 20p for children (share to Little Bredy Church). The talk included wonderful photography, and rapid identification of dozens of roses (with assistance from Judy). We can't wait to see the real thing in June and July. I usually write in the dark but couldn't get the names down fast enough so I gave up and just enjoyed the show. Rupert Brooke knew how to put it:

Unkempt about those hedges blows

An English unofficial rose.

APRIL COMPETITION

One of our members, Chris Hancock, likes competitions and suggests that we have one, to be judged in April. The first category is to be a pot or bowl of daffodils/narcissi. There is no stipulation on size or colour. The second category is to be three separate daffodils or narcissi in a vase or jar of water. Chris Hancock will be the judge.

NEXT MEETING

Our next meeting, at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 14th February in Sydling Village Hall, will feature a speaker from Castle Gardens. The subject will be the pruning of shrubs in preparation for late winter/spring pruning.

On what must have been one of the wettest evenings so far this autumn, a very cheerful and well-organised Pat Haskell arrived to talk to us about half-hardy and tender plants. These terms are called "hardiness ratings" and indicate the resistance of a plant to low temperatures. The name of a species, by itself, is not necessarily an indication of hardiness. The genus salvia (sage), for example, has about 900 species with hugely different varieties.

Frost tender may be damaged below 5oC (41oF)

Half-hardy can withstand temperatures down to 0oC (32oF)

Frost hardy can withstand temperatures down to -5oC (23oF)

Fully hardy can withstand temperatures down to -15oC (5oF)

Now, we may live within 15 miles of the south coast of England, but it can be distinctly chilly in these north/south valleys in winter. Not like Yorkshire or Northumberland you understand; but cold enough to lose more plants than you need to. Pat Haskell salvages foamed polystyrene, multiple flat sheets ideally, and uses it under the greenhouse staging because the ground under the edge of any building can be well below zero in prolonged cold conditions. The greenhouse glazing itself may be lined with polythene bubble-wrap (larger bubbles are more efficient she told us) and all of it can be removed when the temperature rises. The intention is to reduce any need for heating to a minimum.

She explained that the availability and low-cost of plug-plants has led to the belief that half-hardy plants will last for only one season. This is not true she said; with care and the right conditions there is no reason whey they should not flourish year after year.

Our own Gardeners' Question Time will be on Tuesday, 8th November. The panel will be Mike Burks of Castle Gardens, Sherborne; Chris Hancock from Stratton, RHS competition judge and a member of this Garden Society; and Bill Hefford of Owermoigne Garden Society. This event was well supported last year and it would be encouraging to see that repeated.

Advance Notice: The talk by Martin Catford on the Lost Gardens of Heligan in the Village Hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 13th December is related to a proposed visit to Heligan, advertised in the programme as in April 2006. We have been advised that a visit in early June would suit our purposes rather better and we will confirm the date as soon as possible.

We went back to the Village Hall on 13th September to hear Rosemary Legrand's talk about famous gardens. She began with a garden door, open in a wall, which took us through to many other gardens in England, Europe, Canada and the West Indies. She showed us gardens of azaleas and rhododendrons and revealed a liking for strong mixed colours, influenced perhaps by her father whose work, she told us, related to the hybridization of these plants. These gardens were generally planted to provide interest throughout the year. At Exbury near Beaulieu, for example, there are spring bulbs, camellias and magnolias in April and May, wisteria in June, wild flowers in July, hydrangeas in August, herbaceous beds in September and autumn leaves in October and November. High-season is between the end of April and the beginning of June. The soil is undoubtedly acid and most of the plants on sale would fail in Sydling unless they were potted and given rainwater only.

The mention of Stourhead cheered me up. It is one my two most favourite gardens. The other is Sissinghurst. Stourhead is more of an estate than a garden. It has three component parts: the lake and 'pleasure grounds', the trees and other planting, and the buildings. The house is in the Palladian style and set away from the lake. The temples and grottoes, the five-arch 'turf bridge', the Bristol Cross next to St. Peter's Church, the Spread Eagle Inn and its adjoining yard, are all disposed to form compositions and connections between each other. The inspiration came from the French painters Claude and Poussin who depicted imaginary scenes in which classical buildings were related to natural settings. The combination of art and nature was much admired and let to the concept of style known as le jardin anglais.

