Newtown Gardening  Group

For further information about Newtown U3A or any of the groups please contact:
secretary@newtownu3a.co.uk

This Gardening Group was started in May 2009 with the intention of visiting members and public gardens and discussing relevant topics.

Typical topics discussed are pros and cons of organic gardening, pest and weed control techniques, climate change, gardening for the credit crunch, etc.

Other discussion topics will be wine making, and techniques, such as bottling, freezing, etc that are successful for dealing with excess produce.

At each meeting members describe their current activities in the garden and discuss plants being grown, pests encountered, techniques and supplies used, and their successes and failures.

Members also share seeds, cuttings and coordinate the purchase of seeds and plants.

We paid a return visit to Paul's garden in June.    Paul concentrates  mainly on growing vegetables at which he is very successful.  When he moved to his present house and garden, the owners had set out a circular bed containing a mixture of perennials about which Paul knows very little, but he is learning about them and moving and pruning as required.

His main interest as mentioned, are his lovely vegetables .  We inspected his runner beans and broad beans, his peas and mangetout are coming along well and he has had feeds from them.  He also grows summer cabbage, leaks and cauliflowers. One problem this year is rust on his garlic. He has picked this crop and is now drying it off, the heads are of average size so he is not too disappointed.  He has an abundance of salad crops especially lettuce and I can confirm that his 'Little Gem' are deliciously fresh and crisp.  His tomatoes in the greenhouse are rather slow this year and his outside plants have caught up with those inside.  I know quite a few people have complained of how slow some of their crops have been to get going this year, but the warmth is now making them shoot up.  Problem is, hardly any rain and with the present scorching temperatures, a night or two of rain would be very appreciated by plants and gardeners.

We are not holding the usual monthly meetings now until September but are visiting a couple of interesting gardens under the National Gardens Scheme.

Will report on them in due course.

May. The meeting this month was at my (Anne Allen) garden in Tregynon.  My azaleas and rhodos are at their best,  but with a few over and some yet to bloom.The late frosts turned all the flowers brown  on one rhodo - this occurs most years, it is in the middle of a bed so would be difficult to drape with protective fleece.

My paeonies are all in bud but are in need of a good downpour to help them along.  The perennial geraniums always put on a good show and are very worthwhile, they act as wonderful ground cover and are not bothered by slugs or snails. The clematis are romping away but this is the time when they are sometimes affected by 'clematis wilt'.  No-one knows what causes this, the cure is to cut the plant right down - it will either die or recover - usually it sends out new shoots and resumes growing up its supports.

This time of year is when some gardeners give their perennials such as phlox, rudbeckia,  asters, campanulas etc. the 'Chelsea Chop' - it's a simple process employed around the time of the show  to get them to stay stocky, produce more flowers over the coming summer and to negate the need for staking.

The group were made aware of the jobs they should be doing in the garden this month - pruning spring flowering plants such as forsythia and flowering currant to keep them compact, sowing sweetcorn in deep pots so young plants are ready to transplant into the garden in June.

Applying mulch to all beds to retain moisture, planting out dahlia tubers , applying liquid feed to tulips and daffs to encourage a good display next year; feeding  the whole garden with a general fertilizer such as growmore, seaweed or blood, fish and bone. Sow climbing French beans and runner beans; also sow batches of salad leaves and stir-fry crops every few weeks to provide continuous picking. removing all strawberry runners so plants put their full energy into fruiting.

Now is a very busy time for gardeners whether they be solely vegetable growers or also grow shrubs and perennials.  If you are into annuals, always keep plenty of fleece handy to protect them or young seedlings or fruit blossom if late frosts are forecast.

Happy Gardening.

November. This month we met at the home of Lynn who took us through a list of what we should be doing in our gardens at this wintery time of year - not very much we were all pleased to learn unless we were going to revamp our gardens in any way or increase our trees and shrubs as now is the ideal time to plant or divide.

We reported on how our gardens have  survived during this very strange, particularly hot year - some successes, some failures.

After coffee and cake we walked around Lynn's garden, strawberry plants in abundance - 3 beds.   Her raspberries - both summer and autumn having done well and now in need of cutting right down.  Her hydrangeas are looking very healthy - and will do until the first frosts, best to leave them unpruned as the growth will protect the plant throughout the winter.

