Page 63 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2024

Hants DA
Chair: David Shergold Treasurer: Ros Holton Secretary: Alison Clarke
We thoroughly enjoyed our November talk by Head Gardener, Fran Clifton, on “A Day in the Life of a Head Gardener” on The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. The garden is a local attraction of national repute, and it was particularly interesting to get an insight into running the garden throughout the year and across the ages. They have developed a garden that has colour in every season, so it
is always worth visiting. Plus their café serves a delicious selection of cake and very good fruit scones!
No two days are the same at The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens but with 55 staff and 200 volunteers, they are well placed to handle whatever is thrown at them. That said, we had a bit of a dodgy start to the talk. Fran discovered her projector cable was missing. I made a quick phone call to the Chair of the Sherfield English Village Hall and by some miracle, they had exactly the cable Fran needed! Many thanks to Michael and Ursula for coming to the rescue.
At our AGM in December, we had a few changes to the committee. Nigel Gould and Ted Perren retired from the committee. Their commitment and knowledge will be greatly missed. I have put together a few photos from the archives to celebrate their massive contribution over the years. We thank them for all their hard work and hope we will still see them at our future events.
We are very fortunate to have recruited two new committee members, Sarah White, and her dad Andy White. Sarah was part of the team at last year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at Beaulieu and Andy contributed an article to SV Autumn 2023 issue, “A New Allotment for an Enthusiastic Beginner”. We welcome them both to the committee and look forward to working with them.
Due to illness, instead of his talk on “Showcraft” John Trim kindly provided a
Nigel and Ted with Joe Swift
festive quiz for our enjoyment after the AGM.Partofthefunwashowhardthe questions were; I was relieved to be quiz master. It did not actually matter how well peopledid,Ihadboughtlotsofchocolate prizes and no one went away empty handed.
Anticipating that SV will arrive in time,
do come to our April talk by Rosy Hardy. She is a multi-Chelsea gold medal winner, highlyknowledgeableplantswomanand owner of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants. She is a big deal! Rosy will feature plants thatshehasboughtalongforsaleandcan tell you anything you need to know about perennials and other plants for your garden.
We have an exciting programme of events for spring and summer, so come along and see us. We look forward to welcoming you.
Ali Clarke
Hants DA - Secretary
Meetings
Venue: Sherfield English Village Hall, Salisbury Road, Sherfield English, Romsey SO51 6FL, unless otherwise stated.
• 9April–“SpringFloweringPerennials”
by Rosy Hardy, multi-Chelsea gold medal
winner.
• 3-5May–BBCGardeners’WorldSpring
Fair @ Beaulieu.
• 11May–PlantSale@WellowVillage
Hall, Buttons Lane, West Wellow,
Romsey, SO51 6BR.
• 11June–“PestsandDiseasesLive”by
Ray Broughton from Sparsholt College. Ray puts plant material from our gardens under a microscope, then super-sizes it on screen to show what is lurking in our plots. Hideous and highly entertaining.
• 7July–2pmvisittoStem&Green Flower Farm, Easton Lane, Easton, SO21 1EQ
• 30July-1August–SouthernBranch Championships @ The New Forest and Hampshire County Show, SO42 7QH
Happy days - Ted and Nigel judging the potato competition
Nigel receiving his Fellowship from Medwyn
Nigel having fun at Beaulieu
Sarah helping out at Beaulieu
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