All Set for a Great Summer at the Gardening Club.

John Piggot, Facebook page

The Rhydlewis Gardening Club has finally emerged from a long Covid sleep!

At a very successful AGM in May,  it was lovely too see some new faces and a thanks to old the long-term members who turn out to be there and help us set up the club again. We needed to elect a new chairperson, after the sad death of Liz Blackler, and also a show secretary. So now we have both! Paul  Kllick is now Chair, Jonathan Sainsbury is Vice-Chair and Jane Puddephatt is our new Show Secretary. 

Dilys Davies, Facebook page

At the start of June, we celebrated the platinum jubilee with a plant sale at the village hall, and raised over £90. We also excited a lot of interest in the club and several new members will be coming to the summer events, so please do make them really welcome.

It's always lovely to meet new gardeners and listen to their stories of their gardening; both the highlights and the problems!  We have always had an ethos of having a wide base -- anyone who can get to the meeting can join. Our constitution states that the club  exists to "foster an interest in, and love of, all forms of gardening; to be recreational, educational, and non-political (with the exception of any issues that specifically affect gardeners)", 

We are running a short programme for 2022 and fees have been waived, partly to attract new members. In January 23, at our next AGM, fees of £10 per person will be due again. So do come along and enjoy the free meetings. We also have a club discount scheme, which allows members up to 40% off orders with Suttons Seeds. We put out a catalogue in spring, but you can simply go to their website, compile your order, then ask me or Jim for the code.We have a Blogsite, which gets updated regularly, and a Facebook page, which has been a lifesaver during the lockdowns and helped us all stay in touch with pictures of our gardens. 

As always, we meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month, at the village hall starting at 7.30pm, unless otherwise indicated in the programme – at this time of year we're not in the hall much!

HERE IS OUR PROGRAMME FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. 

Rhos Hill

July 12th at 6pm  
The Gardening Club Party. 
To be held at Nina and Jim’s house RHOS HILL SA445JR 
Please let us know if you'd like to come to the party. Because parking is limited, there will be a 'ferry' system from the village hall to the house. If you live outside the village, then please think about car sharing with someone who lives near you. 

It's a 'bring a dish' party; we'll ask you to bring something.

Also bring whatever you like to drink. 

July 26th  
Garden visit.
We will be visiting the lovely gardens of Ty’r Maes. 4 acre garden with splendid views.

Ty'r Maes

Herbaceous and shrub beds formal design, exuberantly informal planting, full of cottage garden favourites and many unusual plants. Woodland garden with over 200 types of tree; wildlife and lily ponds; pergola, gazebos, post and rope arcade covered in climbers. Gloriously colourful from early spring till late autumn. Book and jewellery stalls. 
Ty’r Maes, Ffarmers, Carmarthenshire SA19 8JP Contact telephone: 01558 650541  Meet at the house at 5pm Entrance £5 A guided tour of the garden is part of the package. Teas to be enjoyed after the tour  £3.50

August 30th. 
Autumn Produce Show. 

Bring your items along to be 'staged' from 3.30pm to 5.30pm

Come to the show and see the entries from 7.30pm

Rules and guidelines can be found here

You can download the schedule from the blog site – look for SCHEDULE PRODUCE SHOW 2022 at the top of the home page, or ask for a paper copy from the Show Secretary, Jane Puddephatt, tel: 01239 851070. pudd8hp@btinternet.com or the secretary, Nina Milton on 01239 851096 email ninahare00@googlemail.com

Start picking out your best produce! There are categories for veg, flowers, especially roses, flower arrangement, homecrafts and arts and crafts. Our new show secretary will be handing out further details and schedule in the coming weeks. 

The show schedules will be up on this blog - check the home page

Rhydlewis Gardening Club members will be also sent the schedule by email.

The show schedule is also available as a paper copy from the show secretary

September 27th.  7.30

"On Bulbs"  

Gardening Workshop with Roger. from Trefhedyn. 

Roger will bring items to show (and for you to buy) and demonstrate how he uses bulbs to create indoor and garden interest.

October 25  The Flower Meadow 7.30

Sara Redman from The Flower Meadow will run a workshop looking at the flowers in your gardens and offering bright and new ideas.

The Flower Meadow grows eco-friendly seasonal British cut and wild flowers which are grown on her smallholding in Penrhiwpal.

November 29th 7.30

It's all in the soil.

A round table discussion on the most important aspect of any gardening. Bring a sample of your soil to have it tested for ph and type, and bring your thoughts, opinions and questions about soil, compost making, enrichers and mulches and much, much more. 

Celebrating the Life of our Dear Chairperson.