One more meeting at Paul's home in December and then we pack up our spades until Spring, around March time, when we should be planning our plots for a new season.

October. The meeting this month was at my home in Tregynon.  As usual, we discussed the successes and failures of plants in our own gardens - everyone agreeing that it had been a very good year for tomatoes.

For the first time , Paul had tried growing a butternut squash in his greenhouse.  He had no squashes but the plant grew like a triffid and wound its way around the greenhouse.  He is going to try again next year, he feels that the leaves of his plant prevented his tomatoes from suffering from heat stroke on the very hot days this summer.  As usual, his vegetables in the garden  were a great success.  Nick reported some of his veg. did well and some failed dismally.  Lynn, Nick and Paul said that their raspberries produced a bumper crop.  Paul has decided to do away with his old strawberry plants and has been growing new plants from the runners. We all agreed that we preferred raspberries to strawberries!  I commented that all the s/berries  I bought from the supermarket, were not completely ripe and the centre was white and hard, maybe they were picked too soon.

We discussed the problems that the very hot weather presents - runner beans hate the heat - mine were very poor, but the climbing french beans loved the heat and I had a bumper crop - pity, as I prefer runner beans.

We had a list of jobs to do this month, some we had already carried out - such as planting garlic - while others would be attended to over the next weeks.  One we should be attending to fairly soon , is clearing out the pond - only Nick and I have ponds.  Mine is very healthy and clear but is being taken over by water hawthorn.  This plant is very pretty with lots of white flowers and largish oval leaves, but it is a bit of a thug.  Throughout the year it detaches baby plants and they float on the surface and then attach themself to the sides of the pond or other plants and soon you have too much of a good thing!  I must thin them out.  My pond had lots of tadpoles and newts this year, I don't often see newts in the pond but find them whilst weeding the garden. We stopped for coffee and cake and then walked around the garden.

My garden is rushing through autumn, some shrubs have turned beautiful colours, my Cercidiphyllum  Japonicum or Katsura Tree is related to the common spindle.  Sometimes it gives off a scent like burnt sugar.  The leaves are heart shaped and now bright yellow.  I have about 8 Euonymus shrubs - also known as  the spindle tree.  There are many different species ranging from those with small green and cream leaves to those I have, their leaves turn bright red in the autumn and hold onto them for about 3 months.  The seeds of some are also interesting they hang down from the plant with little red hats and the seeds are bright orange and hang on strands - the birds love them.  My crab apple tree is glorious - it is smothered in small yellow fruits.  Last year a late severe frost turned all the fruits to blobs of brown so the birds had none as the frost came before the fruits were ripe.  Let's hope it's not repeated this year.  Because of the relatively mild weather lately, some annual flowers are hanging on - I have two pots of  small begonias, one a bright orange colour called glowing embers and the other hanging in a wall pot , a bronze red called starshine and still covered in flowers.

Next month the meeting will at Lynn's home in Newtown.

September. This month we met at Garthmyl Hall a Grade 1 listed house nr. Berriew.   The first building on the site was a large timber-framed mansion of late 17th c.  This was replaced in 1762 and then again  rebuilt as a private residence in 1859 by the architect James K.Colling for Major General William George Gold.  It has now been transformed into an exclusive wedding venue by the present owners.

It has formal and informal gardens with a lake and trees set in a small park, including a huge mature Cedar of Lebanon.  There is a large walled garden  with fruit trees, hostas and many beautiful roses.  The centre of the garden has flower beds which form a huge circle.  These are planted with colourful perennials and annuals which are repeated often so the beds  join seamlessly together.   In one of the small fields there are  2 sections devoted to meadow planting containing wild flowers such as cranesbill, field poppies and  grasses with the addition of field poppies, cornflowers and colourful cosmos.  Mown pathways lead through the plantings.

It was a gloriously  hot, sunny day when we visited and after walking around the garden ,  tea and cake in the marquee was very welcome .

July. On Sunday the Garden Group visited  Cwm Weeg, Dolfor -the C15th medieval farmhouse  owned by  Wolfgang Schaefer and Kingsley George.

