Update.
This was updated on June 7th 2013

May Meeting

Mr & Mrs Waterman from Staplehurst were our speakers for the meeting in May, they spoke about " The Thrift Gardener " this was a very interesting talk outlining the various ways you can save money whilst gardening. Some things like cutting up white plastic containers to make labels might have been used in the past but for all the labour and money saving hints out together in one talk made a good event.   A news letter giving travel details for our two evening outings were given out along with the menus for our annual dinner in August.

Hints for June

 

Garden Hints for June

When I first started as a garden boy my head gardener made me keep a diary so that I knew how and when to do certain jobs. He did say that you could not keep to dates each year as the weather etc, would be different, this could not be more applicable than this year. You may well be doing things in the garden that other years would have been done 2 or 3 weeks ago so all I can do this year is list some things that ought to be done now if not before.
Vegetables
Make sure that your potatoes have been well earthed up so as to avoid those close to the surface going green. Runner and French beans can be planted along with sweet corn and any other plants that you have started in the greenhouse such as marrows and cucumbers. When hoeing around carrots if you can move some soil to cover the tops it will help avoid the green top that often occurs. Some early crops of broad beans, lettuce and such can be harvested; if the tips are removed with broad beans this can help clear small attacks of black fly.
If you are growing tomatoes in grow bags do be careful with the watering as it is easy to keep them too wet or too dry and irregular watering is often the cause of  blossom ends rot when you get a hard black part where the flower was on the fruit. 
This late season could benefit our parsnip crop, it was found some years ago that if you sowed your parsnip seed on the late side you did not get so  much canker .When the seed germinates the very first root is your parsnip, all it does is grow and if that very fine root is damaged by frost then the canker fungus has a way in, so by sowing late you could avoid this damage hence less canker so maybe this will be a good year for parsnips.

Flowers

Annuals that were sown where they are to flower will need thinning to get the best from them. Any plants growing in containers or baskets will need careful watering and if you have not used slow release fertilizers will also need feeding.
Once sweet peas come into bloom they need to be picked as soon as they are out so as not to put a strain on the plant and stop other flowers forming
Roses can benefit from a feed of high potash food whish can be hoed into the surface. The foliage should be left as long as possible on spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils so as to build up the bulbs for next year. Please try and avoid tying the foliage in knots as this defeats the purpose for which nature put it there.

Lawns

Regular mowing with the blades not too low during May and June will give a good base to the lawn, a light feed of lawn fertilizer will keep the grass growing and help against moss. Do not however apply this in dry hot weather as you can burn the grass.

Extra April visit

On Monday 22nd April we were invited to have a conducted tour around Coolings nursery at Knockholt. The nursery is celebrating 100 years of trading at Knockholt. We were shown round the growing area that normally the public do not see. It is so different to a garden centre which just but and sell plants to see over 90% of the plants being grown on site. Much of the work is now done by machines which used to be hand done. 16 members attended which for our small association was a very good turnout.

Our Spring Show

This years spring show was held on Saturday April 13th which is normally thought to be a late show but this year with such a long cold spring many blooms were not out. The show however maintained it's usual high standard although the number of entries was down. Nobody won more than one trophy so the high standard was spread amongst all the exhibitors. The ladies gave good support with the home-produce classes and there was an increase in the number of visitors many of who commented on the large range of flowers on show.

January Social

The attendance at our social in January was below normal but when you think what the weather was like it was not surprising. There was doubt about cancelling but we did go ahead and a good time was had by all who attended.
We  had an anagram of birds competition which was won by Jill, this was followed by a few games of bingo. What would we do without that as a standby.
Then came the eats, as the weather was so cold we had hot mulled wine in place of the ususal cups of tea. The members had brought along a table full of eats and we did our best to clear it all but failed. The 2013 handbooks were handed out so if you missed out make sure you are at our next meeting in February.

November Meeting

Our meeting in November was our Annual general Meeting at which a report on the last years programme was given showing all had gone as scheduled. All the officers were re-elected with Ray Horton offering to help with the treasurer's duties. The programme for next year was read to the members and trophies won at the monthly competitions were awarded.
The meeting was brought to a close with hot mince pies and mulled wine.

October Meeting

Our October meeting was one of the largest we have had for a while, Brenda Skilton was telling us about her trip to the Galapgos Islses and with the help of Barbara Uren was showing us the beautiful pictures she had taken. It was an evening we will remember for a long while, we have already booked Brenda for a simialr evening next year.

Annual Dinner

 

 

 

On Tuesday Oct 2nd we held our Annual dinner in the Waterside restaurant at Bewl.

21 members and friends attended and enjoyed a very good meal, next year we will be having it in the months with light evenings so that we can enjoy the view whilst eating. 

 

September Meeting

All the members present stood for a short time in memory of Les Allen who had been show secretary for 27 years as well as doing many other things for the society
Harry Townsend has spoken to our members on several occasions and always the talks are very interesting, his talk in September was different in most ways. When Harry lost his wife to melanoma he spent a lot of his time setting up a charity to raise money to help publicise the dangers of too much sun. This meant his garden got into a bad state, his talk showed how he has turned it into a different type of garden. Harry says " I do not do normal" and his garden shows this with a painted shed, many unusual plants etc.
There were entries in both competition classes with Jill and Laurie getting first prizes.