On to Italy, just across the border, to La Mortola at the Villa Hanbury (of Allen and Hanbury - pharmaceuticals) left to quietly decay until the Italian government set up a trust to stop the rot and revive the garden. I admire the way that most Italian gardens achieve a comfortable balance between built forms and planting. The built elements serve as a framework and the planting bonds the two together.

France is such an irony and such a contradiction. All those avenues of poplars on the D-roads; so much land. The French talk about La Latine-Rationelle and l'Anglo-Saxon Pragmatique and, I think, slightly envy us our erratic and inconsistent approach to life, and it is reflected in their gardens. The floral embroidery of the parterres, invented in the 16th century is still with us, even in England, in almost every city park. Why?

Apologies to Canada and West Indies but this text must be kept within a reasonable limit.

We had a Committee Meeting last evening (20th September) and discovered that: 1. we were given the wrong tables at the Church Fete and lost an hour; 2. that the stall was in a very windy place and the plants had kept blowing over; 3. that there was scope for selling more garden produce, cut flowers, bedding plants (in flower), and vegetable seedlings ready to plant out. We are victims of our own success and we need more help. We need help to sow seeds, pot plugs, price up and ensure that what we are selling is in good order. Remember compost - not soil - and we can start potting self-sown seedlings now.

Our speaker on 11th October is Pat Haskell who will talk about "Half-hardy and Tender Plants".

Every year, on the evening of the second Tuesday in May we go to Castle Gardens in Sherborne because our Garden Society is a member of the Gold Club and we can buy plants, bulbs, and many other things at a discount.

Plants are almost certainly the most popular and we treat ourselves to as many as we can afford, or have space for, or need to replace because they have suffered damage, or are simply past their best. We might also want to make changes. Why changes? Because gardening is above all an adventure and plants have minds of their own. Sometimes they know even better than we do where they would like to be; to prosper and survive. One of the great pleasures is that of selective weeding so put the hoe to one side and see what develops beyond the seed leaves.

"Knowing how to grow things is important if you want to make a garden but not as important as people make out; it's knowing where to put them that matters." (MARY KEEN 1987)

The other reason for going to Castle Gardens is to receive information: on pesticides or fungicides or ways to make life easier. The irony is of course that you wouldn't choose to garden at all if you wanted an easy life. The information this time was about new plant varieties and much more enjoyable. Louise Burks, wife of Mike and highly knowledgeable, introduced a selection of new plants and discussed their characteristics. She admitted to a current preoccupation with hanging baskets but explained that she and her team had put together more than 600 so far this year and would probably reach more than 1000 before summer was over.

We regret that the proposed visit to Wisley on 4th June had to be cancelled but only 16 members had committed themselves by 4th May and we had no alternative. We re-cognise that members have a life outside the Garden Society and it may be that we have to modify our approach. It would be helpful, therefore, if the matter could be discussed at our meeting on 14th June.

Our speaker on 14th June at 7.30pm will be John Chappell, member of Sydling and District Garden Society and Joint Secretary of the Dorset Alpine Garden Society, who will talk about Alpines in the Wild.

We were pleased to see Mike Burks of Castle Gardens once again on 8th February 2005 when he came to talk to us about Low-Maintenance Gardening. There were thirty-six of us, all eager to hear how to do it. He began by establishing a few principles:

• Whatever you do, you should run the garden, not allow it to run you.

• Assess the time you have available and don't try to do everything in one season.<.p>

• Take your time and do it as carefully as you can; don't rush, derive pleasure from the process.

• Measure your garden on each side and diagonally across opposite corners (the garden may not be rectangular). Draw a plan using a scale of 1:100 or 1:50. Metric is easier than imperial and the building industry started to change to metric in 1967, nearly forty years ago.

• Think about sequence and the order of the work.

• Avoid double-handling or moving materials twice.

These principles may be applied to the construction of a new garden or modification of an existing one. Mike suggested that we first consider the ground, and determine the position and extent of any hard surfaces. One of these will almost certainly relate to the position of the garden door/s, but there may be others. In most gardens, the pattern of light and shade changes and other, smaller, paved or decked areas may be identified. Add the connections or paths between these and a plan starts to emerge (on paper). The ground between the paths may be grass or planting beds or some of each. Beds need not always be on the perimeter, Begin, in any case, with the lawn and sow it or turf it. Sow in the spring or turf in the autumn, goes the old saying. Grass underfoot is a pleasure to walk on, work on and it can be cut out as required. Next, he said, are the boundaries. If the garden is fenced and in good order, wires or trellis may be used to support climbers, e.g. Hedera Goldheart, Lonicera (Honeysuckle) Japonica Repens, Jasminium Nudiflorum (winter flowering), Clematis White Moth, but do have a word with your neighbour before you buy the plants. Mike's first choice of a tree would be Crataegus Pruniflora but there are Almonds, Prunus Avium Plena (the wild cherry), Betula Utilis Jacquemontii (white Himalayan birch) (fast), Magnolias, Rowans, Walnuts (slow).

