Gardening Club

GARDEN CLUB

The Eaton Residents Gardening Club
Once again we enter a new gardening year, and with it, new Club organisers. Annie, Aubrey, Sandra and Roy are taking a well earned rest from organising speakers and visits and so we welcome, and thank, Chris and Glynnis Higgins who will be taking over. They have put together an excellent selection of talks for 2019 which I hope club members will enjoy.

We are always looking for suggestions for club nights - speakers, demonstrations or visits. If anybody has any suggestions, we would love to hear from you! Just complete the Contact form here.

Our meetings are at the United Reformed Church at 7.30 pm usually on the second Wednesday of the month.
Mark Templeman

Programme for 2019.

Wednesday 10th April - Julia Stafford Allen - National Garden Scheme will present 'Private Gardens on Public View' and incorporates the history of garden visiting including the foundation of the National garden Scheme.
Wednesday 8th May: Chris Higgins: "40 years in a pub". An entertaining overview of Chris’s many years in a pub, and the importance of hops and barley to brewing.
Wednesday 12th June: Lesley Phillips: A visit to China
Wednesday 10th July: Eaton Rise Open Garden: Jenny will welcome us to view her newly planted garden.
Wednesday 14th August: Summer Break
Wednesday 11th September: Our popular club harvest festival - "How does your garden grow?" A see and tell event – bring your produce or flowers or entertain us with something completely different!
Wednesday 09th October: Anne Edwards - John Innes Centre. A talk entitled: ‘Work and history of the John Innes Centre’ which sounds very interesting and informative
Wednesday 13th November: Richard Hobbs of Little Plumstead
Wednesday 11th December: To finish off the gardening year, our Christmas nibbles and tipples!

completed events in 2019.

Wednesday 13th March: Speaker. Zanna Foley-Davis, Freelance Horticulturalist, gave a talk entitled 'Horticultural Squit!'

Wednesday 13th February: Dr. Ian Bedford gave us an excellent talk on ‘Garden Bugs – Cohabit, Conserve or Control’ What are the good and bad bugs and what do we do with them! Ian kept the audience enthralled by his slideshow and talk on bugs. Who would have thought that these ‘pests’ could have been so interesting. Even though he is Head of Entomology at John Innes he pitched the evening perfectly not throwing in too many Latin names that would have got us ’simple’ gardeners scratching our heads.

We rounded off the evening with an appropriately fashioned cake and a glass of wine to celebrate Annie’s 70 something birthday

completed events in 2018

Wednesday 10th October: Robert Maidstone talked about gardening with wild flowers

Wednesday 14th November: Neil Rout spoke on “Gardening in Malawi” (loosely), an illustrated talk

Wednesday 12th December: Christmas Drinks and Nibbles

Wednesday 12th September: Our annual Club 'Harvest Festival' was once again well attended with a lovely selection of produce from allotments and gardens, and homemade treats like jams and chutneys

Wednesday 8th August 2018

The garden club members met at Jenny Frazer’s garden where we were treated to Prosecco and nibbles while we admired Jenny’s herbaceous borders which led us into her greenhouse full of succulents. We were in awe of her beautiful new kitchen too.

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The group of 20 Garden Club members then made their way to Christine and Ralph Palmer’s hidden gem of a garden. Further sustenance was provided with Christine’s delicious home made cakes and Ralph served us with further liquid refreshment. The weather was absolutely superb and at the end of the evening we were treated to fantastic sunset.

Wednesday 13th June: Club members visited Elm House Garden in Saxlingham Nethergate. The owner, Lyn Woodwark, gave us a guided tour of the gardens and provided tea, coffee and cake for our visit. Club members were also treated to some very funny antics by Lyn's 3 goats.

Wednesday 9th May: Barry Furness talked about volunteering on the North Norfolk Railway

Wednesday 11th April: Ray Mitchell gave a very interesting talk based on a beginner ‘s guide to cactus and succulents. He also provided plants for members to buy.

