Lavant Horticultural Society,
Chichester
JULY
MEETING
A Year of Wild Flowers in Chichester Harbour AONB
John Arnott
John had used his in-depth
knowledge of the flora of Chichester Harbour to put together a
really excellent presentation for us. Fortunately, in spite of the
World Cup Semi-Final, there was a turn-out to do it
justice.
He divided the AONB into 5 types
of environment: Woodland, Paths & roadsides, Vegetated shingle
(a nationally rare habitat), Saltmarsh (threatened by coastal
squeeze, as rising sea levels push sea defences) and sand dunes,
showing typical plants for
each.
John gave a good description of
each plant and its ecological role, as well as its traditional uses
(e.g.food, medecine) and the folklore surrounding it. Botanical
names often had roots in ancient Greek mythology.
GARDEN
VISIT
Wednesday 13th June
Mottisfont
Abbey
44 members and guests enjoyed an excellent day
out at Mottisfont. The blooming of its world-renowned collection of old-fashioned roses was at its peak.
Masses of different varieties and colours
blended into magnificent
displays.
Many shrubs & herbaceous perennials were also in
full flower and their combination with the roses played
an important role in the overall
effect of the gardens.
There were magnificent trees in the grounds
and shady walks along the flint
clear River Test.
Click any picture to
enlarge
NEXT
MEETING
Wednesday 12th September
7.30 pm Lavant
Memorial Hall
How to Design a
Winning
Garden
Barry
Chambers
A professional garden designer based in Bognor Regis, Barry has won Gold at RHS Hampton Court,
as well as other prestigious awards.
His talk has been created especially for our society.
Click above for an up-to-date overview
of local gardens that
are opening.
APRIL
MEETING
The Tuppenny Barn
Project
Maggie
Haynes
Maggie gave an inspirational talk on Tuppenny Barn, the result of her vision to promote sustainable
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
& materials was an interesting
story in its own right.
LAVANT VILLAGE
FETE
Saturday
16th
June
The Plant
Stall, run by LHS,
was overflowing with colourful plants and
attracted a lot of custom, in spite of
the
grey skies and the odd shower.
Sales went well throughout the afternoon and
exceeded the previous record by a wide margin, making
a substantial contribution to the
proceeds of the Fete, which are used to support a range of village
causes.
Many thanks to all who donated
plants, particularly those organised by Mick Bleach ofBleach of
Lavant
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
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
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.
For information from previous
talks and events, please go to the
Archive