Next, the beds. We were told that perennials and ground cover would grow best if they were sheltered from wind. Therefore consider shrubs as windbreaks. The best of these, he said, is Viburnum Tinus Eve Price; it grows strongly and quickly with dark green leaves and pink flowers, likes chalk but is best in damp soil. He recommended Geranium Johnson's Blue, because every garden should have one, or a group of three: and that rule applies to most herbaceous or perennial plants. Ones, threes, fives or any number above that work best. Beds of different Lavenders flowering at different times, not spotty-spotty but growing together in a mass. Mahonia with a fragrant lily-of-the-valley scent under winter sun - Mahonia x Media Buckland or Mahonia Japonica, Sarcococca Confusa from China with very fragrant white flowers, Hebes of all kinds, Veronicas and Cornus Alba Sibirica with its red stems, Hellebores or the 'Lenten Rose' under perennials or small shrubs are all good. Euonymus, Juniper Prostrata and Pachysandra Variegata make good ground cover.

Mike said "this is a talk about low-maintenance gardening, so forget roses". Choose plants that need little or no pruning. Make your own compost, mulch the beds but weed first before you mulch. Use Glyphosate if there is no alternative. Use spot weeders and membranes and water with discretion - a good soak once or twice a week, not every day.

Thank you, Mike, your humour was just what we all needed on a cold winter's evening.

Our next meeting in Sydling Village Hall is at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 8th March when Lorraine Tillbrook will talk about 'The growing and propagation of hardy geraniums'. The next talk in the RHS series at Kingston Maurward College is at 10am on Sunday, 6th March. The subject is 'Propagation of plants from seeds and cuttings': RHS members £3.75, non-members £4.75 (tickets 01305 215022).

Most of us in the Garden Society were puzzled by the enigmatic title: 'David Chubb entertains' on the 11th January. Nobody it seemed knew what it meant until Mr. Chubb himself on arrival explained that he had been asked by Malcolm more than two years ago to show a number of his 'audio-visual presentations'. We watched four 10 - 15 minute slide sequences backed by music.

The slides were of an amazingly high quality and it is a long time since I have seen such consistently competent composition; or such an eye for detail and texture. Mr. Chubb is preoccupied with close-ups and I loved it. It is a curious thing that we are often blind to the minute; that it takes a camera lens to reveal another level of existence. Many of his photographs showed characteristics of plants, insects and small animals that we never see. Other photographs had a painterly quality. He uses textures of stone, lichen and other miniature plant growth in a semi-abstract way so that the patterns matter more than the objects themselves. It was an evening that was appreciated by us all in different ways.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 8th February when a speaker from Castle Gardens will talk to us about Low Maintenance Gardening. We have timed this talk for February to coincide with the start of the new season and the beginning of any re-organisation of the garden that members may have in mind. There will obviously be an opportunity to ask questions after the talk and it might be useful to consider your own plans in advance.

The Royal Horticultural Society have begun to send us their 2005 Events Planner for Affiliated Societies and Gardening Clubs. I intend to check the document each month and let you know what is planned for Dorset. All events this month are in Devon or Cornwall except one at Kingston Maurward College / RHS Partner College Workshop on Sunday, 20th February at 10.00am. The subject is 'Preparing the soil for the new season'; RHS members £3.75, non-members £4.25; for tickets telephone 01305 215022

Steven Griffiths, Curator and Head Gardener of Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens came to Sydling on the 9th November to tell us what it is like to circumnavigate the British isles on a small but rather special cruise ship. He explained that he had been one of a number of specialist lecturers who were employed to lecture the sixty passengers on subjects varying from palaeontology to natural history, from Viking invasions to climate-change and gardens. The ship, called Caledonian Star, was small enough to gain access to moorings in shallow waters and its captain was adaptable enough to take advantage of whale-sightings, in-shore excursions in Zodiac inflatables to see birds and other wildlife, and landings to visit gardens and the remains of Scandinavian settlements. The slides were quite exceptional. He told us how the Vikings, in their longboats, hid themselves in a group and waited to ambush other boats. One wonderfully atmospheric slide of a small loch at sunset, originally land-locked but then connected to the sea by a short canal dug out of the rock, showed how it worked.