It is with such sadness that we're writing to club members to tell them about the sudden death of our chairperson, Liz Blackler. She was a most vibrant and enthusiastic chair, and also took on the role of show secretary. In the photos below, you can see her awarding trophies to prize-winning members during several autumn and spring shows. Liz with a smile on her face is how we will all remember her.

It is hoped that we will be able to celebrate her very full life when her ashes are scattered at her home; The Blue Barn, Castell Farm. This will be after a family cremation. 

In the meantime, we must honour Liz's wish to get the Rhydlewis Gardening Club back up and running after the hiatus of Covid. 

Therefore, we will be holding a club AGM on the 24th of May at 7.30pm at Rhydlewis Village Hall.  We will especially be welcoming along all the new members who have joined during the Covid lockdown, who have not had the chance to try out a meeting yet! 

Please come if you can. There's plenty for everyone to discuss, as we need to sort out a programme for the rest of the year, and talk about having a party, trips to NGS gardens, helping each other in the garden, and any other good ideas you may bring along. 

We are looking for new members for the committee: a refreshments organiser, a show secretary and, of course a new chairperson. Further details can be had from Nina on 01239 851096.. 

One of the last things Liz did was compile a fun picture quiz for the 2022 AGM,  and after the more serious business is completed, we'll be serving refreshments, and enjoying this quiz, designed to break the ice and get people chatting.

So please come along to the AGM, where we may also have further details of a celebration of Liz's life.

 

Happy Gardening 2022!

 

Will the snows be with us soon?

It seems a long time since we met together, but we're all still working hard in our gardens, that much is clear, from all the lovely photos that are up on the Facebook Rhydlewis Gardening Club page. Well done everyone, and I hope that your garden doesn't look quite so depressed as ours does, but when I open the freezer door, rows and shelves gleam and glisten with the produce from last year, still  ready to eat, from broad and runner beans to caulk and broccoli.

Ready to plant tea leaves?

We are probably all thinking of getting out the seed catalogues now; after the festive season is done. It's an annual gardening ritual, and much cheaper than getting out the travel brochures!

Even so, it's still quite an expensive process. Don't forget we are in the Sutton's Seeds Gardening Club and that means 40% off your seed order (and 10% off other items such as onion sets) .

The Sutton catalogues are on their way, but in the meantime do visit their website. We already have this year's special code, so just email us to have it ready to order. 

You may find supplies are limited this year, partially due to shipping issues, so be patient with your seed company.

Getting 40% off seeds is great, although Suttons are not cheap, and not to everyone's taste as a big firm with little emphasis on organic production. But there are other ways to get seeds without breaking the bank. Have you considered these?

Some seed companies do clearances, so keep your eye open online. Thompson & Morgan run seed clearance offers later in the season at £1 a pack. DT Brown, who we like a lot, are listing varieties of veg seeds at 99p a pack. Postage on seed only orders only costs 95p or is free if you put in a sizeable order.

Cheap packets, from places like Wilkinsons, may contain fewer seeds than fancy packs from big brands. However, if you don’t want to plant huge quantities of the same thing, and get stuck with a glut of courgettes / lettuces / radishes, then why waste money buying more than you need? There's also a possibility that cheap brands are not so fertile, but mostly they are cheap because they don't experiment with special varieties. Look in the various discount stores for cheap garden seeds. Wilko seeds start from 25p for salad leaves, 50p for tomatoes, radishes and spinach, and 75p for courgettes, and they do 'bundle  bargains', too. Aldi are selling a multipack of veg seeds available in store only. £1.35 gets you  a whopping 10 varieties, including lettuce, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and peas, but when it's gone, it's gone!  B&M promises a ‘3 for the price of 2’ offer on Mr Fothergills seeds. 

Jim and I like to treat ourselves to gardening magazines, and look out for the ones with free seeds - there are some in the newsagents now. However, these aren't guaranteed; one year I planted Nantes carrots and got 'giant parsley' instead! The seeds to look alike and I'm guessing this was a factory error in filling the packets which they got rid of by giving them away - no redress on free seeds. But mostly, the packs are as good as in the shops. Sometimes there are free seeds with garden mag subscription offers. 

Look online if you like ordering by mail. Try seedparade, simplyseeds and Amazon, who always try to beat the competition (although not aways successfully!). 

No one needs this many
 aubergine seedlings!

And of course we can swap seeds. There are often far too many runner bean or broad bean seeds at the end of a season, so do give away those you can't plant. I'm hoping to try my carrot seeds (from a carrot, not a parsley plant...) this year. And later on, we'll have gluts of the seedlings we've planted. 

So now over to you – any other great sources of where to get garden seeds for free? Where to pay less for seed packets? We’d love to hear, so do share your tips in the comments below or on the Facebook page.

Good luck with your ordering, but even more good luck with your germinations!

Who will win the Veg Grower's Cup this year?