Perhaps it’s a little early to allow the w-word into our conversation, but best to be forewarned, and to put in plans for, as Kevin’s title suggests, sustaining interest in our gardens over the bleak months to come. Kevin, who runs the Sir Planatalot website dedicated to helping people plan their gardens, as well as running courses at Hadlow College and Brogdale, took us through an extensive inventory of plants and planting schemes, with half an eye on the soil types we have in Ash; not every plant suits our conditions. He allowed questions during the progress of his talk, rather than a Q...

One of the best attendances of the year assembled for this meeting; not surprisingly, given the wealth of practical advice on offer, and who was giving it: Steve Edney, long-time patron of the Society, Louise Dowle, joint proprietor with Steve of the No Name Nursery in Sandwich and Gary Bradbury, Chair of the AHS committee, an agronomist with decades of experience. Here is a summary of the questions from the audience and the panel’s responses. Q1. What, if anything, can be done about horsetails (a.k.a. mares’ tails)? The short answer to the question of is there a cure in No. One or...

Members met in the lovely garden of Val and Maggie McCulloch in Cop Street, for our Annual Rose Show. On a very warm and sunny evening, we were able to relax in the welcome shade from the very tall trees and to enjoy the beautiful flower borders. With the recent heatwave and even a wind storm earlier in the week, very few members had any decent roses remaining !  Even though the entries were somewhat diminished, we still had a very nice display ; mostly of the Floribunda type. Our President Christine Brown carried out the judging and then members were asked to rank the...

After an earlier career, Sophie retrained as a horticulturalist and received accreditation in 2015, fortunately – in the present context – finding herself working for a client who wanted a garden specifically for cut flowers. Sophie was also a freelance florist and so this fitted with both her interests and experience. She began with a brief excursion into the origins of the flowers we typically use. A lot of monasteries had walled gardens used for herbs and suchlike (Canterbury Cathedral still has one) and people would gather flowers from hedgerows, going on to cultivate the...

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...

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...

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...

Despite a summer that was first hot and dry and then wet, the gardeners of Ash & District produced a memorable show, as commented on by the judge: “The standard of the show entries was excellent. Please do let your participants know their produce look great and would certainly hold their own at a national show!”  It was a memorable year for apples with 10 entries, won by the Grannie Smiths entered by Val McCulloch. There were fewer flower entries, reflecting the weather conditions, although there was a good display of dahlias. The flower arranging classes proved popular, with a new...