But what about the flowers? Well, as the American artist Walt Whitman used to say “Art ain’t all paint”. The talk was called “Britain in Bloom: an Island Odyssey” and Mr. Griffiths showed us a great range of gardens and plants. The most striking aspect of the gardens was the effect of the Gulf Stream and now, the effect of Global Warming. The herbaceous borders of Crathie Castle seemed as abundant as anything to be found in this soft underbelly of the UK; perhaps more so because the slides were taken on a very good day. The gardens in Dublin, by comparison, looked dark and dull because it was a cloudy day. That is the way it is with photography. The most astonishing comment related to some slides of the Scilly Isles in which the islands rise from the sea quite separately. At one time, we were told, when sea levels were much lower, these islands were all connected to each other and the Scilly Isles was just Scilly!

Is this perhaps our destiny? We think, of course, that it won’t happen in our lifetime, and we don’t really want it to happen at all; at least not to our children, or their children, or theirs in turn. But it is difficult ….. this is such a profligate age.

Our next meeting is on 14th December beginning with the Annual General Meeting. A buffet supper will follow based on a contribution of one plate for each member attending. Lily Percy has agreed to organise the tables. Sheila Fanshawe and Ann Wilson will assist her. Please bring your own choice of drinks. The evening will end with a quiz.

Many thanks to all those who have helped in any way during the year.

We have had an especially good week. Our own Gardeners Question Time on Tuesday, 12th October proved very successful despite last minute problems, and a visit on Saturday, 16th October to the RHS Garden at Wisley by thirty eight of our members turned out so well that the general feeling was for a repeat visit in late spring/early summer next year.

The last minute problem arose on 7th October when one of the three panellists had to cancel. The problem was solved on the 9th when Mike Burks of Castle Gardens agreed to help us out. He joined the other two panellists: John Chappell, who is one of our own members and Secretary of the Dorset Branch of the Alpine Garden Society, and Bill Hefford, of the Owermoigne Garden Society. They answered the twenty questions with great expertise. There was discussion and contributions too from the audience, and many of our members commented on how much they had enjoyed the interaction and the amount of information they had been given.

The Royal Horticultural Society was given the Wisley site in 1903 by George Ferguson Wilson who had bought the site to establish the ‘Oakwood experimental garden’. Wilson died in 1902 and the garden was bought by Sir Thomas Hanbury, a wealthy Quaker, and presented in 1903 to the Wisley estate, in trust to the Society for its perpetual use. Over 6,000 people visited during its first year under the Society’s control. The garden now extends to 97 hectares or 240 acres and the number of visitors each year is approaching 750,000. There are currently 79 garden staff including students, 59 members of the Science and Education departments, and 26 administrative staff.

The RHS Garden at Wisley is divided into approximately twenty separate spaces, beginning with the Laboratory and the Canal. The Laboratory, built during 1914-15 in the Tudor style, looks older because the bulk of materials used were taken from old manor houses in the area. Alas, there is no mention of the architect in the small guide book. The Canal with its waterlilies, was designed by Lanning Roper and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, and replaces old glasshouses which were demolished in the late 1960s. Immediately beyond that lie the Formal Garden, the Walled Garden and the Conifer Lawn. The Mixed Borders and then the Country Garden, designed incidentally by Penelope Hobhouse who lives and gardens at Bettiscombe in Dorset, was completed in 1999 and is now coming into its own. After that there are gardens for New Roses, the Mediterranean Garden and Battleston Hill which was devastated by the storms of 1987 and then transformed to make the area more accessible.

Beyond that again, lie the Model Gardens (not miniatures but models of a type), the Bowes Lyon Memorial Pavilion, Alpine Meadow and the Rock Garden. The Jubilee Arboretum, opened on 8th May 1978 and now more than 25 years old, occupies the south-west end of the site. The Wild Garden, the Lake and the Pond are in Seven Acres on the north-west edge, and the Pinetum and the National Collection of Heathers can be found in the long leg of garden running out to the north-east.

Any visit to Wisley ideally needs two things: 1 – the small guide book from which the above information was taken, and 2 – a compass because it is a large and complex garden (but I have to admit that I take a compass to London to establish direction every time I come out of an underground station that I don’t know).

