Author: jtg

Garden Jottings for May

Written by jtg on May 11, 2026. Posted in Garden Jottings.

Once again, as last year, Spring has arrived about 3 weeks earlier than is normal. What a truly mixed month April proved to be with record-breaking hot days preceding cold ones with night frosts followed by strong gale force winds. Unpredictable weather really is a problem for the unsuspecting gardener. Unfortunately the unusual weather overwhelmed the daffodils which just withered and dried up too soon. Tulips, which should be at their very best late in April and through May, have mostly been and gone while all the ornamental cherry trees have given a marvellous explosion of blossom and...

Steve Edney & Louise Dowle: Propagation and Sowing Demonstration

Written by jtg on May 4, 2026. Posted in News, Past Event Reports.

Something of a regular appointment on our schedule, we welcomed back Steve Edney (our Patron) and Louise Dowle for an interactive talk that brought our best attendance for some time – people really have a thirst for expert, practical advice. And there was no shortage of that here. An additional feature of the evening was the annual charity Plant Sale. We had four tables of these, plus some early-season produce: rhubarb, leeks and asparagus. They began with a ‘kit list’, comprising seed mix, vermiculite, perlite, some seed trays (they favour the smallest ones) and module cell...

Sophie Leathart: Growing Plants for Cutting

Written by jtg on April 30, 2026. Posted in Events.

Visitors welcome Entry £3 Thursday 28th May 7.30pm Ash Village Hall www.blackknightflowers.com

Spring Show 2026

Written by jtg on April 20, 2026. Posted in Past Event Reports.

What would be the best weather to ensure a super Spring Show? It would not be a sudden blaze of hot weather to bring on all the blossom, then more heat to dry said blossoms (the gardeners were the only people looking miserable while everybody else was trying out their shorts and suntan lotion) .And then very windy weather to blow away the shrivelled blossom. Great. That’s what we got. But Ash Gardeners rose to the challenge and produced some lovely exhibits, some of which would usually have graced a summer show. There were daffodils in nearly all classes, including those not usually...

Garden Jottings for April

Written by jtg on April 3, 2026. Posted in Garden Jottings.

The haze of yellow leaves on the willow tree hanging over the pond hints of better weather to come when we can sally forth into the fresh air to begin another month full of opportunity and pleasure to be gained from the therapeutic activity of gardening. How glorious it is to see all the hard work of planting pots and borders come to fruition in a blaze of golden yellow. Another spring joy is the doronicum or Easter daisy, though they seem to be a particular favourite of slugs or snails, just like delphinium and lupin shoots. A collar of sharp grit, crushed eggshells or soot seems to deter...

Martin Newcombe: The origin of garden plants

Written by jtg on March 23, 2026. Posted in Past Event Reports.

The previously scheduled speaker had to pull out through ill health, and Martin stepped into the breach with just a few days’ notice, for which he was warmly thanked. Martin is an ecologist with a long career behind him, and continuing: he is currently engaged in a biodiversity survey at Sissinghurst. He lives in a house that was once occupied by Noel Coward’s gardener! For his talk to us, he presented an easily overlooked aspect of gardening: how did those familiar plants come to be in our gardens in the first place? Some have been developed from native species, some originate...

Garden Jottings: March

Written by jtg on March 12, 2026. Posted in Garden Jottings.

Christine Brown President, AHS. We have had rain on nearly every day this year with only one or two short glimpses if the sun to give hope of Spring days to come. Celandines are in evidence among the muddy sodden stream edges and there are hundred of catkins of all varieties along roadsides and hedgerows. Mimosa, camellia and sarocca are showing the beneficial effects of plentiful water to give rise to beautiful blossoms and perfume in the air. Most shrubs will have been shortened by about one-third in the Autumn but will need the main pruning completed. There can be a risk that...

Laura Brady: What they grow and how they grow it at Wonky Parsnip

Written by jtg on February 14, 2026. Posted in Past Event Reports.

Our February talk, coming at the end of the week in which Winter at last tried to turn into Spring, featured the young horticultural entrepreneur Laura Brady, who runs a market garden at Brogdale Farm, near Faversham. A graduate of Harper Adams University at Newport in Shropshire, Laura has gained experience of agriculture and horticulture around the world (she has been firmly bitten by the travel bug). This told her as much about what she did not want to do as what she did. She decided to concentrate on quality rather than yield and set up a gardening business to focus on taste and...

Garden Jottings for February

Written by jtg on February 10, 2026. Posted in Garden Jottings.

Christine Brown President, AHS. A Focus on… Seeds At the start of the year, we’re not sure what each day will bring. We have had some truly “proper” winter weather with deep cold, and all living things outlined with hoar frost sparkling against beautiful sunsets of golden deep pink. Then we have had days of damp drizzly grey gloom and deep mud everywhere. However, we look forward to February with hope of Spring and the emergence of lovely early blooms. Amongst these, hellebores which need to be divested of their old tatty leaves to see their proud flower heads. However, do...