After nearly 3 decades of living at the Cwm, major landscaping and gardening projects were undertaken and there has hardly been a period without ongoing building work, the latest being the Pavilion built in 2019 - an ideal spot overlooking  the garden , perfect  for coffee and cake and musical evenings.  The various projects include terraces,  fountain, 4 ponds, grotto, moss garden with rock face and Stumpery.  There are statues and sculptures throughout the 2.5 acre garden, set within 24 acres of wild flower meadows and bluebell woods.

The garden planting is astounding  and on such a large scale it made us tired just looking at it, thinking of all the effort which must go into keeping this beautiful garden in tip top condition.

If you haven't yet discovered this wonderful garden, put it on your 'must see' list.

We visited Paul's garden once again this month. His vegetables have come on a pace since we last saw them and a lot of his herbaceous plants are flowering.  The problem here is that his island bed is quite stuffed with them and some are hidden from view.  He is going to sort out this problem by removing some plants and pruning others so there is more light getting into the middle of the bed - his hydrangeas may then flower - at the moment they are sulking in the gloom.However, the cornflowers are very much at home and  are flowering very well.  It's lovely to see a sea of various shades of blue as it's not a colour you find often  in many gardens  - the exception being ceanothus, Himalayan poppy and spring bulbs such as scilla and anemone blanda.

He has a wonderful row of peas, his onions look very strong, his spinach, broccoli, beetroot and sweet corn are doing fine and his potatoes are tall and still growing!  His greenhouse is full of tomatoes, cucumbers peppers and this year he is trying butternut squash.  He has some outdoor tomatoes too and they are thriving.  His soft fruit - blackcurrants and raspberries  are growing well too.  In fact , his whole vegetable plot  is a good example of what can be achieved using home made compost and devotion of time.

On May 211st the group visited the NGS garden at Rock Mill, Abermule on a glorious sunny day.. 

This month's meeting was held at Lynn's, Canal Road, Newtown.  We started off with Lynn giving us a list of jobs we should be doing in the garden this month.  She obtained this list from Gardeners' World which sometimes is in advance of our Welsh gardens but this time was quite accurate.  

We were told we should still be careful planting out any tender annuals/bedding/hanging baskets as we could still have late frosts to decimate them.  We discussed the earlier frosts, some before Christmas and the others just a short while ago which killed some plants in all our gardens.

Paul is a very keen vegetable grower and he told us about how all his young plants are progressing.  His potatoes are 2 feet tall and very healthy, he is worried that they won't survive a frost, he had one last year which killed all the new foliage but the potatoes sprouted again and grew into sturdy plants, the plants were very short on that occasion though. His broad beans are thriving as are his brassicas.  He gave Anne 2 Kale plants to try as they were a new variety to him and supposedly even good to eat raw.  Both Lynn and Anne were promised some of his spare tomato plants to try growing outside - they are hoping for weather similar to last year - lovely and  warm  for the fruit to ripen. The problem  though with the very warm weather is that vegetables such as runner beans do not do well in the heat and give only a light crop.  Anne has decided to grow fewer runner beans this year but also to grow French climbing beans which cope better with the heat.

Then we stopped for a tea/coffee/cake break followed by a tour of Lynn's garden.  She has quite a number of shrubs including Philadelphus with hostas, hydrangeas and many clematis.  Lynn has a large number of strawberry beds, summer and autumn raspberries, rhubarb and then l plant of each of blackcurrants, gooseberries and a blueberry.  She also grows runner and broad beans, but has nipped out the shoots of the latter to avoid blackfly - she was misinformed but hopefully the plants will survive and bush out, they look healthy enough to do so.

We met at Anne's house in Tregynon this month on a damp drizzly day.  We managed a quick gallop around the garden, lots of spring bulbs such as scilla,primroses,  anemone blanda, daffodils and many hellabores which have spread like wildfire throughout.  There are also 10 or more pots of tulips and daffodils at the front of the property making a very colourful display.

A few of Anne's trees and shrubs have died over the winter - she puts this down to the severe heat of summer and the hard frosts before and after Christmas.  She is hopeful that a few may recover after all the recent rain, one can only hope!

Anne has many bluebells scattered about the garden, some the wild variety and some Spanish plants.  She is not fussy about them cross pollinating and lets them live happily side by side.

