Meetings every third Thursday of the month at 7.30pm, St Mary's Church Centre, Nether Stowey
Tea and cake, raffle, plant table
Thursday 18th January AGM at 7pm
followed at 7.30 by a talk by Peter Savage of Bowden's Nurseries Hostas
Thursday 15th February a talk by Sally Leaney Garden Design
Thursday 21st March a talk by Paul Hending Organic Gardening, including Pest Control
Thursday 18th April a talk by John Addison Vegetable Growing
Tuesday 7th May car visit to Postbox Cottage, West Bagborough TA4 3EF
Thursday 16th May a talk by Jenny Short Fragrance in the Garden
Saturday 18th May Plant Sale at Thomas Poole Library, Nether Stowey
Wednesday 5th June car visit to Model Farm, Perry Green, Wembdon TA5 2BA
Thursday 20th June a talk by Felicity Down Climbing and Wall Shrubs
Sunday June 23rd coach trip to RHS garden Rosemoor - Rose weekend - Craft and Food Market
Thursday 11th July car visit to Bradon Farm, Isle Abbots TA3 6RX
Thursday 18th July a talk by Claire Forster Women in Horticulture, Past and Present
Thursday 15th August Members Summer Garden Party
Saturday 7th September car visit to Knoll Cottage, Stogumber TA4 3TN cancelled due to adverse weather
Thursday 19th September a talk by Roy Cheek Irresistible Garden Plants for Butterflies
Thursday 17th October a talk by Dominic Hamilton, Garden Director, The Rococo Gardens at Painswick
Thursday 21st November a demonstration by Myra Cox Christmas Flowers
Tuesday 17th December Members Christmas Party
January
On Thursday 18th January we held our 2024 AGM at 7pm in the Church Centre, Nether Stowey.
After the meeting, at 7.30, we had a talk on Hostas by Peter Savage from Bowdens nursery at Okehampton, who have an impressive history of growing and showing hostas. Peter explained and illustrated the large variety of hostas, emphasising how easy they are to care for, and even providing a recipe so that we could devour our hostas before the slugs did! A lucky member won a plant, and many were inspired to visit Bowden's in future to fill our gardens with these attractive plants.
February
Sally Leaney, prize-winning local garden designer, talked to us about 'Garden Design' on Thursday 15th February. Visitors to the Taunton Flower Show may be familiar with Sally's work - she has exhibited her imaginative creations there over several years. She brings a lively, practical approach to her designs, and demonstrated principles and tricks that could be applied to optimize the space available in a garden. Many of us will be inspired to apply what we learnt to our gardens, great or small, and can better appreciate gardens we visit too.
March
' Organic Gardening, including Pest Control' by Paul Hending, was our talk, on Thursday 21st March. Paul has been a science teacher, is a published author, garden contractor and lecturer. His talk was very entertaining, and included principles of compost making and pest control, which included use of grandchildren as slug collectors (physical violence, vigilance), biological warfare, barriers, crop rotation and avoidance among others.
April
John Addison, a former Cannington College lecturer, and an active judge at RHS shows spoke to us about 'Vegetable Growing' on Thursday 18th April. He gave general tips on growing, such as on the advantages ( or not) of raised beds, and no dig methods, answered queries, and went through a comprehensive range of particular vegetables, leaving us eager to apply his advice on our plots.
May
Our first garden visit of the year was to Postbox Cottage, West Bagborough on Tuesday 7th May. Having enjoyed the garden so much last September, we felt it needed to be seen in spring! There were spring flowering shrubs such as Viburnum plicatus, Cornus contraversa, Choysia and Oleria, also rhododendrons, some early clematis, Camassia in the field, and spring pots of tulips, as well as irises, Alliums and Libertia starting in the borders. Jill Lones accompanied the group and answered their many questions about the plants. And a lovely tea was enjoyed by 18 Stowey Gardeners.
May's talk on Thursday 16th May was by Jenny Short, on 'Fragrance in the Garden'. Jenny originally had a background in ceramic sculpture, but has been a professional designer of gardens in all sorts of settings for over 20 years. She enjoys passing on her enthusiasm for creating attractive outdoor spaces in talks to gardeners on various aspects of her craft. She had useful tips on using enclosed spaces and thoughtful siting of plants to enhance fragrance. She presented a seasonal guide to particularly useful fragrant plants with a useful handout of information.
On Saturday 18th May our bring and buy Plant Sale was held at the Thomas Poole Library, Nether Stowey. We're most grateful to the many members who generously brought a wide variety of plants, which were eagerly snapped up by a small crowd! We successfully raised funds for the club, which will enable us to keep engaging excellent speakers.
June
Sunday 23rd June saw our coach trip to Rosemoor RHS Gardens. We'd been able to offer a very reasonable ticket price thanks to a grant from Hinkley Point C, and the club's affiliation with the RHS. That weekend Rosemoor had a rose weekend, and craft and food market, so we had a busy time! 50 of us enjoyed exploring the gardens, which were at their summer best, especially the roses. The weather was not blisteringly hot, for which we were thankful. Everywhere there were unfamiliar or exotic plants and interesting trees such as a wonderfully fragrant Aesculus, and many different Cornus varieties. People picniced or visited the various cafes, shopped at the craft fair and finally descended on the plant sales area, inspired to add to their own gardens by everything they'd seen.
