The Garden – December by Ken Mines

2021 has been a challenging year for gardeners. (Predictive text offered “rotten year – even better! ). The cold spring followed by spells of heat, drought, night-time frosts and torrential rain left us and our plants puzzled as to what on earth to do for the best. Many seeds sown in the garden failed to germinate. Sowing in modules in the greenhouse is more reliable but we still had failures during the heatwave when the compost dried out quicker than we could rewet it. The difficulties were shared by many of you as illustrated by the greatly reduced number of entries to our August Annual Horticultural Show.   Continue reading “The Garden – December by Ken Mines”

Mavis Farrer

It is with sadness that we learn of the peaceful passing of Mavis Farrer, on November 2nd.  at the age of 98 .
For many years Mavis, past resident of Hadlow Down and wife of the late John, mother of Alison and Simon, grandmother and great grandmother. was a key member of the Variety Club and the Horticultural  Society as well as being a co-editor of the Parish Magazine.
The funeral is to be held at St. Phillip’s Church, Ticehurst Road, Burwash, Burwash Weald, UK, TN19 7NA at 11 am on Friday November 26th..

 

Hadlow Down Gardening Club Facebook Group

A village Gardening Club was first suggested in our Parish Magazine some time ago but the poor response did not merit any work in taking the idea further. There would seem to have been an increase in interest in village gardens and gardening recently perhaps partially due to people spending more time at home due to Covid.
A Hadlow Down Gardening Club has now been created as a Facebook Group just for villagers and village friends who love gardening.
The Group is not officially associated with our excellent Hadlow Down Horticultural Society but can perhaps be used as a supplementary platform where anyone interested in gardening can join and exchange ideas, news, photographs, points of view, information or even plants, seeds or garden accessories at any time of the year without waiting for meetings or events to occur.
It is also hoped that enough people are interested we may be able to negotiate exclusive discounts and benefits from plant, seed & accessory providers for group members
There are of course no fees or paid membership involved just an interest in gardening!
Click on this link to go to the group’s page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/258004872958565

The Garden – Ken Mine’s Column for November

One of the few constants in an ever-changing climate is the autumn of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Well, mists anyway – often spectacular from our garden looking towards Crowborough in the early morning when it lies in a thick blanket in the valley, the tops of trees poking through here and there. Fruitfulness for us is not traditional – we don’t have room for pumpkins and although fascinatingly colourful we can’t make room for inedible gourds. Instead, we take advantage of the protection afforded by the greenhouse and polytunnel to keep us supplied throughout the coming months with salads. Cut and come again’ varieties include rocket, mizuna and several types of mixed leaves. American land cress can be sown as late as September and is very hardy: even surviving  outdoors.
Continue reading “The Garden – Ken Mine’s Column for November”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review -August 2021

In August the Book Club always takes a break and members read their own choice of book and bring back recommendations to the group. We certainly had a diverse and interesting selection and I for one can’t wait to start reading some of them.

To start with some vintage World War novels, ‘Death of a Hero’ (1929) was written by Richard Aldington and based on his own first-hand experience of World War 1. It is sometimes considered the greatest of all novels about that War and makes a scalding critique of those pre-war voices that helped to make that global catastrophe inevitable. It is that very anger that made this a fascinating read. Nigel Balchin was a psychologist, a writer and deputy scientific adviser to the Army Council. Like Aldington he writes from first-hand knowledge in ‘Darkness Falls from the Air’ (1942) a vivid account of living through the blitz and ‘Small Back Room’ (1943) a story of the backroom boys. Of their time, they are readable, informative and vivid.
Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review -August 2021”