Gardening
The ‘Gardens’ group has more than 70 members, with no cap on additional members! We are affiliated to the Royal Horticultural Society and usually meet once a month. During the summer we visit a variety of gardens, some large and grand, others small and local. In the months when the weather can be colder or wetter (or both!) we visit at least one garden centre or have speakers, demonstrations and have a craft-based session and quiz in December. We are in the process of finalising our 2024 programme, but already have plans to visit Corsham Court (11th April) Rosemoor RHS garden (Devon by coach) 2nd May, Athelhampton (Dorset by coach) 6th June, Bicton Park (near Sidmouth, Devon by coach) 4th July, and Dewstow (near Caldicot in Monmouthshire by coach) 5th September, Rosebourne (Weyhill) and Gilbert's Dahlias (Romsey) 7th October and Westonbirt Arboretum (Tetbury) 4th November.
Trip prices vary from free to £12 for entrance tickets, with contributions for petrol when sharing lifts if a coach (typcially £20-30) is not arranged. We do try to ensure there is somewhere to get a cup of tea and hopefully a nice piece of cake!
STOP PRESS two potential additional visits in the pipeline...
1) Those who were at the Simpson's Seeds talk may recall we discussed a visit to Simpson's Seeds in the summer for 'tomato tasting'. We have spoken to Matthew Simpson and have a tentative date of 19th August - this will be subject to weather and progress of tomato crop but if you are interested please put this date in your diary - it will be an afternoon visit. Further details will follow nearer the date. There will be a limit of 20 members. Let me know if this will be of interest to you.
2) The 2023 trip to Beggars Knoll Chinese garden Westbury was very successful, so we might return! They only admit groups of 5 or more in June or July so if anybody would like to go again or missed out last year let me know. As June is quite busy for me I propose a date in mid July - we have the Bicton trip on 4th July. Again please let me know if you are interested - I propose w/c 15th July. and probably an afternoon visit. I have been told that the cakes were very good!
15 members visited the American Museum at Claverton in mid-March, with most taking the optional tour of the gardens. There are 40,000 daffodils in the museum gardens though sadly some of them were no longer in bloom probably due to the very mild weather in February but plenty were still out. along with other bulbs and some blossom. The gardens are Grade II listed which meant planning permission had to be obtained when the landscape architect firm Oehme van Sweden was hired to redesign the gardens - the words 'new' and 'American' apparently did not go down too well with the Council planning committee! There is a replica of the New American garden of Mount Vernon which was George Washington's house in Washington DC, a dell with sculptures of famous Americans and Winston Churchill (who made his first public speech at Claverton Manor, now the museum) an Ampitheatre and children's garden and glorious views over the valley. Sadly the heavens opened at the end of the garden visit but we were able to visit the museum, exhibition and cafe. It will certainly be worth going back in summer to see the 'colour blocks' of plants and grasses.
Late February, 22 members attended a very entertaining talk by Matthew Simpson of Simpsons Seeds in Horningsham . Matthew talked about the family firm which has just moved into new premises in Horningsham, peat free soil, hydroponics and growing chillis which is his passion. We were invited to sample some of his home-made chilli sauces and many of us took the opportunity to purchase a bottle at the end of the talk. Matthew has also written books about chillis which were also on display. We hope to make a visit to Simpson's Seeds in August for ‘tomato tasting’. In lieu of a speaker fee, a collection bucket for Dorothy House was available and a sizeable donation was made to the charity. We look forward to seeing Matthew again later this year.
In early February, 11 members of the group made the short trip to the pretty Saxon hilltop town of Shaftesbury to do the ‘snowdrop walk’ which forms part of the annual Snowdrop Festival which the town hosts every year. We followed the longer of the two walks which took us from the Town Hall, along the park wall by the Abbey with views of Blackmore Vale, along the way visiting a couple of community gardens, making a detour via two churchyards, admiring the late winter/early Spring flowers in residents’ gardens and snowdrops in the verges by Shaftesbury Homegrown before returning to the town via Castle Hill and the aptly named (just before Valentines Day) Love Lane ito view the carpet of snowdrops in the churchyard of Trinity Church. Many of the tens of thousands of snowdrops here were planted when Countryfile visited in 2020 and they provided a spectacular end to our walk. At this point the heavens opened, and we retreated to the Salt Cellar for an excellent light lunch before returning home.