July Meeting

Our July meeting was an evening visit to Perryhill Nursery near Hartfield. We were given a conducted tour by Mr Peter Chapman who showed us the progress of plants from cuttings etc. to saleable plants.

 

In June we visited the garden of Mr  & Mrs Nye in Horsmonden, this garden was featured in Kent Life last year and proved to be a very interesting and pleasant garden to visit.  Once again the weather was fine for us dispite a very unsettled period of rain and wind. 

Our Spring Show held on Saturday April 14th was very good regardless of the strange weather we had had . There were many varieties of daffodils and narcissus on show , including some varieties not seen in our show before.The number of entries were down slightly but the hall was still well filled.The trophies were shared amongst several exhibitors which is always a good thing. The only thing lacking was the public , for a village society the show is as good as any in the area but we fail to attract visitors in large numbers.

March Meeting

Mr & Mrs Wagner came along to our March meeting with their presentation "Phantasmagoria" very few of us even knew there was such a thing but it turned out to be a very special evening. The word itself means  a modern magic lantern show and that is what we had. The show included flowers, animals and scenic views together with humorous little shows. I am sure we will be asking them to return.
The chairman was given an NAS at the February meeting when he entered potatoes when it should have been onions but at our March meeting he did win the seed potato class with Steve Jones coming 2nd. Jill won the floral class with yet another of her lovely small arrangements.

Annual General Meeting

 Also at the AGM a small sale of garden items were auctioned with the money going to association funds.

October Meeting

Ken Turner was our speaker at our October meeting when he spoke to our members about water features with our gardens. Explaining how water attracts wildlife and creates a peacefull feeling within the garden.The talk was illustrated with pictures showing what plants etc. can be used.

August Meeting

. There were several entries in the competitions with Jill & Steve being the main winners.

Evening visit to Bounds End

On Tuesday July 26th a group of our memebrs visited the gardens "Bounds End" in Bidborough. We have always been very fortunate with the weather for our outings and this one was no exception. The gardens owned by Mike & Carol contains a very wide range of trees and general plants. It is open on other occasions for the NGS and is well worth a visit.

May Meeting

Mr and Mrs Osbourne paid a return visit to lamberhurst on Tuesday May 24th when they gave a very interesting talk accopanied by excellent slides about butterflies and their food.Mr and Mrs Osbourne are very keen on wildlife and have many plants in their garden just to atract butterflies.

Spring Show

Our spring Show held on Saturday April 9th and attracted a very good number of excellent exhibits.The judges were impressed with the overall high standard of the entries on display.The very warm weather just prior to the show did not help as it damaged flowers with the strong sun. There was a good attendance by the public some of whom had not previously seen flowers of such a high standard.
Brenda was awarded the Borrie Trophy for the best flower arrangement and you can see her exhibit below, also below you can see Bernards entry in the handicraft class, it is very hard to believe that is made from wood but if you had visited the show you would nave seen that it was,Bernard never fails to amaze us with his handcraft.

August Meeting

Dr.Mick Lynn came to our meeting in August to tell our members about bees in our gardens.This meeting was held in the Chequers Inn as the memorial hall was closed for repairs. The talk was very interesting and explained about the bees dancing inside the hive to tell other bees where a good supply of pollen and nectar can be found. Most of the food we eat relies on bees and other insects for pollination , it is only things like sweetcorn that are wind pollinated that do not rely on bees. There has been an increase in th nimber of people keeping bees in recent years which must be a good thing.

July Meeting

Our July meeting was an evening visit to the Bedgbury Pinetum when Chris Reynolds gave our members a conducted tour , showing them a wide range of the trees. This was a follow up to Chris's visit to our monthly meeting last year.We usually have a fine evening for our outings and this was no exception, the trip ended with a glass of wine and nibbles.

June meeting 22nd

There were 3 entries in the rose competition but only one in the arrangement class, the winners being Arrangement Jill Arnold
Roses Ist Laurie Manser 2nd Jill Arnold 3rd Steve Jones.

May meetings

Harry Townsend was the speaker at our May meeting in the hall. Harry has spoken to the members a few times before but this time is was a demonstration on making up a hanging basket. It was explained that there are so many different plants that can be used and Harry used quite a wide selection.The basket was lined with moss with a small plastic sheet being put in the bottom to help retain water.Plants were put through the wire sides and in the top so as to give a good display of colour through the season.
We had an extra meeting on May 27th when we were invited to visit Scotney Castle gardens. This was a follow-on from Noel Burr and Laurie Manser visiting the gardens in April to name some of the daffodils in the grounds.
18 members and friends attended and were given a conducted tour by Anthony Gray. Despite a wet start to the day the evening was sunny and dry although cool compared with the previous weekend.A glass of wine and snacks completed a very pleasant evening.

Spring Show 2010

Our spring show was held on Saturday April 10th and despite a very long cold and wet winter and spring we had some very good blooms on show. The number of exhibits came close to previous years with some new exhibitors with us for the first time.
Our vice chairman Joe Marshall was awarded the best bloom in show award for a wonder bloom of a variety called "Lydwells". This was raised by Noel Burr who was judging the show this year. Noel who has over the years seen many blooms of that variety said that Joe's bloom was amongst the best he had seen.See picture
Jean Sudell who last year was so pleased to win her first trophy at Lamberhurst this year doubled up by winning two !
There was a new winner of the Borrie Trophy for the best flower arrangement with it being awarded to Jeanette Jones.See picture
Brenda Skelton won the Home Produce trophy.