Lavant Horticultural Society,
Chichester
APRIL
MEETING
The Tuppenny Barn
Project
Maggie
Haynes
Maggie gave an inspirational talk
on Tuppenny Barn, the result of her vision for a sustainable
project to promote organic growing and nutrition, particularly to
children.
Years of hard work &
indefatigable enthusiasm have
transformed
an overgrown field
into a thriving centre delivering on these aims
and still being developped.
Click above for Tuppenny
Barn's own website.
There is year-round vegetable production, an orchard & plenty of soft fruit. Produce sold at the shop, open on Thursdays and Fridays, provides some income to help finance Tuppenny Barn's educational activities.
The building of the iconic round barn, beautifully combining unusual, ecologically sound methods
and
materials was an interesting story in its own
right.
GARDEN
VISIT
Wednesday 13th June
Mottisfont
Abbey
click
above to find out more about Mottisfont
Abbey.
Mottisfont is world-renowned for its roses.
It is home to the National Collection of
old-fashioned roses that show the full glory of their blooms in
June.
This is a full day’s outing by good quality coach, departing Lavant 10.00 am, returning at about 6 pm.
Ticket sales have gone well, but there are still
some places available; to buy your tickets,
please contact Robert Newman by
phone or email:
NEXT
MEETING
Wednesday 11th July
7.30 pm Lavant Memorial
Hall
A Year of Wild Flowers
in Chichester Harbour AONB
John Arnott
John is a well-known local naturalist who regularly
leads walks on flora and wildlife,
organised by the Harbour Conservancy.
He has taken on the challenge to produce
this talk, especially for us, which will
have been a year in the making.
MARCH
MEETING
HERBS
Martin
Jarvis
Martin drew on over 20 years' experince of growing herbs at the family-run Culberry Nursery near Angmering, to review of a wide range of herbs.
click above for the Culberry
Nursery website
He defined herbs as plants with a use and
divided them into four categories: culinary, medicinal,
fragrant (pot pourri) and for dying (cloth etc.).
He concentrated on culninary
herbs, from the widely familiar to the not so common, mentioning
their origins & uses as well as how to grow
them.
ANNUAL PLANT
SALE
Sunday 13th May
The good weather helped ensure an
excellent turn-out.
Sales went very well, both of the plants from East
Ashling Nursery and from the
members' plant stall.
The café was bustling all
afternoon.
Many made a bee-line there to catch up with friends
over a cream tea or home-made
cake, some enjoying the sunshine on the terrace overlooking the
Green
Many thanks to everyone who donated plants for
sale
JANUARY
MEETING
How to Grow
Better Sweet Peas
Roger Parsons
There was a very good
turn-out at our one afternoon meeting of the year to hear an
excellent talk.
Roger is Chairman of the National Sweet Pea Society
&
holds the National Collection of Sweet
Pea cultivars.
He gave a brief history of the
cultivation of the sweet pea, describing the different types of
varieties.
With more than 30 years' experience of growing
sweet peas, winning top awards at major national exhibitions and
producing top quality seed, Roger gave reliable advice on growing
sweet peas. He also answered many questions from an attentive
audience
You can also find out more from Roger's own website www.rpsweetpeas.com
DECEMBER
2017
Apples Don't Grow on
Trees
Peter Barwick
Peter gave an insight into today's commercial apple growing, which must meet supermarkets' extreme demands for uniformity & shelf appeal to be viable.
He also gave some useful advice for growing apples
in the garden: the risk of
carry-over of scab to the next season can be reduced by collecting
the fallen leaves and burning them - do not compost.
[Fungicides against scab are no longer available to the amateur gardener].
Thinning is important to size and
quality - in a bunch of apples, remove the central one and leave
just 2 or 3.
This up-to-date overview of local
gardens that are opening is back!
Just click the link above (or
elsewhere on the website)
LAVANT VILLAGE
FETE
Saturday
16th June 2
pm
LHS will again be running the
Plant Stall on the Village Green. So please come - there will be a
wide range of plants for sale, plus
the fun of all the rest of the Fete.
Any plants you have to donate to
the stall will be most welcome. Just bring them on the Saturday
morning.
OCTOBER
2017
'Secret Corner of
France'
Mike
Read
Mike gave us an excellent
presentation on the Vercors region, a natural park situated south
of Grenoble.
The remarkable quality of his
photography showed stunning vistas of this area to wonderful
effect.
He showed its
marvellous variety of flora & fauna
with
top
quality images. Click on the picture
for more from Mike's own
website.
Sunday 24 June 2 - 4
pm
Afternoon Tea &Talk by Martin
Duncan
Head Gardener of Arundel
Castle
Rotary Club of Chichester
Harbour
For information from previous
talks and events, please go to the
Archive
