The Annual General Meeting of the Newton-le-Willows Gardeners’ Association will take place on Thursday 25th January 2007. 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 2006 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 2007.
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 sent to the General Secretary Mrs. Silvana Briers, at 9 The Strand, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, Lancs, WN4 8LD, telephone 01942 717030, by 18th 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 our Membership Secretary Mrs. Sandra Ferry at 26 Gorsey Brow, Billinge, Wigan, Lancs WN5 7NX. Tel. 01744 893423. Or we will be very pleased to see you if you come along to the AGM and renew your membership there. The fee remains the same at £3 per annum or £2 if you are 60 years of age and over.
Our total membership last year increased slightly to 631 and we would like to build on this in 2007, so we will be carrying out another leaflet delivery this year in many areas. If you would like to help with this please contact Sandra, address above, or Richard Jeacock tel. no. 01925 225889 (email inimeg29@netscape.net) or leave your name and phone number at the Hut.
We have a number of on-line members who receive our email notifications (usually no more than once a month) about forthcoming events, special offers etc. and if you would like to be included on the list please contact inimeg29@netscape.net or let us know when you renew your membership. Some of those on the list have also opted to receive their newsletters by email and this is helpful as it saves money, so please let us know if you are prepared to receive your letters by this method.
SALES HUT
The shop re-opens after the winter break on Sunday 7th of January, and will be open just on Sundays for the first three weeks and then on Saturdays and Sundays from 27th of January. The full opening times for 2007 will be as follows:-
SATURDAYS: 27th January to 29th September. 10.30am to 12 noon (Closed Show Saturday 8th Sept.).
SUNDAYS: 7th January to 11th November. 10.30am to 12 noon.
WEDNESDAYS: 28th March to 13th June. 7.0pm to 8.0pm.
COACH TRIPS FOR 2007
Saturday 9th June - Erddig Gardens, near Wrexham. Cost will be approx. £11.20 (includes coach fare, also entrance to gardens and outbuildings) or £7 for NT members. Prices subject to confirmation.
Saturday 21st July – Haddon Hall near Bakewell. (Setting for recent BBC Jane Eyre series). Cost approx. £14.75 (includes coach fare and entrance to house and gardens). Price subject to confirmation.
Thursday 16th August - Southport Flower Show. Price £16 – confirmed (includes coach and Show entrance).
Details of departure times etc. for all trips and final prices will be displayed at the Hut later on. Full prices payable on booking please.
The On-going Saga of the Hut Project by Fred Dickinson
Well, we’ve managed to do it at last !
We have finally emptied and demolished the old, rickety shed alongside the main Hut that has served us well as our storeroom for many years and replaced it with the promised new store – a container.
The demolition was achieved in almost military style by eight stalwart members of the committee including those ancient and venerable men – the Chairman and President, together with another hapless soul whose only crime is that he married a comely lass who is a committee member – our sincere thanks go out to them – they worked very hard and they know who they are.
The whole building was reduced to three very full trailers of boarding, roofing felt and general rubbish and completely removed to the re-cycling centre in about four hours flat, but that was just the beginning !
Within five days, it was replaced by a ‘state of the art’ container in visually friendly green and ably assisted by Tony Addison, yours truly spent three extremely busy days installing electrical circuits, lighting, shelving and then ‘touching-up’ the exterior paintwork that had been scratched during delivery before transferring stock back into the container.
In the process, we accumulated a further three trailers full of rubbish and off-cuts – the staff at the local Council re-cycling centre were going dizzy watching us do our ‘round trips’ but were also very sympathetic and helpful.
The storeroom is now fully functional and we can begin to make plans for the next step – obtaining the cladding steel for the roof and sides in order to refurbish the hut roof and walls – now that we have managed to complete the installation of the roof reinforcement timbers, thanks in very large part to the time and effort put in by Mike Briers.
The cladding work is going to take a considerable amount of time and effort by those involved because for a small organisation such as ours, with people who have many other commitments in their lives, it will be a huge undertaking – but it will be worth it !
By the time you all get a chance to read this article, we shall have purchased the cladding and hopefully have started to organise ourselves ready to get some of it on the roof.
Fred
POTATOES, ONION SETS ETC.
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, Ulster Prince, Accent All potatoes £2.20 for 3kg
Second early Wilja, Nadine, Kestrel. or
Main crop Désirée, Maris Piper, Santé. 75p for 1kg
ONION SETS - Stuttgart, Sturon, Red Baron, Red Sun }
}80p for 250gm pre-pack.
SHALLOTS - Golden gourmet }
GARLIC - Price to be advised.
BIRD FOOD
Top quality wild bird food is in stock (supplied by CJ WildBird Foods):–.
