Page 60 - Simply Vegetables Summer 2022

Hants DA
We are back to our usual busy routine at Hants DA. Our new venue at Sherfield English is proving very successful with a more spacious hall to enjoy, albeit parking can be a bit “first in, last out”
if we pull a large crowd. The village hall committee are working on that so hopefully parking will become easier going forward.
in Ireland at the time, but I know the McDonalds’ talks are incredibly helpful and informative, so sweet peas will no doubt be flourishing in our area as a result.
In May, we enjoyed our second year participating at The BBC Gardeners’ World Live Spring Fair at Beaulieu. Having set
it all up for Hants DA to take part, I got
Our February talk by Chris Bird from Sparsholt College on “The Development of Root Vegetables” was most enjoyable. Chris knows how to work a crowd and with several past and present students in the audience, he was in his element. Not an easy talk to take notes on, as Chris keeps up quite a pace, so apologies to those hoping to receive my usual talk notes.
In March we thoroughly enjoyed Paul Jupp’s talk on “Flower Meadow Creation”. Paul from Meadow In
the worst cold imaginable the week before and was unable to attend, apart from the final closing hours of the show. Terrible timing on my part, however I knew that Hants DA committee stalwarts Nigel, Barbara, Ted and Ros would cope perfectly without me, so I was able to focus on being truly unwell. Luckily, I had recruited a fantastic bunch of volunteers from my friends at Veg Club, Yoga and life in general and they bonded superbly with the NVS team, so great fun was had by all.
We were so fortunate that the Gardeners’ World
organisers had once again appointed professional growers, Terry Porter and
Jon Wheatley to grow the spectacular vegetables for the allotment. Given they grow for Chelsea, those guys really know their stuff and it prompted the usual comments “Why doesn’t my veg look like that”. With our team helping with the build, the allotment looked great. Paul received the ultimate accolade as Terry permitted him to go solo and plant some of the veg without Terry positioning it first. Jacqui joined our construction team this year and looked very fetching by all accounts in pink high vis. Stan, who joined the NVS
My Garden specialises
in helping communities
and councils turn neglected areas into wildflower meadow. After his inspiring talk, Paul enjoyed healthy sales of his wildflower seed mixes. I expect there was a lot of lawn scarifying that weekend for the meadow mixes, but thankfully there was no need
for the usual removal of topsoil as Paul’s wildflower mixes are developed for sowing in flower beds and borders. It will be lovely to see how everybody’s flower meadows turn out.
In April, we were most grateful to Jim and Mary McDonald for giving a talk on Sweet Peas, when David Thornton was unavoidably unable to come. I was away
Paul received the ultimate accolade
as Terry permitted him to go solo and plant some of the veg without Terry positioning it first
just before the show last year and was a tremendous help, came back for more this year and he also volunteered for the build. With Nigel and Ted setting up the NVS stand, our area was in great shape for the show to open the next day.
We grew as many “as seen on the allotment” varieties as we could for our plant sales and it worked a treat. Sales were fantastic. The crimson flowered
broad beans were particularly popular, they looked great on the allotment and the plants we’d grown were snapped up, so they should probably be top of our growing list for next year; we could probably have sold them many times over.
As well as myself, a few other recruits couldn’t make the show, so new volunteers Lucy and Sue had their work cut out on the Friday, and Vicky and Beth had a baptism of fire on Saturday when the team was really
Allotment Garden
Gaye, Lucy, Ros and Barbara