Felicity Down talked to us on Thursday 20th June about Climbing and Wall Shrubs. Felicity started her career in floristry, and has, with her husband, run Cleeve Nursery near Bristol for over 35years. She presented 'Garden Calendar' on HTV for 6 years, speaks to many garden groups, has delivered regional RHS lectures, and is widely travelled. She presented an interesting selection of plants, many of which most of us were unfamiliar with, and there was something for every aspect or site. Unusual forms of clematis, and different ways of training honeysuckle and wisteria were illustrated, We gained lots of ideas for enhancing our gardens and will be seeking out all sorts of new plants!
Model Farm at Perry Green, Wembdon was the site of our visit on Wednesday 5th June. The garden has 4 acres of gardens to the south of a Victorian country house. Created from a flat rectangular field in the last 14 yrs, it is still being developed and includes a dozen large mixed flower beds planted in cottage garden style with wildlife in mind, wooded areas, mixed orchard, lawns, wildflower meadows and wildlife and swimming ponds. We were given an introduction by the garden's creator, David Young, who has done a lot of the work, though he now has at least one full time gardener helping. It was fascinating seeing how much had been achieved, how the trees had grown, and how the site had been developed. Plants were bought and tea enjoyed in the orangery.
July
July's talk on Thursday 18th July was by Claire Forster, on 'Women in Horticulture, Past and Present'. Claire has at least 20 years experience as a garden consultant, designer and provider of garden services. She is an experienced speaker on several topics and has first hand experience of her subject!
On Thursday 11th July a group of Stowey Gardeners visited Bradon Farm, Isle Abbots which features a classic formal garden demonstrating the effective use of structure with parterre, knot garden, pleached lime walk, formal pond, herbaceous borders, orchard and wildflower planting. Once we'd found it, the garden was most impressive! It has been created by the current owner, who started with an empty flat field, and despite losing the yew trees she initially planted, because of the high water table and resultant floods, she has succeeded in making a beautiful series of garden rooms. Luxurious summer houses perfect for sitting and contemplating, face a lily pond and a knot garden; some of us enjoyed our tea and delicious cake in these pleasant surroundings, and admired beautiful double Geraniums (rosebud) here. The colour scheme employs much mauve and purple, and there were striking pots of mixed flowers and of hostas. Box moth caterpillar has made its unwelcome appearance in the garden, but they are striving to overcome it. Garlic spray seems to have been a success with the hostas however!
Flower Show season is approaching : Spaxton Village Show is on Saturday 27th July (spaxtonflowershow.co.uk) and Nether Stowey, back after a short gap, Saturday 17th August (claudia.ferriday@somersethide.co.uk). At Nether Stowey, a cup is awarded to the Stowey Gardeners member who obtains most points in the show. Enter or just go along for a fun afternoon out!
August
The Members garden party was on Thursday 15th August. We enjoyed a sunny afternoon in a lovely garden!
September
The last garden visit of the year was to have been to Knoll Cottage, Stogumber on Saturday 7th September, but regretfully we had to cancel because of the wet weather.
On Thursday 19th September our speaker was Roy Cheek, on the subject of 'Irresistible Garden Plants for Butterflies'. After training and working in a number of local authority parks departments, Roy Cheek was senior lecturer and curator of gardens at Somerset College of Agriculture and Horticulture from 1970 to 1990. From 1968 he was horticultural adviser on the restoration of the Jekyll planting in the Formal Garden at Hestercombe in Somerset, which began in 1973 and he remained involved on this project until 1994. Roy is now a horticultural consultant to many notable gardens and leads garden tours around the world. He is vice-chair of two RHS floral committees and a judge for Chelsea and other international flower shows. He has written many articles and books.
He gave an informative and well illustrated talk which was enjoyed by members.
October
Thursday 17th October saw a talk by Dominic Hamilton, Garden Director of the Rococo Gardens, Painswick. Dominic has been chief executive of the Rococo Gardens trust since 2015, having previously worked at Snowshill Manor. He told us about the restoration of the Rococo gardens, with all its quirky buildings. Some members remembered the gardens from an enjoyable coach visit Stowey Gardeners made in 2018. The gardens were designed, apparently by their owner, as a pleasure garden which was an idea very much in vogue in mid-18th century England. The restoration was able to use contemporary paintings of the garden to reconstruct or reinstate the various follies and features which are now it's defining characteristic. The garden also has an impressive snowdrop display, so some of us may be inspired to make a return visit in February when they're at their best.
November
A demonstration of Christmas Flowers was given by Myra Cox on Thursday 21st November at the Church Centre, and was enjoyed by many Stowey Gardeners. Myra is an experienced creator of seasonal decorations who has taught her art at many garden clubs, and she made several striking arrangements as we watched. She even brought her own front door to display one! An arrangement attached to a bottle containing lights was a popular creation. Later the arrangements were raffled in aid of the club, and we're grateful to Myra for donating them. We were also able to buy materials useful for making our own arrangements; there was plenty to inspire us!
December
The Members' Christmas Party was held on Tuesday 17th December: a fun evening was had by all!