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Wednesday 14th March
Nineteen members enjoyed a very interesting evening presentation from Julie Brociek-Coulton, the Competition Organiser for The Friends of Norwich in Bloom.

The organisation promotes horticulture for the benefit of the public generally and especially those who live in or visit the City of Norwich by providing or encouraging the provision of flowers, shrubs, trees or landscapes in places visible to the public. She showed a slideshow and gave a very informative overview to the organisation and answered many questions from the floor. The evening was finished off by tea, coffee and cakes

Wednesday 14th February: Kathryn Coddington from Veg-it-up talked about how to get your five-a-day in lots of tasty ways

completed events in 2017

Wednesday 8th November: Club photographic evening - gardens and plants. Club members brought along a variety of plants to talk about - from Avocados to Salvias. There was also a slide show of gardens, plants and wildlife.

Wednesday 11th October: Lesley Swindells gave a talk about Herbalism

Wednesday 13th September

Our annual 'Harvest Festival' Once again, a evening full of colour, lovely home made food and excellent produce from members allotments and gardens.

Wednesday 16th August:

On a warm August evening, Club members visited a fabulous garden on the estate owned by Dave and Bev. The back garden was planted with many interesting trees, shrubs and perennials, including many Japanese Acers, Palms and some superb specimen sized Olive trees. The gently sloping garden was covered in a thick layer of gravel with various beds of trees and shrubs leading down to a raised brick circle and raised half moon bed with a Japanese them.

Bev provided members with some lovely home made scones and a glass of wine. After the visit, Annie and Aubrey invited everybody back to theirs for homemade cakes!

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Wednesday 14th June

On a glorious summer evening 17 members of the Garden Club drove over to Dereham to visit Dale Farm. This is a 2 acre plant lover's garden with a large spring-fed pond. Over 900 plant species and varieties are featured in exuberantly planted borders and waterside gardens. These include a collection of 90 species and varieties of hydrangea. There is also a vegetable plot, fruit trees, naturalistic planting areas, gravel garden and sculptures. A very wonderful garden.

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Wednesday 10th May

Jonathon Carrie was a delightful young man who told us a bit about the art and history of basket making. He showed us the simple tools that he uses and where and when he sources the willow for making his baskets.

Jonathon then proceeded to make a basket from scratch right through to the finished product. It was fascinating and the whole club was enthralled watching him. Lots of questions where asked and he very willingly and informatively answered these. The basket he made was sold to one of the club members. A really enjoyable and interesting evening..

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Wednesday 12th April

Local garden designer, Chris Deakin, gave a talk about designing and planting small gardens

Wednesday 8th March 2017

The club's speaker this month was Louise Chapman, Norfolk's 'Lady Mole Catcher'. Louise provided a very entertaining talk and demonstration with the help of Buddy her dog. Louise told the club about the life cycle of moles, how to recognise recently made hills, their breeding habits, and of course, how to catch them. At the end of the evening she provided a quiz to see how much club members had remembered. A really good, fun evening!

Wednesday 8th February 2017

We kicked off the new year with a great talk by the UEA Head Groundsman - Tom Everett. Tom's enthusiasm and love of his subject really shone through as it talked about looking after the huge UEA site and maintaining and improving it's bio-diversity. Tom has promised to take the club on a guided walk of the site during the summer - watch this space for details.

completed events in 2016

Wednesday 14th December

Once again, our Christmas 'party' was a great success with most members attending and a vast amount of cakes, nibbles, cheese, sausage rolls and dips being brought along for everybody to tuck into. A big thank you to all club members for your support during 2016

Wednesday 9th November

The Gardening club were treated to another great talk by Rosie Ward, this time entitled 'A Year in the life of a Market Garden'

Wednesday 12th October

Our annual 'Harvest Festival' yet again proved to be very popular with members of the club. As we have come to expect, the variety, size and taste of the many fruits, vegetables, cakes and jams was exceptional and everybody enjoyed a very broad selection of treats and most managed to take home something produced by somebody else' allotment, garden or kitchen

