This
week members of Friday Forum shared anecdotes of their most useful gardening
aids.
 |
| Margaret
D’s kneeler and gardening box containing secateurs, plastic specs to protect
the eyes, string, wire, gloves, trowel, dibber and small claw rake. |
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| Carl
demonstrated the value of a 5-gallon drum – to sit on! |
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| A
wooden yardstick is useful – and can also be used as an aid for getting up from
the drum! |
Other 'inventions' by Carl include a rake has been marked off to be used as a measuring device,a broken fork can be transformed into a dibber, a two-pronged fork for extracting
dandelions, or even a one pronged fork.
 |
| Thelma
brought her Spudder. This is a tool she
had known from her childhood and, when she saw one for sale at a country fair,
bought one of her own. Very useful for
deep rooted weeds and an interesting name if you look up the origins of the
word. |
 |
| Peter
has invented a piece of equipment for washing alpine gravel or for sieving soil |
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| Linda
extolled the virtues of the plastic trug, a multi-purpose aid for the garden or
indeed anywhere. She has them in all sizes and colours. |
 |
| Janella’s
high performing pruner is light to lift and can even reach into the
neighbour’s garden. |
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| Judith's weeder |
Display
Table
 |
Ann’s attractive blue and orange
bouquet of flowers from her garden included clematis Princess Diana, which she
saved from slug damage by using copper tape from the pound shop around bottomless,
plastic plant pots, tetrifolia, crocosmia Fire
King and Lucifer,which she
suggests that the bulbs should be planted deeply to prevent them from flopping over. Other flowers were allium senescens which grows into a large clump, Monarda, stokesia laevis, Agapanthus windlebrooke, willow gentian, rosa
purpura, helenium, Mina lobata/Ipomoea, eryngium and erysimum to name just a
few.
|
 |
| In Gill’s vase were pieces from
shrubs of Veronicastrum, hydrangea, false
bamboo which has flowered and the honey scented Itea. Also featuring double delphinium, white
linaria, alstroemeria, the shorter verbena rigida, potentilla monarch’s velvet and persicaria red dragon |
 |
Peter’s fragrant Cyclamen
purpurascens and Judith’s lemon and lime theme to brighten
a corner in any garden mainly comprised Leycesteria
formosa 'Golden Lanterns’, the yellow leaved Catalpa, Hypericum 'Golden
Beacon', euphorbia stricta, salvia pineapple sage, hosta fire island and tanacetum. There is also Agastache in pot
Margaret D’s wildflowers from the
Marmalade mix from Pictorial Meadows were sown in three pots and took just two
months from seed to bloom.
|
Notice
Board
Dates
for your diary: On 13th
August is the NGS open day for Friday Forum member Kate at 2 Newlay Grove, Horsforth
LS18 4LH between 1.00 and 5.00 pm.
Friday
Forum agreed to support our local nurseries and we are compiling a list of
these for our members. Please let us
know if you have a local nursery to recommend.
Paxton
is holding a Plant Sale and Coffee Morning on Saturday 23 August between 10am
and 12.00 noon.
Next
meeting:
15th August: A visit to Pat Clarke’s award-winning garden
which will be followed by a tour of the Centenary garden and rockery at Valley
Gardens, for those who are
interested. Address: The Mews Cottage,
Brunswick Drive, Harrogate HG1 2PZ.
Directions: A61 into Harrogate past Betty’s and Cenotaph,
down Parliament Street Through the lights at the bottom, up Ripon Road
for a little way, then turn left on to Swan Road past Old Swan Hotel, across
onto York Road, over cross roads and then fork left onto Brunswick
Drive. Look out for Mews Cottage on the left. If you have a
parking disc please bring it with you but some will be available
Time: 1.30pm - £3.50
including refreshments
Friends of
Paxton meet regularly on the first Monday of the month from Midday. An
hour or two or your time to help maintain the premises are always
welcome. If another date is more suitable for you, please let us
know.
Friday Forum meetings
are 1.30pm on 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month at Paxton Hall, Paxton
Horticultural Society, 186 Kirkstall Lane, Leeds LS5 2AB. Meetings
may be hands-on sessions, guest speakers or garden visits. Regular features are
the Display Table where members can bring their plants for discussion and
advice and the Sales Table where members sell their plants, cuttings and
produce to help the club funds. For further information log on to https://sites.google.com/site/paxtonhorticulturalsocietycouk/Home
