By Victoria Plum
It’s time to be looking out for the Yellow Book in your garden centre – the list of local gardens open for various charities. It contains useful descriptions of local gardens, many of which are only open for the National Garden Scheme, with a useful chronological list on the back page.
April marks the Reepham & District Gardening Club AGM. As ever, the immaculate organisation of the committee meant that official business was over in about 10 minutes. The only thing you need to know is that due to rising costs, the annual membership rises slightly to £10, but the £1 entry for each meeting remains the same. What a bargain price for excellent-quality speakers of the calibre we have enjoyed this past year and the pleasant society of other keen gardeners, let alone free refreshments.
Our speaker at the meeting was Ellen Mary, a keen and enthusiastic ambassador for gardening and plants of every sort. She described, with photos, some gardens in America and her own US garden (she lives there for part of the year) in North Carolina.
Apparently, in some parts of America (the land of the free) there are homeowner associations (HOAs) that decide what you must grow in your front garden. Can you believe it?
Ellen Mary’s new home had a selection of uninteresting shrubs in the front garden, which she got rid of, not knowing about the local HOA. She replaced them with a lovely selection of new and interesting plants and then received a letter from the HOA admonishing her.
She is standing firm, she will not budge and change the garden back, and now there are other homeowners who are taking charge of their front gardens and making their own decisions about what to grow. Can you trump that?
Saturday 11 May in Reepham Market Place marks the famous gardening club plant sale from 8.30 am until sold out. If you have plants to contribute please bring them to the Bircham Centre on Friday 10 May between 6 pm and 7 pm, suitably labelled if possible: we all like to know what we are buying. There are always unusual bargains to be had.
Next month’s meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 21 May in Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, features BBC Look East presenter Chris Bell; weather and night sky photography is his subject. Personally, I think we’ve had far too much weather this year.
Above: Black Solomon’s seal growing in my garden. It creeps along underground and emerges in slightly different places each year. I bought it from Blacksmiths Cottage Nursery following an interesting talk at Reepham & District Gardening Club from the proprietor. (The stone is in the bird bath so insects can safely escape drowning.) Below: Solomon’s seal in my garden. Some years it suffers from sawfly and some years it doesn’t. I don’t spray to get rid of them, it’s just something that happens. Photos: Tina Sutton