Page 66 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2021/22

Kent District Association
Well, another year has gone by and normally there would be much to report from Kent. But the DA were unable to resume meetings until August and sadly we were not able to have our Autumn Show. In October we were very fortunate to welcome to our meeting Jason Ralph Smith from AutoPot who teamed up with Chris Spree to present a talk on the AutoPot watering system.
At the November meeting Alex Matthews, Technical Specialist for Fargro gave a talk entitled ‘Bio-control in Protected Enclosure and the Garden’.
Flower shows around the county were few and far between in 2021. Those that did take place were smaller affairs than usual with numbers of exhibitors and entries well down. Some societies not able to host real shows had virtual ones instead. North Tonbridge Horticultural Society
had been awarded a NVS Sponsored Plaque for their show in 2020 which had to be cancelled due to Covid.
They were able to have an Autumn Show in September 2021 using their schedule from 2020. Well done to Brian Cook who won the plaque for an excellent dish of French beans. The two main events of 2021 for us were the Edenbridge and Oxted Agricultural Show and the Kent Federation of Horticultural Societies Autumn Show at Ditton. Prominent among the prize winners at these shows were Chris and Di Spree and Peter Ellis.
The Southern Branch could not host the NVS Judges Exam in 2021 and so one of our members travelled
all the way to Scotland to take the exam – that’s dedication for you! We are pleased to be able to congratulate Chris Spree on qualifying as a NVS Judge.
Kent DA monthly meetings are held at Bridge Village Hall, CT4 5JZ on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from March to October. All are made welcome at our meetings which start at 7:30pm. At the time of writing our program for 2022 is being arranged but here are a couple of dates for your diary.
• Wednesday 9th March – AGM plus a guest speaker TBA
• Saturday 14th / Sunday 15th May – Plant sale at the West Kent Garden and Craft Show at Tonbridge Angels Football Club, Darenth Avenue, Tonbridge TN10 3JF
Seeds for the plant sale have been bought and will be distributed at our AGM for members to grow. Help for setting up and manning the stall are needed.
Hopefully we can look forward to a normal year in 2022 with a full programme of events to enjoy.
Best wishes to you all for a Happy New Year!
Chris Passey
For further information about the Kent DA contact:
Chris Passey on 01732 352707 email: chris.passey52@gmail.com
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Surrey DA
The Surrey DA restarted their monthly meetings in September after 18 months of non-activity. We followed the COVID guidelines as directed by East Horsley Village Hall where we meet and 26 members welcomed Paolo Arrigo of Franchi Seeds who gave a talk on the Seeds of Italy.
We then followed with meetings in October given by Andrew Halstead (formerly of Wisley) titled Bugs that Bite Back and in November we welcomed Jim and Mary McDonald who gave a talk on Growing Sweet Peas for Pleasure and Exhibition.
We also attended the RHS
Taste of Autumn event at Wisley Gardens from 13th to 17th October, the event was very well attended and we put on a display where members of the public were encouraged to handle the vegetables, a lot of interested people asking questions that we were happy to answer. We also held a Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin competition which drew a lot of interest, we sold various NVS books, seeds and cakes made by Daphne Hope from recipes in the NVS cookbook.
Thanks to everyone who helped during the event. We were asked to give a short talk on what you could be doing on the allotment on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, this was to be held in the new Hilltop Building and we split the talks with Keith Hine giving a talk on Saturday and Neil Hope giving the talk on the Sunday, both talks were attended by approximately 35 people on each day and lots
of questions were asked and answered.