Page 11 - HGS Suburb News 133 - Winter2018

Prizes from the
A sense of winter
Horticultural Society

On Tuesday, November 14 the an astonishing £5600 for charity
Hampstead Garden Suburb through the National Gardens
Horticultural Society held their Scheme. This was the largest
Annual General Meeting and prize amount raised at any opening in
giving at Fellowship House. There the London area this year.
was a good turnout of members to The society continues to put
see the prizes for the year awarded. on their popular flower shows
The Horticultural Society’s mixing traditional horticultural
chairman, Chris Page, summed skills with digital photography
up a very successful year for the and domestic economy classes.
society. In June members of the As always the events are a chance
society opened their gardens and to sample some of the most
allotments to the public raising impressive cakes the skilled
bakers of the Suburb have to offer.
Members of the society were
Bare bones Skeleton trees able to find out the details of next
And here we are in February. The bone structure of your Almost like the garden is river birch, paper birch make years’ exciting programme of
Festive lights and holly wreaths garden: Contorted branches of practicing its yoga breathing! their presence felt. events including a visit to see
are so Yesterday already! It’s hazel and willow, coloured Any fragrance is welcome in Of the five senses surely Taste snowdrops in February, and talks
going to be two months before dogwood stems, the symmetry the winter garden, none so much poses the greatest challenge to about tropical gardens in the
you can truly sense spring in of your hedges. Richly mulched as Viburnum bodnantense the ornamental garden at this autumn. Next year’s Autumn Show
the air. But our gardens are borders contained within neatly ‘Charles Lamont’, sarcococca or seemingly barren time of year. will for the first time include a
never truly dormant; they are clipped lawn edges. A subtle colour Christmas Box, Daphne Bholua I suppose you could harvest pot-grown potato competition (see
just tuned into a different palette of ferns, hellebores and and vastly underestimated rose hips for syrup or tea, but below), so you won’t even need a
frequency in winter. epimedium. Dried hydrangea Coronilla Glauca Citrina. It is that’s a tall order even for me! garden to take part.
If you walk into your garden seedheads and the feathery widely acknowledged that the And there’s always herbs…… For details on any of the society’s
right now, what is your first plumes of ornamental grasses. sense of smell is closely linked Some say texture is a sensory upcoming events go to www.hgs.
thought? I can’t wait for spring? Many trees have colourful bark, with memory, probably more so perception of our environment, org.uk/hortsoc/index.html or email
Words to that effect I’ll bet. less saturated than the colours than any of our other senses: a much more subliminal than HGShortsoc@mail.com.
Well that’s January and February of summer, but the effect can fresh catch in the air can bring colour or form. During the JAMES ROBBINS
wasted then isn’t it! But if you be quite dramatic. to mind brisk woodland walks, winter, the garden loses much
want to appreciate your garden And if you’re lucky enough or, as in my case, being dragged of its bright colour and leafy Marjorie Harris
now, not just next June, you need to back onto one of the Suburb’s reluctantly around Kenwood abundance, so the texture of
to fully engage with your senses. woods, the borrowed landscape to blow away the cobwebs! winter plants becomes much
Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. beyond, stripped of its leaves, So to Touch. Now there is no more apparent. Well that’s winter
Forget snow OK. White gives the garden a scale far such thing as bad weather just from the technical viewpoint.
landscapes, frosted seed heads, larger than at any other time of inappropriate clothing. With But for me there is an Other
see your breath. A day or two of the year. Subdued light levels this in mind don’t shy away Worldliness to the winter
picture perfect winter followed created by the low hanging sun from stepping outside in bad garden that defies definition.
by slush and slime isn’t enough cast atmospheric shadows and weather. Feel the rain on your As I stroll around my garden in
to sustain me through the colder reflections all around. face, the push of the wind on your a world of my own, pausing to
months. Take a typical dull damp What do you hear, or indeed, skin. Run your fingers down the absorb the stillness, I feel a
day and go with the flow! what don’t you hear? It always catkins of hazel, Kilmarnock sense of release, freedom from
So what do you see when seems quieter to me in the winter. willow and garrya eliptica James responsibility; the garden is
you go into your garden today? The absence of lawnmowers or Roof, As well as their visual taking good care of itself, and
Ways to improve its appearance hedge trimmers. Bird song is a impact, trees with outstanding at its most stripped back, is still
later in the season? Jobs that melancholy echo. Hear the rain peeling bark are very tactile, a joy to behold with so much
need doing? No, I’m talking about falling. There’s a certain stillness whether peeling, patchy, shiny to offer the soul.
what you can truly see now. in the air. A sense of peace. or dull: the paperbark maple, CAROLINE BROOME Rosa Coury-Reid Diane Berger
Potato growing

competition

This Spring, the HGS Horticultural HOW TO TAKE PART
Society is setting a challenge that 1. Contact the Horticultural Society
even people without a garden (Yvonne Oliver: 020 8455 8741
can take part in. It is open to all or yvonne.oliver17@gmail.com).
ages with no entry fee. All you Only the seed potatoes and grow
have to do is grow a potato. bags supplied by the Society may
Nothing beats the taste of be used.
home-grown potatoes and growing 2. Entries from more than one
them is easy; it can even be done member of a family are permitted,
Winter tidy borders Bigwood backdrop on a balcony in a grow bag. The but only one entry per person.
Society will be distributing seed 3. Seeds should be planted on or
Suburb rainfall potatoes and grow bags around around March 29. Any soil or
the Suburb on February 3 & 4
compost may be used as the
(venues to be confirmed). You growing medium. There are no
There is a perception among some picnics and fairs are organised, total of 24 inches is only 80% of Strong winds have brought will need to grow and care for restrictions on adding extra
weather commentators that received well over the normal our average amount. At the down one or two trees at the the potatoes as best you can nutrients to the soil.
2017 was a very wet year, and in rainfall. This could well have time of writing (early January end of the year. Also, there was and bring your grow bag to the 4. Complete bags as growing
some parts of the country this is left an impression that summer ’18), the 1.4 inches so far this snow in December. From the Horticultural Society’s flower should be brought to the weigh-
very likely to be true. There was no longer to be relied on. year, added to the above average 9th to the 11th there were sleet show on June 16, where they will in at the Free Church Hall by
have been storms and floods, However, as so often is the 3.2 inches for December, may and snow flurries, with some be emptied out and each crop 3.15pm on Saturday, June 16.
which have caused considerable case, in the Suburb the picture give hope that the winter wonderfully large snowflakes. will be counted and weighed. Leaves (haulms) may be cut off.
damage. Also, July, August and looks rather different. While, as precipitation will, as usual, refill However, the real winter weather The heaviest crop wins. 5. The judges’ decisions is final.
September, the real summer elsewhere, the summer was the soil’s groundwater before the is probably still to come.
months when community wetter than normal, the annual spring growth really needs it. DIANA IWI FROM MEADWAY
Fallen tree blocks Northway on Thursday, January 18

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