September Update

Group members have enjoyed a summer social and an afternoon of garden visits since our last Update was issued. Last month, around twenty members gathered in the garden of member Kate Harris near Wiveliscombe. We started by touring the garden which was beautifully terraced on a deceptively sloping site. Kate skilfully grows a wide range of interesting plants in thoughtfully designed borders, salvias being a particular favourite. The large and productive fruit and vegetable area was also most impressive. Following tea and cake we got down to the business of swapping plants and most people went home with some new treasure to add to their own garden.

This week a showery afternoon failed to stop members enjoying three gardens to the east of Wincanton. Our first stop was The Blooming Wild Nursery, specialising in herbaceous perennials, ornamental grasses and wild flowers, with a focus on attracting wildlife into gardens. The nursery has display gardens where many of the plants for sale can be seen growing.

Second stop was Forest Lodge where the group was given a relaxed tour of the gardens in the company of the three knowledgeable garden staff. The planting was carefully orchestrated with some areas featuring contrasting colours such as the blue, white and yellow beds around the immaculate circular lawn, and some with more complementary colours. The soft, cottage garden style areas sharply contrasted with the powerfully sleek and modern stainless steel obelisk and rill. On then to the wilder reaches of the garden which had a frightening amount of mare’s tail amongst the woodland style plantings and finally, via the large pond, to the beautiful specimen trees and shrubs, some almost reaching maturity but still quite a number of more recent plantings, including a beautiful calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’.

Our third garden visit took us to Gaspar Cottage where much of the garden was designed to take advantage of the views across the valley as a “borrowed landscape”. Planting around the house was largely colour themed with a striking “hot” bed featuring beautifully grown dahlias, alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ and tall growing marigolds set around topiary. Elsewhere, planting featured softer pastel colours. Further away from the house shrubs and trees have been planted into the grass and there is a much more distinctly wild feel to that part of the garden.

Don’t forget that coming up on 21st September we have our 50/50 plant sale at the West Monkton Village Hall. If you wish to bring plants to sell they must have two identical labels in each pot with the name of the plant, seller’s name or initials and price on each one. One label will be removed upon sale of the plant by the person manning the stall and used to add up the value of the plants sold. so that 50% can be returned to the seller at the end of the meeting. Use pencil to write your labels and you can then easily reuse the labels returned to you. Plants can be brought to the stall from 9.30am and selling will start at 10.00am. Please bring your own bags and boxes to take your purchases home with you. If you would be able to help with selling plants please let me know.

After the plant sale the talk will begin. Sally Morgan will be telling us about “Controlling Pests and Diseases in the Organic Garden”. This year slugs have really been on the rampage in gardens so any help to control them would be very welcome!

Help Run Our Group

Finally, I should remind you that we are looking for a couple of folk to join our merry band on the committee from the AGM in November. Caroline is stepping down as Chairman after several years in the role and Hester wants to hand over the reins as Speaker Secretary.

The 2025 lecture programme has already been booked so if you take on this role you would have plenty of time to think about and book speakers for our 2026 programme. Of course, you will receive ideas and support from the rest of the committee and Hester will be on hand to answer any procedural questions you might have. The job could potentially be shared between a couple of people.

We also need someone to take on the Newsletter Editor’s role as there won’t be another until we have a volunteer.

Mike Vernoum needs two volunteers to help with tea and coffee, for each of the remaining 2024 meetings:

21st September
19th October
16th November

Please feel free to chat to the current role holders at the next lecture meeting if you want to know more.

The good news is that we have had a response to my request for a volunteer to organise the “Plant of the Month” competition at our monthly meetings. Jill Jones will be taking over from Helen Stickland.

Many thanks.
Jane Hunt, Group Secretary

Plant Swap