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 9th November 2004 in the Village hall to hear a talk by Steven Griffiths called ‘Britain in Bloom: an Island Odyssey’. Non-members are welcome to attend at a charge of £1 per meeting.

Twenty-four members met on Tuesday 14th September to hear Chris Yates talk to us on the subject of “Plant associations”. His most interesting talk was fully illustrated by a slide show comprised mainly of photographs of the marvellous walled “Scented Garden” at Little Bredy which he and his wife Judy have lovingly restored over the last 14 years. Judy acted as projectionist and as prompt when Chris ‘lost’ the word for a plant.

We heard how the opposite sides of the Colour Wheel produced contrasting and complementary colour combinations, how different shades and textures worked together, how to combine tall with short, how to place wispy ‘transparent’ plants to advantage and how to use different leaf colours and shapes to enhance the visual effect.

Indeed there was so much useful information provided that we almost felt ‘shell-shocked’ by the end!

The evening of the 8th June was quite perfect and it would have been easy to forget the talk and sit in the garden until the sun went down. Thank you then to all of those members who turned out for the talk by Diana Guy on her garden in Witchampton. The talk was subtitled ‘A 21st Century Cottage Garden’ and was intended to prime us for our visit to Welcome Thatch on the evening of the 13th July; like one of the principles that the Education Corps used to adopt “first you tells ‘em what they are going to see, next you takes ‘em to see it, then you brings ‘em back and tells ‘em what they have seen”.

We were told that Witchampton has pre-Roman origins and that the evidence comes to the surface of all gardens there from time to time. All that appears in our garden are the broken stems of clay pipes and the brass caps of countless cartridges. Welcome Thatch was originally three cottages, then two cottages and now one. What you might ask first, is a cottage? The architect Raymond Unwin, in a lecture given in 1901 said “ I propose to regard as a cottage, any house in which separate accommodation is not provided for servants”. So we all live in cottages? But what do we mean by a cottage garden?

In the first half of the 19th century there was massive expansion of the industrial towns. Manchester for example grew from 95,000 in 1801 to 238,000 in 1821. Living conditions were generally appalling. Friedrich Engels, a social reformer, visited the city in 1844 and reported that “in the whole region, for each one hundred and twenty persons, one usually inaccessible privy is provided”. The bye-law terrace houses that followed, with backyards and outdoor ‘privies’ must have felt like heaven on earth. The condition of the poor in rural areas was often as bad as in towns. There were no ‘cottage gardens’ as we know them. Maybe a pig and some chickens at the back and some vegetables at the front for the respectable or better-off and, in some cases, some flowers transferred from the hedges and verges to line the path to the cottage door.

Do you remember when David Copperfield runs away from London and finds his aunt in rural Kent? “We soon came”, he says, “to a very neat little cottage with cheerful bow-windows; in front of it, a small square gravelled court or garden full of flowers, carefully tended and smelling deliciously.” He had never seen anything like it and nor had most of the population but his aunt, Miss Trotwood, knew what a cottage garden was. So too did Gertrude Jekyll (which rhymes with treacle) and Vita Sackville-West and Christopher Lloyd and many, many others. The suburban housing types of the late 20’s and 30’s with front and back gardens gave many people their first opportunity to design and plant and, whilst the carpet-bedding and formal planting traditions of the 19th century (still practised by most of the parks departments of this country) were still strong, the softer forms, co-ordinated colours and variable compositions of the cottage garden became more popular. Is there a contradiction in this? Perhaps, and then perhaps not. In ‘designing’ a cottage garden, are we simply trying to recreate the accidental effect of the conditions and circumstances of another age?

“flowers … not growing in beds or borders, but crammed together in an irregular square, where they bloomed in half-wild profusion. There were rose bushes there and lavender and rosemary and a bush apple tree which bore the little red and yellow streaked apples in late summer, and Michaelmas daisies and re-hot pokers and old fashioned pompom dahlias in autumn and peonies and pinks already budding. An old man in the village came one day a week to till the vegetable garden, but the flower garden was no one’s special business. The flowers grew just as they would in crowded masses, perfect in their imperfection.” (FROM ‘CANDLEFORD GREEN’ BY FLORA THOMPSON)

Our next meeting will take the form of a visit to Diana Guy’s garden at Welcome Thatch, Witchampton between 6pm and 8.30pm on Tuesday, 13th July.