We discussed a list of jobs we should be doing outside this month and talked about  plans for our individual gardens.  Paul is well on with his sowing regime and is keeping his fingers crossed for an absence of frost as his broad beans and potatoes in particular are galloping on.

Throughout her time in Tregynon, Anne's garden has been visited by hedgehogs, they hibernated for most of the winter but are now eating 2 bowls of food which she puts out nightly.  She has 2 feeding stations which have been built to exclude cats and 2  houses where they can overnight or hibernate in.   The pond is full of tadpoles, after laying the spawn at the shallow end of the pond, it snowed and froze, but enough of the eggs survived and the frogs hadn't finished spawning by that time so more was produced.

We then enjoyed cups of tea and coffee and a chocolate easter cake decorated with easter eggs!

The May meeting will be on the 2nd Monday of the month at Lyn's home in Newtown.
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After a few months off over winter, the Garden Group met at Paul's house in Llanwnog.  We chatted about many things, the no-dig method which has recently  become very popular - the reasoning behind this being that the less the soil is disturbed the better for plants and the little creatures such as worms, which live in the soil. We discussed bug infestations and the best way of dealing with these -  most gardeners try to be organic and the way forward here is using a spray of soapy water to blast the aphids etc. off the plants. Ideally ladybirds would keep such pests in check, but unless there are very many of these insects in gardens, then the pests win hands down.We also talked about the pruning of trees , shrubs and fruit bushes

After drinks and cake we ventured into Paul's garden in pouring rain.  He has started off many flowers and vegetables, some on indoor windowsills and others in his greenhouse.  His broad beans looked especially healthy and were ready to plant out - when the deluge stopped.

Paul grows a great variety of veg which crop well each year.  He uses his own compost which he makes in large bays in the corner of his plot.
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Our November meeting was a 'bring and share' lunch at Judi's home.

She read out a list of jobs we should be doing in the garden - really just a continuation of October's jobs - cutting down collapsed perennials - and division of same.  Also planting new trees and shrubs.  Generally getting the garden tidy for the winter months.  Because of last week's frost, most trees and shrubs dropped what remaining leaves they had and it's now a tidying up period - only removing them from lawns - the worms will eventually break them up on the borders and you have free compost!

It was rather a sad meeting as we all said goodbye to Judi, she has been a very active and enthusiastic  member of our U3A from the moment she  joined.  We wish her well in her new home.  I understand there is a U3A a short distance from her house and I'm sure they will soon benefit from her willingness and enthusiasm. 
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The October meeting was held at Nick's home in Abermule. We walked around Nick's garden.  He has a patch of lawn dotted with a mystery fungus but the surrounding lawn looks very healthy. Nick will investigate further.  He has a large dome covered with a very fine gauge netting.  This has been successful in keeping out the dreaded cabbage white butterfly  resulting in a good crop of healthy looking sprout plants and kale.   However, his nearby leeks and celery plants are at a standstill, they look healthy but are not growing.  Paul suggested that perhaps they were not getting enough sun as the area is shaded by the house.  The group discussed jobs we should be doing in our garden at this time of year and we disagreed over a few as the weather is still so mild that some garden plants are not not yet ready to shut down for winter. There should be colour in the garden even now, some plants have beautiful autumn colour - reds, oranges and yellows and dahlias will last until the first frosts while Chrysanthemums and michaelmas daisies can survive low temperatures and be with you into December.

This time of year is usually  a very busy time for the gardener - now is the time to plant new trees and shrubs and divide perennials.  Annuals can be disposed of and herbaceous plants divided.  However, grasses should not be divided until the spring as they can sulk and rot off over winter. Some plants have attractive seed heads and these  can be left to provide food for birds and cover for insects over the winter and cut down in the spring - of course this depends on whether they  have collapsed into an untidy mess or not.

Vegetable growers may still be harvesting beetroot and even tomatoes in some areas, whereas  broccoli, cabbages, carrots, parsnips and leeks will last well into the winter months.  Garlic can be planted now and broad beans for an earlier crop next year, although the main opinion regarding the beans is that over winter  they have difficulty surviving attack by mice and slugs and if sown in spring generally catch up.

The next meeting will be the last at Judi's as she hopes to move house at the end of November.

