Hadleigh Gardens

Personal Thoughts
As I sit down to write this my first thought is exactly the same as last month namely "However am I going to catch up". Having had some lovely days last month when we sat out in the garden for lunch on several days the weather has gone back to Winter. At the moment the weather is highlighting the difference between a gardeners view of adequate rainfall, and that of the water authority. We have now had sufficient rain that all my water butts are full up, and the heavy clay soil in my vegetable patch is really too wet to walk on. To further aggravate the situation the local weather forecast shows some rain on every one of the next five days. Of course this quantity of rain which in the short run is excessive for me will make hardly any difference to reservoir levels, and does not mean that our gardens will have sufficient water in two or three months time, so the hosepipe ban continues. What this Spring does demonstrate is just how useful greenhouses, and cold frames can be. both of mine are bulging with plants and cuttings that I have raised to plant out later. My dahlia tubers have been set up on trays to start into growth. They are all sprouting nicely, and in the next day or two I shall be taking cuttings from those that I want to increase. Similarly my achimenes tubers have been set up to sprout on small trays in a propagator, and these are sprouting nicely ready to pot up to give me a nice display in the greenhouse in late Summer. If you are not familiar with these and have the internet look at www.dibleys.com. They are easy to keep indoors overwinter if you do not heat your greenhouse.

Open Gardens
6th & 7th May Tudor Roost Fingringhoe Colchester
7th May Bevils Sudbury Rd Bures
13th May Columbine Hall Stowupland
13th May The Place for Plants East Bergholt
20th May Old Hall Green Gardens, Old Hall Lane Cockfield
20th May Rosedale Colchester Road Bures
20th May The Priory Stoke by Nayland
20th May Windmill Cottage Mill Hill Capel St Mary
27 May Woodwards Blacksmiths Lane Coddenham

Weather Records
In March we had 29.3 mm (1.15") of rain which is only about 60% of our average rainfall. This made the 3 month figure 94.9 mm (3.7"), which is far short of the average. However so far in April we seem to have had a lot of wet days, so it will be interesting to see the total at the end of the month. In March the maximum temperature was 19 Cel (66F) which is warm, indeed it is the highest March maximum since I started recording figures in 1999. The minimum was 1 Cel (34F), which is again the warmest March minimum temperature since 1999. In my garden the ground temperature in mid April is 8 Cel (41F). This is a bit cooler than normal reflecting the way the weather seems to have gone back to Winter after a beautiful March.

Hints
If you grow lilies it is time to go looking for the lily beetle. This beautiful red pest and its young eat lily and fritillaria leaves and can reduce lilies to bare stems quite quickly. They can be distinguished from ladybirds in that they do not have any spots. When approached they drop to the ground and hide, so the trick is to catch them as they fall. Following on from last month now is the time to sow courgettes, and french and runner beans, for eating this Summer. The keen vegetable gardeners will also be getting in the brussels sprouts, leeks, and sprouting brocolli to eat next Winter. Finally let me finish with the standard May Hints. Do not forget to prune your early flowering shrubs like forsythia, and do not be in too much of a hurry to plant Summer bedding. This year it is also worth thinking about whether you will be able to cope with watering your Summer bedding without a hose pipe Some of the better ones are geraniums, oesteospermum, begonia semperflorens, and mesambrianthemum.

Good Gardening, John Rye

Hadleigh & District Garden Club

What an evening of hilarity the April meeting proved to be. For various reasons no speaker had been engaged so we had arranged a short film showing the garden of Ann Munson the winning entry in the 2004 Ipswich Back Garden Competition, (which we will be visiting in the summer) followed by another question and answer session.

It proved to be difficult to get the meeting started due to the buying frenzy at our newly expended trading table!! In the past items were unwanted plants and garden bits and pieces and the entire profit went to the club but now it includes produce specifically made for the table and being sold on a 50/50 basis which allows cooks to recover their ingredient costs and of course generates more income for the club. The costs of some specialised seed is now so great it will be a great help and also to squirrels like yours truely who can’t bear to see any fruit or vegetable go to waste and is compelled to turn it into jams, pickles and whatnot and for those who just enjoy cooking for its’ own sake.

After the film the committee formed a panel to get things going and needless to say, the hose pipe ban and its implications were top of the list of subjects. Two of the committee had been pressed into contacting all the necessary agencies to find out the facts and what it added up to for the average gardener! Why weren’t we surprised to find many ‘grey’ areas and anomalies - “you can fill ponds to save your fish but not tadpoles, newts etc” - what about greater crested newts - aren’t they protected by law? From these discussions we were in to how to take cuttings of fuschias, orchid growing and care, rhubarb forcing containers, dealing with vine weevils, asparagus and lily beetles and how to keep those glorious cyclamen alive for months, in flower and without flaggging its amazing the things gardeners find to talk (and laugh) about. One question - are we gardeners a placid, easy going lot and what about those flies?! I’m not telling you the answers to that but ask you to come and find out at our friendly monthly meetings but I will tell you, April’s meeting was more fun and laughter than Q.I. - eat you heart out Stephen Fry!!!

For more information phone Ruth Allen 822323