THURCASTON ANd CROpSTON GARdENING ClUb The 12-Month Garden – Colour All Year Round

The last meeting of the Thurcaston and Cropston Gardening Club coincided with the start of wintery weather, and with the promise of more to come! This prevented a number of members attending but for those who did venture out they were treated to a very informative and humorous evening’s talk.

Our speaker, Geoff Hodge, presented an excellent illustrated talk called ‘The 12-Month Garden – Colour All Year Round’. Geoff is a freelance garden writer and editor, and a very experienced speaker. He has written eight gardening books and he is one of the panel of experts for gardening programmes on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. He also appears on Q&A panels at flower shows across the country and gives lots of talks and demonstrations at garden shows and for gardening clubs.

Geoff started his very entertaining talk off by providing a very useful plant list, split into different sections, such as evergreen shrubs, deciduous shrubs (with more than one season of interest), long flowering shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, and annuals. Plants were then selected from each section - all demonstrated with good quality photos - before Geoff gave tips on how to get the best from them in order to get year-round colour.

Geoff suggested that in spring and summer it should be easy to achieve a colourful garden, but that autumn and winter would be trickier. He also warned us about rushing off to garden centres in spring to buy plants without planning! Having run a nursery himself, he warned that garden centre owners know all the tricks of the trade in displaying irresistible plants to encourage us to spend money but often the first question you ask when returning from a centre laden with such bounty is “where am I going to plant this!”

This talk was full of interesting and practical tip and ideas, with Geoff making the audience laugh throughout courtesy of many humorous anecdotes and comments. His quality as a speaker showed and he was much appreciated by the members on a wintery evening.

The Gardening Club meets in the Thurcaston and Cropston Memorial Hall. Whether an experienced gardener or an enthusiastic beginner we are sure you will find something of interest in this year’s programme. New members are made most welcome. What’s more, it’s excellent value!! The membership fee is still only £12 for the year (pro rota) or £3 per meeting.

So, if you are interested in gardening - come and give the Club a try.

For more information about the Club, please contact:

Dave Haddon 0116 235 9758 / david.haddon20@ntlworld.com. Or Richard Elks 0116 236 8313 / cropston161@hotmail.co.uk.

The next Club events are:

Wed 10th May - Plants for the Connoisseur - Simon Gulliver

Simon is a Gardens & Parks Consultant for the National Trust, responsible for advising on the development of 20 historic gardens in the West and North Midlands. Previously Simon also worked for the NT Northwest region covering gardens in the Lakes and Cheshire.

Simon trained at Pershore College and worked at the RHS Garden, Wisley for two years as the horticulturalist at Plant Heritage (administering the National Plant Collections Scheme). He also trained in Biodiversity and worked for ten years at Birmingham Botanical Gardens as its Horticultural Lecturer and Plant Collections Manager.

‘Plants for the Connoisseur’ is Simon’s favourite selection of beautiful plants that are either a little different, interesting, unusual and/or a bit more challenging to grow. It also covers how to grow and enjoy them.

This is an illustrated talk with plants for sale.

Wed 14th June - Top 20 Tips from a former Head Gardener, Pip Smith

At this illustrated talk Pip shares some of his favourite tips from his time as a Head Gardener. It’s an eclectic mix that includes ideas on how to save water in the summer to his favourite plants for those ‘tricky to grow spots’ in your garden.

A Landscape Designer with over 13 years’ experience working as a professional horticulturist Pip trained to degree level in horticulture at Pershore College. He has an MA in Landscape Architecture from Birmingham City University and has held the post of Head Gardener at several private and public gardens, most recently at the highly acclaimed Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire. In 2020 he set up his own landscape design studio in Worcestershire and uses his previous experience to create imaginative, sympathetic and long-lasting designs for clients.