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In September the group met at the home of Lynn Arthur - Cae Camlas, Lower Canal Road, Newtown.  Lynn's garden encircles the house.  She has mainly raised beds containing shrubs and vegetables - a lovely crop of autumn raspberries

still producing a lot of fruit.  Her runner beans are also still producing although I suspect this late in the year, the remainder of the crop which looked mature   will only be good for keeping for next year's seed

Her bed of hydrangeas which have been pruned quite severely, are now recovering nicely and will make a good show next year.

Because of the raised beds, the garden is very manageable for Lynn and her gardener who helps when needed..
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9th May was the date of the monthly meeting of this group.  It was held at Anne's in Tregynon with only 4 persons attending - Jackie being in hospital awaiting an operation and Judi on holiday. Irene has now left the group, because of her move back to Shropshire.

Anne gave a short talk on the pruning of fruit trees and shrubs and also read out a list of jobs to do in the garden  this month.  As with all our meetings, the conversations were varied and lively - discussions on types of vegetables grown by members, composting and successes and failures in the flower garden.

After tea and cake the group toured Anne's garden - lots of colour from azaleas,rhodos, bluebells, cammasias and other herbacous plants.

The June meeting (organised by Judi) will be replaced by a visit at 10.30 on 20th to Little House, Llandinam - a little gem of a garden set out by a true plantswoman.  This visit was advertised at the last general meeting of the U3A.  It will be announced  again in June and opened to members.
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The April meeting was on the 4th  at the home of Paul West.

Attending: Anne Allen  Lynn Arthur  Judi Deakin  Nick Platt  Anna Pugh

Paul West

The meeting began with a discussion about a group leader.  As no-one volunteered Anne suggested that we meet at a different member's home each month and that member take the meeting.  This was carried.

It was decided that we continue to meet on the 2nd Monday of each month, and for 3 summer months,  to replace the meetings with visits to local gardens.  Judi volunteered to arrange these visits.  Car sharing would take place.If the various garden owners required  a minimum number then the visits would be open to other members of Newtown  U3A. An appeal for more members would be made at the next general meeting.

Paul read out a list of jobs to do in the garden this month  such as putting in early potatoes, sowing annuals, dividing perennials etc. weeding and mulching borders.  

We chatted about our own gardens and how advanced or behind we were - the difficult weather - hot by day, freezing by night - making it  a full-time job caring for our seedlings

We had a tea and cake break and then were shown around Paul's garden.  He moved to his present address about 2 1/2 years ago.   He inherited a greenhouse, many water butts, raised beds of shrubs and herbaceous plants and a large vegetable plot containing raised beds and a rabbit proof fence.

Paul's main interest is growing vegetables and this was very obvious from the quantity and variety  he has in the garden already.  He is a great believer in reusing as much as possible - all spent compost is sieved and added to leafmold  or his own garden compost (he has 2 large bays in the corner of his plot where he composts all his household waste, together with cardboard  and any odd scraps of paper and packaging).  He even uses the wood chips from old garden paths which rot down over the years forming a lovely friable mixture suitable for growing seedlings or potting on.

A very enjoyable visit - a textbook lesson in growing veg!!
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The November meeting was at Judi's house with 7 members present.   The new member, Jackie, described her garden  and her gardening interests.  Judi then talked us through jobs for the month and there was a lot of talk about squirrels, rats and moles. We also discussed the phasing out of compast containing peat.  Derwen garden centre now sell  2 types on peat-free compost in bulk. One is Sylvagrow Multipurpose made from a blen of wood fibre and coir.  The other is Dalefoot Wool compost made from organic wool and bracken.  This peat-free compost is high in nutrients and potash so the need for feeding is reduced. 

The meeting ended with a tour of Judi's garden.
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The Garden Group meets on the 2nd Monday of each month at the home of one of its members. The last meeting was at 10 a.m. on 11th October at my home - Anne Allen- in Tregynon.  5 members attended.

Each member spoke about the successes and failures in their garden throughout this year.  Some, especially Paul  whose garden was visited in September, have had no failures but bumper crops of veg.

I then read out a list of 'Jobs to do in October' - just to keep us on the straight and narrow!

