JULY
Flowers
Autumn-flowering bulbs, such as autumn crocuses, Colchicum, Sternbergia, Amaryllis and Nerine, can be planted now.
Divide spring-flowering plants such as Irises now or during the next two months.Take cuttings of patio and container plants ready for next year. Last chance to sow biennials for next year – Sweet William, Wallflowers and Foxgloves.
Pinks and carnations that have become leggy can be propagated by layering or by cuttings. Propagation can improve the appearance of untidy clumps.
Prop up tall perennials such as lupins, delphiniums and gladioli if staking was neglected earlier in the season.
Liquid feed containerised plants and keep well-watered in dry spells.
Some late-flowering border perennials may benefit from a quick-acting feed before they come into bloom, especially if the soil is not very fertile.
Agapanthus thrive in sunny spots and free-draining soil where they won’t be overshadowed by taller plants.
Start collecting seed from plants you want to grow next year, especially annuals such as Calendula, poppies and love-in-a-mist.
Inspect lilies for the scarlet lily beetle whose larvae can strip plants in days. Pick off any you spot by hand.
In dry weather a silvery white coating may appear on the leaves of plants such as clematis, roses and Lonicera, caused by the fungus powdery mildew. Although it’s unsightly, it’s not usually harmful to plants.
Continue reading “Ken Mine’s ‘Garden Jobs’ – July to September”
Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022
It is rare that everyone really loves a chosen book, but this month we were unanimous in our enjoyment of the Scottish Poet Laureate, Jackie Kaye’s memoir Red Dust Road (2010). Jackie’s birth father was Nigerian, and her mother came from the Highlands of Scotland, but she was the adoptive daughter of Helen and John Kaye, leading figures of the Scottish Communist Party. They gave her a warm loving upbringing but when Jackie herself became pregnant the found the need to find her birth parents became overwhelming. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022”
The Rude Mechanicals – Gods and Dogs
Gods and Dogs, Hadlow Down Cricket Field, Thursday 16th June at 7.30pm
This new comic dystopian allegory is set in 2084 on the fictitious island of Abatina in a world where people are either glamorous celebrities or slobbering dog-like followers of them gripped to their telepafones – with the exception of the Nevnops (Not Very Nice People) as the President, Big Al, calls them. The story follows Tina who enters ‘Marriage Maker’, a ‘telepavision’ gameshow. The idea of the game is if you win you get to marry the super-glamorous footballer, Harry Best, on the Saturday, have a weekend of love, then divorce him on the Monday. ‘All the fun & no ties!’ as the compere, Rich Nobb, puts it. Unfortunately, Tina makes the mistake of falling in love when she wins & doesn’t want to divorce. Doreen, her best friend, has her own opinion, but then she might be a Nevnop & the Mind Police might get to her first & send her to the wolves on the ‘Other Side’ – a dangerous world over ‘the mountain’ where the inhabitants of Abatina, according to Big Al, must not go, with dangerous free-thinkers & wolves that might get them.
Booking details etc.
https://www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk/book-tickets/
Driftwood Gardens Visit

An article about the gardens from BBC Gardeners World Magazine can be viewed at
http://www.geoffstonebanks.co.uk/media/gwmay2021.pdf
Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022
‘I live my life in widening circles/ that reach out across the world’ Rilke
Our book this month was one of the Mann Booker short-listed books, Great Circle (2021), by Maggie Shipstead, also short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022. Referred to as ‘a ride of a book’, it was at times exhilarating although the book club’s members sometimes found it to be a rather bumpy ride. It was an ambitious novel on a grand scale, spanning a full century and the entire planet. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022”
Move Some Chairs and Make Someone’s Day!
The Hadlow Down community has a long established reputation for friendliness and geniality. Although there are always opportunities to be involved in different ways with various village projects and activities a current opportunity is available to join the group of great people who believe that being a real ‘villager’ is more than just having an address in the area and want to be a part of the village proper by just giving a small amount of time each week to be involved in the reputation.
The TN22 Club is a charitable organisation providing meals and entertainment for older members of the community on Wednesdays in the Village Hall. An able-bodied person (or persons) is needed to help set out the chairs and tables which usually takes less than one hour in the mornings at 8.30 am. and to put them away again at 2pm or 4pm (alternating weeks) that takes about 30 minutes.
It’s a great way of meeting others who give something to the village of which they are part. Just turn up at 8.30 am on a Wednesday to get involved
St. Mark’s Plant & Cake Sale
Murder Mystery Supper Play
H D Book Club Review – Anything is Possible
Anything is possible. No one understands how far you can push your body to the limit and I like to play with that’ (Walt Disney)
About three years ago we read My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (2016), a novel about a now successful writer beginning to come to terms with her deprived and abusive childhood through conversations with her mother as Lucy lies severely ill in hospital. This month’s book Anything is Possible (2017) follows that novel, but is in the form of a series of interconnected stories about characters from Lucy’s rural hometown of Amgash Illinois.
Continue reading “H D Book Club Review – Anything is Possible”