Wednesday 10th August

Seventeen members of the club met at the Wheatfen Nature Reserve at Surlingham for a guided walk by the warden, David Nobbs

Wednesday 20th July

Under a dark and threatening sky, members of the garden club met at Notcutts garden centre for one of our annual visits and talks. The garden centre is undergoing huge changes and we were shown round the site and given a tour of the new facilities. The sky went black, and then as the heavens opened, it was time to go inside for a glass of wine and some nibbles, followed by a Q&A with Nick.

Wednesday 13th April

Mark Templeman and Sandra Mellor provided a talk and demonstration on growing and propagating Auriculas. Between them, they managed to tease approx. 30 plants into flower and these were displayed on the night.

Wednesday 10th March

Professor Richard Hey gave a fascinating talk and slide show entitled 'Renovating the River Glaven'
Richard re-engineers, creates and renovates rivers all over the world, but his talk concentrated on a recent project of his to re-design and renovate the River Glaven in North Norfolk. It certainly made club members reconsider what they no about rivers and how they should be managed to maintain their environmental and ecological balance

Wednesday 10th February

Our first meeting of the year was a 'double header' Local resident and keen photographer Paul Nevens gave a slideshow of Alpine flowers, taken at home and on his many visits around the world. The pictures were excellent, and the background information on each plant and location was fascinating. After Paul had finished, Annie showed some of her many excellent wildlife photographs taken at Wheat Fen and in her own garden

Events in 2015

November - Wednesday 18th. Evening visit to Notcutts

Once again Steve and Nick from Notcutts Garden Centre invited us to an evening talk and demonstration evening. Nick gave a very informative talk to 20 members of our club on shrubs for winter interest and winter pruning tips. We were then given a very nice cup of mulled wine, some mince pies and shortbread. Then, there was time to wander round the Notcutts Christmas Wonderland and buy a few little treats for Christmas.

October - Wednesday 14th . Bee keeping. .

The club had an excellent talk by Henry Adcock about beekeeping and the development of his garden on Ipswich Road. The talk, accompanied by a selection of photographs and video provoked several questions from club members who all found the subject of beekeeping fascinating

September - Wednesday 9th: Club 'Harvest Festival' night

An excellent evening of home grown, cooked and baked produce bought along by the members of the garden club. Eighteen members attended and everybody got a chance to talk about their successes and failures during the year. We had a wonderful selection of fruit, vegetables, cakes and jams, plus a few plants, that we eaten, tasted and taken away on the night.

Our stall at the ERRA Community Fair

Wednesday 8th July - Matrix Gardening - Louise Crosland

Louise gave an interesting talk on the methods, plants and philosophy of matrix gardening. After her talk, we all walked round to her house to see the theory put into practice. A very pleasant summer's evening was complimented by a nice chilled glass of white!

Wednesday 10th June - Fairhaven Woodland & Water Gardens

Twelve members of the gardening club paid a visit to Fairhaven on a beautiful sunny evening. We spent a very enjoyable two hours or so wandering the woods and pathways and admiring the candelabra primulas, flag iris and rhododendrons, all lit by dappled sunlight. The evening ended with tea and cake in the restaurant.

Wednesday 13th May: Wild flowers in the garden, by Stephanie Lawrence

We were very pleased to welcome Stephanie Lawrence who kindly stepped in at the last moment to talk about designing a wildlife friendly garden. Using photographs and a garden plan, Stephanie explained how we can all make areas of our gardens more wildlife friendly, and the benefits this will bring

Wednesday 8th April: A talk on plants for shade and sun by Rosie Wood.