We stopped for tea and cakes and then walked around my garden.  Many of my trees and shrubs are showing their spectacular autumn foliage -my Cercidiphyllum tree with its dainty butter yellow leaves, Euonymus - of which I have several, all with fiery red leaves and  herbaceous plants such as Michaelmas daisies in purples and white, crocosmias and the bright gold daisies, Rudbeckia all make vivid splashes of colour throughout the garden.  See photos below. 

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The March meeting was at Anne's house, Tregynon, and started with a slide show of photos of plants in Annes's garden, most of them taken in summer/autumn .  We then did our usual tasks for the month and had some lively discussion about when to sow seeds.  A few items for the diary:

1st and 2nd May the Newtown Garden Club will hold a plant sale at the Newtown Market Hall.

On Sunday 19th April the Shropshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society will hold a Spring Fair at the Baystock Hill Memorial Hall , SY3 0DR.
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The December meeting was the non-Christmas get together at Judi's house. Judi talked about Charles Dowding and his approach to Organic Gardening.  He has adopted a no dig approach and uses cardboard and compost to suppress weeds and maintain soil condition and fertility.  He also uses double cropping by the use of fleece and polytunnels. With this approach and about half an acre of land he achieves £20000 worth of veg sales a year. More details can be found on his web site at https://charlesdowding.co.uk/
Judi also showed us a slide show entitled Joys of Winter with pictures taken during the winter months in her garden and elesewhere.
The meeting finished with a lunch provided by Judi with contributions from other members including Nick's homemade wine. We welcomed new member Paul and were impressed by Irene's floral display.

The November meeting at Jackie's consisted of a demonstration by Sheena of methods of propagation.  Sheena brought samples of various shrubs and plants and demonstrated the correct way of taking cuttings, root, stem, leaf, hardwood, depending on the type of plant.  We all took cuttings away to try for ourselves at home.  Sheena also brought a selection of the many books she has on gardening and plants.  Jackie provided refreshments as usual.  

Notes on Propagation by Sheena:

1. Herbaceous perennials
Most are easily propagated by division in Autumn or Spring.  Some, those with fleshy or roots or rhizomes, can be propagated by root cuttings in the Autumn and Winter eg: Acanthus, Anemone japonica, Crambe , Dicentra,  Eryngium,  Hemerocallis , Papaver orientalis,  Phlox, Primula, Verbascum.

Prepare cuttings 2-3cm in length inserting them right side up, with tip level with surface of the compost, in gritty compost or vermiculite ,1- 2cm or so apart. Label and put in a frame or sheltered spot. Water in then leave over Winter, watering sparingly, but making sure they do not dry out if under glass. When shoots appear and are growing strongly, feed, then pot up only when well grown. Plant out the following spring.

Semi- mature cuttings can be taken from perennials that remain green above ground in Winter eg: Achillea, Artemisia, Dianthus, Geranium, Hyssop, Iberis, Linum, Veronica

Take cuttings 5-10cm long from the base of the plants in September. Insert in a suitable gritty compost. Place under glass. Pot up when growing strongly in spring.

Basal cuttings, ideally with a bit of root attached, can be carefully removed from the plant stool in spring and potted up individually or in groups in gritty compost.

2.  Deciduous shrubs
Many well- known favourite shrubs can be propagated easily by taking hardwood cuttings at the end of October/early November eg: Buddleia, Caryopteris, Ceonothus, Forsythia, Kerria, Philadelphus, Photinia, Rhododendron, Rosa, Spiraea, Sambucus,Viburnum , Weigelia.

Some trees can also be propagated in this way: eg Acer, Eucryphia, Prunus, Salix.

Evergreen hardwood shrub cuttings
eg Aucuba, Berberis, Box, Garrya, Ilex, Myrtle, Lavandula, Skimmia, Sage, Viburnum.

Take cuttings either in late Autumn or early Spring. Select strong shoots. Trim just below a node. Several cuttings can be taken from a single shoot. Trim any large leaves by half to reduce loss of moisture. Insert in gritty compost and treat in the same way as deciduous cuttings. Spring cuttings will respond very well with bottom heat and will form strong plants very quickly. Pot on as soon as they are growing strongly and plant out in autumn or the following Spring.

