Your Village Hordle April May 19

Hordle Gardening Club
It’s Spring!
It’s that time of year when we’re seeing green
tips appearing on the winter branches of our
trees and shrubs, and I’m thinking of all the
things I should have done in the garden last
autumn, so am now playing catchup – here’s
hoping for some sunny days ahead.
If you need some ideas or motivation, then
Hordle Gardening Club is introducing some
new initiatives and ideas this year, including
our new look newsletter, spring seedling sales
idea, and opening our gardens through the
year for members only. We have already
started our 2019 meetings with a talk on ‘Your
Lawn’ presented by Wilf Simcox, who
certainly gave me lots of useful information to
help me improve my lawn. Here’s a snapshot:-
The lawn plant grows from the bottom, so
mowing only takes off the older part of the
leaf. We should aim to remove 1/3 of the
grass at a mowing, with ideally no colour
change afterwards. It doesn’t matter if we
over mow or if it dries out as it will recover.
Ensure your mower’s blade is sharp and
cutting at the right height 1.5 – 2inches for
normal lawns. Collect as much of the cut grass
as possible, otherwise it rots and encourages
moss.
Wilf went on to explain why we find certain
weeds in our lawns. Moss occurs if the lawn is
shady and wet or of low fertility – so feed the
grass so it can ‘out-compete’ the moss. Clover
makes its own nitrogen, so use a fertiliser high
in nitrogen to swamp it out. Speedwell,
yarrow and plantain and others indicate poor
management, however most can be controlled
by scarifying, spiking the ground and over
seeding in autumn.
I’m looking forward to our March talk -
‘Growing Vegetables’ with Kelvin Mason,
when I hope to pick up some tips and advice.
This year I’m determined to grow more to be
more self-sufficient, banana shallots and garlic
went in before Christmas, and am now seed
sowing. I don’t have a greenhouse so the
windowsills will be full with seedlings.
Our regular meetings are on the fourth Friday
the month at the Hordle Pavilion at 7pm, and
feature a talk on a variety of subjects
throughout the year - learn and be
entertained, as well as enjoy a cup of tea or
coffee and biscuit, and chat with like-minded
locals. We’re all amateurs – some (me) - more
amateur than others.
We also arrange visits to other gardens or
trips further afield through the summer. We
engage in a bit of friendly rivalry at our
‘closed’ Show (ie members only) showing off
the products of our garden labours. We have
social events throughout the year.
If you’d like to come along as a guest to one
of our meetings (£3) check the diary page in
this magazine for the upcoming dates,
alternatively check our website
www.hordlegardeningclub.co.uk or you can
email hordlegardeningclub@outlook.com .
Annual membership is just £7.
We hope to see you soon!
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