The Annual General Meeting of the Newton-le-Willows Gardeners’ Association will take place on Thursday 26th January 2006. The meeting will be held at the Kirkfield Hotel, Church Street, Newton-le-Willows, and will commence at 7.30pm.
AGENDA
1. Apologies for absence.
2. To approve the minutes of the 2005 A.G.M.
3. To discuss any matters arising from the minutes.
4. Financial report.
5. Secretary’s report.
6. Election of Officers, Committee, and Auditors for the year 2006.
7. Any other business.
Nominations for the positions of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer, General Secretary, Show Secretary, Hut Manager, and Membership Secretary, or any other items for the agenda, should be submitted to the General Secretary Mrs. Silvana Briers, at 9 The Strand, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Lancs, WN4 8LD, telephone number 01942 717030, by 19th January.
MEMBERSHIP
Your membership fee is due for renewal on the 1st of January and you can pay and obtain your new card at the Sales Hut or by post from Mrs. Sandra Ferry at 26 Gorsey Brow, Billinge, Wigan, Lancs WN5 7NX. Tel. 01744 893423. Or better still come along to the AGM and renew your membership there! The fee is £3 per annum or £2 if you are over 60 years of age. As last year we are including with this letter a copy of our latest promotional leaflet, together with an application for membership of the Association, and we would be
very grateful if all of you could please try and spread the word and recruit at least one new member during 2006. Our membership over the last three years has stabilised at around 628 but we are not satisfied with this and will do our best to increase it this year. We intend to do another leaflet delivery this year in many areas and if you would like to help with this please contact Sandra, or leave your name and phone number at the Hut. We could still do with some volunteer postmen to deliver our newsletters twice a year, particularly in Golborne, Burtonwood, Leigh, St. Helens, Warrington, Penketh and Great Sankey. If you are interested and would like to help, please let us know.
A number of members have agreed to receive their newsletters by email attachment, or to be notified by email when the letter is available to be read on our web site. Obviously the more members who elect to do this, the more our printing and distribution costs will be reduced. If you are interested in receiving your letters electronically please contact our webmaster at inimeg29@netscape.net and state whether you would like to receive by attachment or just to be notified when the letter is available on the internet. Or let us know when renewing your membership. We also have a growing number of on-line members who receive our email notifications about forthcoming events, special offers etc. If you would like to be included on the list please contact the address above or let us know when you renew your membership. These e-mail notifications will be no more frequent than once a month.
HARRY SMITH
We are very sorry to report the death of Harry Smith who died on the 13th of September at the age of 87. Harry had been a member of the Gardeners’ Association for many years, and joined our committee after his retirement in 1983. He was our Sales Hut Manager from 1987 to 1995 and carried out this job very efficiently and with great enthusiasm during some of the Hut’s busiest years. He was made a life member and elected as our President in January 1997. A very keen gardener, Harry was well-liked by all who had the good fortune to be associated with him. He will be sadly missed
Our crossword compiler has produced yet another very easy crossword. This will be available at the Hut during January and February and there will be a prize of a £10 Hut Voucher for the first correct solution picked out from all those received, and a £5 prize for the second correct solution. The draw will take place at the end of business on Sunday 26th of February. Our congratulations to Mrs. M. Wearden of St. Helens who was the winner of the last Prize Puzzle, with Josie Siney from Ashton as the runner up.
CROSSWORD
SALES HUT
You will see quite a change when the shop re-opens on Sunday 8th of January. A lot of re-arrangement has taken place to try and make better use of the available space and to encourage you to take even more advantage of our competitively priced range of products. The shop will be open on Sundays only for the first three weeks in January and the full opening times for 2006 will be as follows:-
SATURDAYS: 28th January to 23rd September. 10.30am to 12 noon (Closed Show Saturday 9th Sept.).
SUNDAYS: 8th January to 12th November. 10.30am to 12 noon.
WEDNESDAYS: 29th March to 14th June. 7.00pm to 8.00pm.
The following varieties of seed potatoes, onion sets, shallots, and garlic will be in stock during late January/February:-
Seed Potatoes
First early Pentland Javelin, Red Duke of York, Rocket. All potatoes £2.30 for 3kg
Second early Wilja, Charlotte, Nadine, Kestrel. or
Main crop Majestic, Maris Piper, King Edward. 80p for 1kg
Onion sets - Stuttgart, Sturon, Red Baron - £1 for 400gm pre-pack.
Shallots - £1.50 for 1kg bag.
Garlic - £3.00 for 500g.
We can again offer Levington Multi-purpose Compost in 100 litre bags at £4.50 per bag and full-size grow-bags at the give-away price of £1.10 each in January and February, however, prices may have to go up after this period so please do your best to buy early in the year.
We also need more help in the Sales Hut, especially on Sundays. This means only an hour and a half of your time once every four weeks. If you would like to help please contact Silvana on 01942 717030, or let us know at the AGM, or at the Hut when it re-opens in January.
Top quality wild bird food is in stock now (supplied by CJ WildBird Foods):–.
Black sunflower seeds.2kg bag £1.851kg bag £1.00
High energy seed mix. 2kg bag £3.051kg bag £1.60
Peanuts. 2kg bag £2.701kg bag £1.40
Bedding plants will be on sale at the polytunnel at the rear of the Hut during April, May, and June, also veg. plants,
herbs, and perennials. We would be grateful for some extra help with pricking out the bedding plants, so if anyone can spare an hour or two from time to time, this will be very much appreciated. If you do have any plants surplus to requirements, don’t throw them away, bring them along to the polytunnel to increase the range of plants that we can offer to members.