Another well attended evening in which Rosie provided a very interesting illustrated talk on her favourite plants for shade and sun

Wednesday 11th March - Bring a plant and talk about it

The evening was well attended with 16 Eaton Rise residents, many who brought various size planters and plants. Aubrey Kerridge had to bring one of his exhibits on a small sack barrow. Vera Livingstone brought a small snippet from a New Zealand Daphne with a very strong scent.

Roy and Sandra Mellor carried one of the largest, softest geraniums from their home to the hall. They always can provide such interesting 'exotic' plants. Roy talked about one of his carnivorous plants, luckily there are no flies at this time of year to risk their lives whilst investigating the inviting nectar provided by the plant as a lure for insects to meet an untimely death ...

The evening moved along with most members producing either interesting plants or information and photographs of specialities from around their homes. It was great fun and there were many plants which we all must have thought 'I'd love to have one of those in my garden'

We wrapped up the evening with tea and (appropriate for a garden club) carrot cake muffins.

All in all a most successful evening with the members providing the entertainment.

Visit to Notcutts Garden Centre - Norwich

On Wednesday 11th February, 16 members of the club made the short trip to Notcutts Garden Centre on Daniels Road. We were met on arrival by Manager Steve Boon and pots of tea and coffee, plus a rather nice selection of cakes! After our impromptu tea, Steve told us a little bit about the history of Notcutts, and then took us through to the outside plant centre. This year, Notcutts are highlighting Heucheras and have planted up a roof garden on a shed roof. They are also selling plants in pots made of coir - the waste product from Coconuts, and these can planted directly in the ground where they will eventually break down. The labels are also made of recyclable material.

Steve Boon - Manager

After a brief talk on Begonias (did you know a gram of seed will produce over 30,000 plants?) we moved indoors to look at bird boxes and some advice on feeding birds. Then it was onto a demonstration on planting seed potatoes, where Steve very kindly gave everybody a 'goodie' bag of tubers, and then finally into the shop where we were given further details of the history of Notcutts. All in all, and very interesting evening and a big thank you to Steve and his team for their kind hospitality.
Notcutts website is here.

Gardening Club Christmas Celebration Wednesday 10th December 2014: A fantastic turnout of 21 club members who contributed lots of lovely nibbles - mince pies, cakes, nibbles, sausage rolls and much more. Lesley's Cooke produced her (in)famous Festive Quiz. which was a real brain teaser this year. Congratulation to Sue and John Bryce for winning this with a score of 22/30 - Well done.

David Nobbs of Wheatfen Reserve - 12th November 2014

A very interesting talk was given by David Nobbs based around the photographs of the late Norfolk naturalist, Ted Ellis. Ted took over 23,000 slides, recording the flora and fauna of Norfolk, each one dated and labelled, to provide a fascinating glimpse of all aspects Norfolk wildlife and plants. Ted wrote for the EDP for over 40 years, and many of his articles were written to accompany a particular photograph.

David, with the help of the original newspaper articles, talked about 80 selected photographs, each one showing a unique or unusual plant, insect, mammal or bird. A fascinating evening.

Gardening Club Harvest Festival. Wednesday 8th October 2014:

An evening of home grown and home made produce - fruit & veg grown in our member's garden, homemade wine , and cakes, jams and chutneys.

Talk on flower arranging.by Diane Blyth - Wednesday 10th September 2014

Diane provided an interesting talk on all aspects on flower arranging and a raffle was held for the flower arrangements at the end of the evening.

Will Giles' Exotic Garden - 27th August 2014

On a bright Wednesday evening 11 members of the Garden Club made the short trip over to Will Giles' garden just off Thorpe Road. We were met by Will and taken into the garden and were immediately hit by the huge plants - bananas, cannas and gingers and the riot of colour. The garden is extraordinary and it is difficult to believe that it sits in the heart of Norwich. Will explained how many of the more tender plants are dug up each autumn and brought into his large polytunnel. Considering how many plants are already growing there, we wondered where he found the room. The paths meander through the planting and there is a spectacular tree house and steps up to an arid garden full of succulents and cacti. We all finished with tea and biscuits in the little tea bar. A really interesting visit.