Conifers
Take heel or stem cuttings 10-15cm in length in late summer/early Autumn. Strip the lower foliage and insert in pots of gritty compost. Water and place in aframe.

LayeringCan be successful with many shrubs and trees eg: Chaenomeles, Cotinus, Daphne, Dianthus, Euonymus, Lonicera, Rhododendron, Wisteria.

Take a low supple branch in Autumn, Winter or early spring. Strip a section of bark about 1cm long or using a sharp instrument make a cut through 1/3 through the stem. Pin the stem into the ground with a wire peg, adding in a mixture of peat and grit around the wound. Mark with a stick. Leave for at least a year, sometimes two then sever the layer from the parent plant and then after a further 4-6 weeks lift carefully and replant in final place.

The meeting in September was at Jackie's and was taken up by a very interesting talk by Sheena on propagating.  Sheena had brought samples of a number of different shrubs and showed us how to take cuttings of the various types of plants and what to do with them to ensure succeful propagation.  These included shoot, root, leaf and hardwood cuttings.  Most of the members took away samples to try in their own gardens.  Sheena also brought a selection of her extensive collection of gardening books.
We also discussed future meetings and agreed some of the dates.

In August we went to Judi's and spent most of the meeting digging through her collection of HPS seeds due to be dumped if not wanted.  Most of the members present found a number of promising prospects to try.  Judi explained how the HPS seed collection and distribution works.  After tea and cakes we explored Judi's garden which she admits is a work in progress but certainly looks very different from when she first moved into the property.  We also discussed future meetings and activities, see side panel for details.

In July we went to Bont Dolgadfan to visit Sheena's 'new' house and garden. First we visited another garden, the Old Vicarage, in the village, arranged by Sheena, and this was a lovely, established garden that the owners have been working on for fourty years.  And it shows, there is lots of variety, mature trees, ponds, terracing and even productive fruit and veg production.  Everything has been done to encourage wildlife.  We spent a couple of hours there being shown around by the owners.
We then went to Sheena's and had tea and delicious cakes while Sheena showed us slides of scented plants.  We then toured her garden and she would be the first to admit that it is a work in progress.  Apart from the borders around the house most of the land consists of a steep sided dingle with a small stream running down it.  We look forward to a return visit, probably in a few years time to see progress made.

The June meeting was a combined one with the Walking Group to Hurdley Hall gardens then Roundton Hill for the walkers. This is our third visit to Hurdley and each time we are impressed by the gardens and the changes that take place.  We particularly love the borders, the orchards, ponds, magnificent wildflower meadow and the veg plot.  As on previous occasions we were also impressed by the quality of the home made cakes and scones.

The May meeting was a visit to two very different gardens near Shrewsbury. The first was to Avocet which is a small garden divided into many different areas of interest.  The whole garden is planned to encourage wildlife of all sorts with bee, bird and insect homes scattered throut.  A very interesting and pleasant place to visit.  We went from there to Bowbrook Allotments which is a large community allotment with all the plots well kept and productive.  The areas around the site feature different aspects such as wild meadows, willows to aid solve water problems and a pond. Another very interesting place to visit, not surprisingly there is a waiting list for plots.  Thanks to the owners of both properties and to Judi for organising the day.

The meeting in May at Anne's started with a slide show of various gardens, including her own, Powis Castle, Portmeirion and others.  We talked about things to do in the garden this month, a busy month of seed sowing and preparation.  Judi told us about the Shropshire Hardy Plant Society's Spring Plant Fair, to be held at the Bayston Hill Memorial Hall, Sunday 14th April, 12.00-15.00. Non members welcome.

The meeting in March was at Mike's and was well attended. Mike showed pictures from a recent trip to Madeira which is a very lush island with a number of excellent formal gardens.  We also had a short quiz which proved to be too easy for these experienced gardeners.  Then, after a short review of activities in the garden for this month, we discussed possible garden visits for the summer.

The February meeting at Nick's mainly concentrated on plans for planting over the next couple of months.  We also taked about possible visits including Broadheath House, Presteigne and the Dower House, Shropshire.  The group also had a tour around the garden with very little happening at this time of year but we discussed possible pruning needed to shrubs and fruit trees.

Meetings normally held:
Second Monday of month starting at 10 am.