ST. PETER’S SCHOOL VISITS
A new programme of allotment visits has been arranged for the pupils of St. Peter’s this year and we could do with some more help with this very worthwhile project. All it means is about 45 minutes of your time on a few Wednesday afternoons from 3.30pm to about 4.15pm to help the children with some very simple gardening instruction, remember children are the future of gardening. Please let us know if you would like to help.
2006 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
Thursday 26th January Annual General Meeting. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday 23rd February Planning a garden: how to do so inexpensively. Talk by John Steedman. Kirkfield Hotel. 7.30pm.
Thursday 30th March Propagation of Herbaceous perennials. A talk by
Peter Holden. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday 27th April Container Growing Inside and Out, along with general garden cultivation. A talk by David Bielawski. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday 25th May Herbal Medicines from your Back Garden – how to use plants
effectively. Amanda Tither. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Monday 29th May Our stand at the Willow Park Craft Fair.
Thursday 29th June Bee Keeping. Talk by Alan Kelly. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Saturday 15th July Our stand at Winwick Carnival.
Saturday 9th September Grand Flower & Vegetable Show. St. Aelred’s School, Birley Street, Newton. Doors open 2.0pm.
Thursday 27th October Traditional and Modern Christmas Floral Ideas. Talk and
Demonstration by Lois Clark. Kirkfield 7.30pm.
COACH TRIPS
There will be three coach trips this year which will be shared with Culcheth Horticultural Society.
Wednesday 17th May - Coach trip to Bodnant Gardens and Llandudno. Leave Newton (Blue Bell Hotel, High Street) at 9.0am picking up at the Harrow in Culcheth at 9.15am. Leaving from Llandudno at 6.0pm. Cost including coach and entrance to the gardens - £12. (£7 only for RHS and NT members who must bring and show their cards)..
Thursday 15th June - Coach trip to Gardeners World Live at the NEC Birmingham. Leave Newton (Blue Bell Hotel, High Street) at 8.30am picking up at the Harrow in Culcheth at 8.45am. Leaving from the Show at 4.0pm. Cost including coach and entrance to the show - £22.
Wednesday 23rd August - Coach trip to Levens Hall and Sizergh Castle. Leave Newton (Blue Bell Hotel) at 9.0am picking up at the Harrow in Culcheth at 9.15am. Leaving from Sizergh at 4.0pm. Cost including coach and entrance fees to gardens only at both places £15.00. Cost to NT members is £11.50 (Sizergh is NT property). NT members must bring their cards with them.
More details will be available at the Hut. Full price payable on booking please.No deposits this time.
Potatoes in Pots on the Patio
This has been in the nature of an experiment. In the spring of 2004 I found four orphan seed potatoes lying around in the Sales Hut. I planted these in pots, placed them in the sun under the kitchen window and, to my surprise and the even greater surprise of my husband, on tipping out the compost, found a collection of small but blemish-free new potatoes
GRAND FLOWER & VEGETABLE SHOW – SATURDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER
The three classes in the photography section this year will be:-
a) Spring b) Trees c) A bridge
There will also be a painting section this time, full details on request.
Our Chairman and Committee would like to wish you all the very best for 2006 and we hope to see as many of you as possible at the AGM on Thursday 26th of January
Flushed with enthusiasm and optimism, in the spring of this year, I decided to move to larger scale production. However, with an added consideration - the patio mentioned in the title is newly created at quite an expense and is in one of the few areas of the back garden which gets the sun, so would not be enhanced by a multitude of black plastic pots with potatoes sprouting out of them. The solution would be to plant artistically!
The seed potatoes purchased from the Sales Hut were chitted prior to planting (though I am reliably informed that this is not really necessary) and planted, one to a 2 litre pot, in about 4” of compost mixed with “Gro Organic” fertiliser. I found a few larger pots and planted two or three potatoes in each of these. The pots were arranged in groups on the patio and topped up as the leaves grew.
The really artistic planting was done with the lettuces and carrots, I chose lettuces with different leaf shapes and different colours. I sowed Little Gem and Funly (which has a nice wavy edge to the leaves), Lollo Rossa, of course, and Red Fire ( a very attractive dark red variety). These were started on the window sill and planted out, when ready, to form patterns in pots. Between the lettuce arrangements I planted carrots, also started on the window sill. I even placed lettuce in pots around flowering plants.
The decorative theme was also used for other planting. We had displays of rocket, coriander, chives, parsley and mint and interspersed with the potatoes, salad stuff and herbs were pots of outdoor tomatoes.
Now I can’t say that all these pots didn’t take some watering! There were 28 pots of potatoes alone, never mind the rest but the pleasure that this experiment gave was threefold. We had a supply during the summer of organically grown food; we had sufficient (surprisingly) to give to friends and neighbours and we had not (quite) turned the patio into a vegetable plot!
An interesting reaction came from our neighbour who had been given samples of the produce - the lettuces had lasted longer in the fridge than supermarket-bought ones and the carrots had a true carroty smell and taste!
Roll on next spring! The experiment will be taken further - I will buy early and late potatoes and I will sow the salad crops for a longer season. My mouth is watering at the prospect!!