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Urban Jungle/Crete Lodge 25th June 2014

On Wednesday 11 members of the gardening club travelled to Costessey to look at two amazing gardens. The first was the Urban Jungle nursery and garden. This is set well back from the road, down a small lane, but opens up into a plantaholic's dream. The main greenhouse features a Koi pond (with enormous fish), lushly planted, with a small bridge over it. Many exotic climbers and beautiful Cannas and Gingers are also displayed and available for sale here. Outside, there are numerous plant areas with interesting perennials, shrubs and trees. The further you walk into the nursery, the more exotic and jungle like is the planting. Bananas and tree ferns stand in groves and the sweet smell of the Angel's trumpets hangs in the air. A great place which enticed several members to buy plants.

Next up was Crete Lodge. This is only a short drive away, up a long rough track and located at the top of the hills overlooking Costessey, Ringland and the Wensum Valley. We were met at the gate by Keith and Melissa Scott, the owners of the garden. You enter via a gravel driveway in front of the house and walk through into a densely planted tropical woodland, with ferns and exotic shrubs and trees. We were met by the couples enthusiastic Dalmatians as we walked through the garden. Once through the tree, the garden opens up into a terrace overlooking an amazing sight. Nestled in the hollow below the terrace is a swimming pond, surrounded by plants, seating areas and walkways. Everywhere you look, the are places to sit, cook or just marvel at the view. We followed Keith and Melissa around the garden where they explained about the planting and the on-going development. There are vast areas dedicated to alpine, desert and tropical plants, with a specialist arid house, a sunken garden with fish pond and many surprises at every turn. After a good look round, we settled into the main conservatory for a nice cup of tea and a well earned biscuit. A lovely evening enjoyed by all!

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Wednesday 14th May:

Eileen Doyle gave a talk called 'Different types of gardens'

Tuesday 8th April:

Tony Goode gave a talk and slide show entitled "The Sixty Minute Garden – Alpines for the time challenged!"

Friday 21st March

Kathy Gray came along to our club and gave an excellent talk entitled 'Parklands to Palm Trees. Backed by a superb slide show, Kathy took us on a virtual walk of some memorable gardens throughout England and Scotland, from Tresco on the Scilley Isles, to Logan in Scotland

Wednesday 12th February.

Local resident Aubrey Kerridge gave a very informative talk on growing tomatoes at home.

11th December: Christmas Celebration!

We had a fun evening of food and drink at the United Reformed Church to finish our very enjoyable year of meetings. Many thanks to everyone that contributed. Keep watching this space for details of our programme for 2014!

13th November - Heritage Plants

Lesley introduced local resident Jan Paulger, who is an expert on Heritage plants and has a wide knowledge of plants in general. She came along to our meeting at the United Reform Church and gave a very interesting talk on plant heritage - what sort of plants are disappearing, why we should preserve rare species of plants, National Collections and plant conservation - all illustrated with slides.
If you are interested in finding out more about Plant Heritage, have a look at their website at: www.plantheritage.com

9th October Halloween - Poison Garden

Dr Gordon Livingstone gave us a short talk on poisonous and medicinal plants, particular, the value of 'beneficial' plants and those which are "not so useful!" We also had a lot of interesting facts concerning the wider implications of the subject

11th September: Harvest Recipes/ Samples and Tasting

Around 20 people attended the meeting - a celebration of home produce, all from local gardens.

After a welcome introduction from Lesley Cook, people that had brought something along were encouraged to say a few words about how they grew it, made it or brewed it! We had a wonderful selection of vegetables from the allotment, a basket full of flowers and tomatoes, homemade wine and blackcurrant jam, tomatoes, cucumber chutney, redcurrant jelly, Chocolate cake, Courgette Polpette and a two large Apple scones.

After the brief talk about the produce, we all got the chance to try the food and wine and take away anything that took our fancy.

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