Cropwell Bishop Village Parish Plan

Contrasting Gardens of Herefordshire—and lives (16-1-12)

Who says you can't enjoy gardens during early January? It may be cold and frosty now but it certainly wasn't during springtime in Herefordshire. That is when John Allen of Cropwell Butler took a trip to a particular garden in Herefordshire.

This evening, over 40 members of the Gardening Club were able to forget the frost and cold as they sat in the beautifully warm Old School and watched a colourful display of photographs expertly taken by John.

You might think that it impossible to spend the whole evening looking at pictures of someone's back garden: think of your own garden. However, this was no ordinary home or back garden!

If you sold your present house you might be able to buy a few of the bronze statues that we saw this evening—but certainly not all of them. And they were merely the ornaments scattered around the garden—or should I say parkland? I won't even describe the ponds—or should I say lakes?

These were scenes to admire, rather than inspire you to transform your own garden. Then again, you might win the lottery one day (and, to leave money for the statues, the following week too).

We were also given a glimpse of the source of the wealth needed to maintain this estate: strawberries and cherries in polytunnels and christmas trees in the fields. Keep your eyes on the village allotments; some plot holders might want to it a go!

Tony

Man for all seasons—especially winter (21-11-11)

For a man who stated he would rather be a farmer than a gardener, John Stirland certainly seemed to possess plenty of passion for things horticultural!
He trained as a glasshouse grower at Oaklands College at the same time as Alan Titchmarsh. His dreams of becoming a gentleman farmer however were quickly dashed when he discovered he could only afford a pair of secateurs instead of a Massey Fergusson.

His talk was focussed on the garden in winter – although we nearly had to abandon this topic when the power supply to his projector failed! John is a great fan of the garden in winter: mowing the lawn ceases to become a chore, maintenance of the flower beds slows down, the sun sinks down low and all of a sudden you can see the structure of the shrubs and trees lit by the fantastic light of the northern hemisphere sun.
He suggested that evergreens provide a great backdrop in most gardens but thought the use of conifers should be minimal and dramatic – foliage colours should be kept subtle and to a limited palette so that they don't overpower other shrubs.
There's nothing blousy about any of the winter flowers – all of them have small, neat blooms – sometimes held on racemes or pendulous tassels and many of them with exotic perfumes such as mahonias, Christmas box and lonicera fragrantissima.
Stems and branches can provide dramatic splashes of colour, just think of the cornus and black bamboo. The bark of trees becomes a new focus when all the leaves have gone – the silver birches, eucalyptus and London plane trees are examples. Even the seed heads of alpine clematis look stunning when dusted with hoar frost, as do the ornamental grasses.

John aims to have at least six plants flowering at any one time during the winter. It seems an impossible feat but then, when you think about it, there are heathers in bloom all winter through. There are ornamental quinces, hellebores, snowdrops and cyclamen not to mention witch-hazels and daphnes. There's even an iris which flowers from November to March – I think John said it was called ungulicularis (it was at this point that he commented that gardeners usually fell into two categories: one lot can pronounce the Latin names of the plants and the other lot can grow them – if you can do both, that's a bonus!).

All in all, it was a thoroughly entertaining evening and the audience were charmed by John's enthusiastic yet relaxed approach. I liked his idea that winter was a time to draw breath and take the opportunity to see the bones of your garden structure, glory in any splash of colour and enjoy being able to see the birds feeding. There's nothing dead about a winter garden, just a period of dormancy and a time for looking forward to the cycle starting all over again – now there's a thought!

Margaret

Hardy Exotic (17-10-11)

Exotic plants that are hardy? After last winter, who is going to believe that!

Colin Ward is a down to earth nurseryman who loves to experiment with his plants. Like the rest of us, he lost many plants last winter but, unlike most of us, he understands why many died.

More importantly, he has many plants that did survive the weeks of extreme cold—and he is selling them at his nursery, Swines Meadow Farm Nursery at Market Deeping.

He brought a whole van load to this evenings meeting of the Gardening Club at the Old School. There were almost 30 members there and at the end of his fascinating and revealing talk—assisted by his wife—people were queing to buy potted plants. As usual at these meetings, prices were far below those seen at our local garden centres.

So, you will see no exotic plants dying in the gardens of club members at the end of next winter—fingers crossed!

Tony Jarrow

How to acheive a year of colour (27-9-11)

Last Monday (19th Sept) members of the Gardening Club were delivered tips galore on how to maintian interest and colour in their garden every month of the year.

Dr Andrew Ward of Norwell Nurseries near Newark, guided them with advice on what to plant and where and when to expect the flowers.
He also showed the resulting blooms using beautiful slides.

Over 40 people enjoyed the talk and afterwards many bought plants that Andrew had brought with—at prices that were very good value for their size.

This might be the time of year when the displays in our garden are coming to an end but with evenings like these at the Old School, dreams of our plantings in 2012 should continue throughout the dark winter nights.

Now, have you got a note of the next meeting on 17th October? Check the Diary page for more details.

Tony Jarrow

Wonderful Wisley (20-9-11)

We had just four hours to explore the delights of this flagship garden of the RHS in Surrey. Where to begin?

There were two fabulous borders just not to be missed ; the long mixed borders of heleniums, clematis, agapanthus, sweetpeas, roses and phlox ... and much, much more.
And then I think my favourite, the Glasshouse Borders where "rivers" of perennials and grasses flow from one side to another, swaying and shimmering in the wind and bright sunshine. What about those giant hydrangea on Battesham Hill, the 100 year old rock garden, the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden and the magnificent dahlia on the Trial Fields.

On to the Glasshouse to see the exotics and the Flower Show, then fruit and vegetables in the Model Vegetable Garden and Fruit Demonstration Garden. Plenty of ideas here for our next Horticultural Show in Cropwell Bishop!

Enjoy the photographs.

Judy Thomas

Photographs by Mel Stanley and Judy Thomas