Black sunflower seeds. 2kg bag £1.851kg bag £1.00 Don’t forget to stock up ready for
High energy seed mix. 2kg bag £3.051kg bag £1.60 the R.S.P.B. BIG GARDEN
Peanuts. 2kg bag £2.701kg bag £1.40 BIRDWATCH 27/28 JANUARY
PLANTS
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 had some Spring bulbs left over when the Hut closed in November and these have been potted up for sale as growing plants. 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.
2007 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
Thursday 25th January Annual General Meeting. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday 22nd February Houseplants, conservatory plants and general indoor care. A Talk by Bill Blackledge. Kirkfield Hotel. 7.30pm.
Thursday 29th March Organic Gardening. A talk by Carl Appleton. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday3rd May Poppies small and large. A talk by Ken Pratt. Kirkfield 7.30pm.
Monday 28th May Our stand at the Willow Park Craft Fair.
Thursday 31st May Composting and sustainable gardening – A talk by Malcolm Clough. Kirkfield Hotel 7.30pm.
Thursday 28th JunePests and Diseases. A talk by John Steedman. Kirkfield 7.30pm.
Saturday 14th July Our stand at Winwick Carnival.
Saturday 8th September Grand Flower & Vegetable Show. St. Aelred’s School.
Wednesday 3rd OctoberGardeners’ Question Time with the W.I. 7.15pm at the Barwell Room, Golborne High School, Lowton Road, Golborne.
Thursday 25th October -Winter colour in the garden. Peter Foley. Kirkfield 7.30pm.
GARLIC & ORANGE PORK CHOPS! Recipe by our favourite chef – Margaret Dickinson
Serves six
INGREDIENTS
SIX PORK CHOPS
THREE ORANGES (2 ½ juiced, last half sliced)
DASH COINTREAU or CURAÇAO
FOUR CLOVES FRESH GARLIC (peeled & crushed)
HALF SMALL ONION (finely chopped)
SMALL PIECE ROOT GINGER (grated)
TWO Tbsp. HONEY
SALT & PEPPER TO TASTE
METHOD:- PLACE CHOPS IN MARINADE MIXED FROM ALL ITEMS ABOVE. LEAVE IN A CHILLED PLACE FOR 24 hrs, TURNING TO COAT ALL SIDES. GRILL CHOPS UNDER A HOT GRILL. MEANWHILE, WARM THE MARINADE, REDUCING IF NECESSARY, TO A SLIGHTLY STICKY CONSISTENCY. WHEN THE CHOPS ARE DONE, LAY THE SLICES OF ORANGE ON THE CHOPS AND POUR THE SAUCE OVER THE TOP.
GRAND FLOWER & VEGETABLE SHOW – SATURDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER
The three classes in the photography section this year will be:-
a) Old Relic b) Favourite Pub c) Mist
Potatoes in Pots on the Patio – Year 2by Sandra Ferry
Preening myself on the success of Year 1 and conveniently ignoring the failures – I decided to enlarge the experiment of vegetable-growing on the patio. The optimistic developments would comprise – to prolong the harvest by growing early, maincrop and late potatoes and to produce artistic arrangements of cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli in large pots. Once again, with grim determination, I sowed mangetout and French bean seeds and, with more expectation of success, the usual lettuce, spring onion and carrot seeds.
The potatoes were chitted by the window in the garage and planting began at the end of March. I chose Pentland Javelin for earlies, King Edward and Desirée for maincrop and Maris Piper for lates – 48 pots in all!!
The cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seeds, selected on recommendation from the catalogues as suitable for growing in small spaces, germinated well and were planted in nice designs in 10 litre pots. The salad crops (in which I had more confidence) were planted in the terracotta and glazed pots. As the original idea was to intermingle with flower and shrub plants – this took a lot of arrangement this year. To this cornucopia, later in the season, were added several rescue tomatoes from the number kindly donated to the NGA polytunnel.
People who have plants in pots outside should not take their holidays in summer. As we unfortunately did - a cunning plan had to be devised! For the potato pots I bought suitably sized freezer bags with tie handles; watered the pots; tucked them into the bags and gently tied the handles around the stalks of the plants. All the rest of the pots were watered, and put into the shade with plastic bowls under them to catch whatever rain might fall. Well! How did it all turn out?
The salad crops performed well, as usual, and the rescue tomatoes, after a slow start, did very well. The mangetout peas were, once again, a complete failure and the French beans, whilst they were more of a success than last year – that is not saying very much! And the cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli did marvellously well until they were eaten by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars.
The potatoes were, however, a great success. We started to harvest the earlies at the beginning of July and we will be eating the last of pots of lates on Christmas day.
Is it worthwhile? My husband (the cook) would say so - as to pick your own, home-grown produce for the kitchen is a very special feeling. Roll on Spring!
Sandra
Our Chairman and Committee would like to wish you all the very best for 2007 and we hope to see as many of you as possible at the AGM on Thursday 25th of January
1. Apologies for absence.