| Reepham Life

Bargains galore at annual plant sale

Thursday, April 17, 2025 - 21:20

By Victoria Plum

I’ve been tidying my garden and any self-sown plants or clumps I can split I have potted up for the Reepham & District Gardening Club plant sale in Reepham Market Place from 8.30 am on Saturday 10 May.

Please bring plants to be sold before 8.30 am on the day or on Friday 9 May in the Bircham Centre from 6–7 pm. Labels are good as we like to know what bargains we are buying.

This week’s well-attended gardening club AGM went by quickly. Everything was agreed, and our chairman and vice chairman swapped places.

The wonderful Carol Peakome has been chairman for at least double her initial time commitment and has overseen our many interesting meetings and the vital behind-the-scenes stuff.

She will now have an easier time as backup to our new chairman, Jeff Johnson, who has been vice chair for a while and also our very capable programme organiser.

How lucky we are to have such a dedicated and accomplished committee to ensure the smooth running of the club. And what excellent speakers we have to inform and entertain us on the third Tuesday of the month.

Carol Peakome (right) and Jeff Johnson (centre) traded places at the helm of the Reepham & District Gardening Club, pictured here with Martyn Davey (left) holding a “swoe” – a tool he deems very useful. Photo: Tina Sutton

Our speaker for April was Martyn Davey, an experienced and knowledgeable professional gardener, who spoke on vegetable growing with lots of common sense.

Did you know that tap water is better for seed growing as there are then no slimy moulds from your water butt to rot your seedlings?

Did you know that the desirable and often quoted 7.5 pH value for soil is best because that allows the most advantageous take-up of available nutrients by your plants?

Did you know that if you rotavate your soil you will destroy the drainage and aeration tunnels the worms have carefully made for your plants and you will chop up the worms? And you will also chop up the bindweed, Japanese knotweed and couch grass into little bits, all of which will regrow.

Did you know that one aphid can produce in one year enough aphids to fill a metre-square box? Those are food for many invertebrates and countless birds and their young, so be patient and wait for some other creature to tidy them up, not you. Nature has it all worked out.

Please join us on Tuesday 20 May at 7.30 pm in Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, to hear Andrew Sankey talk about “A Year in the Life of a Cottage Garden”. He is an entertaining speaker. Could you bring a friend who might enjoy an entertaining evening?

We look forward to seeing you there, and don’t forget the first gardening club trip of the year to How Hill on Thursday 29 May.
The past is there, right where you stand, under your feet

Thursday, March 20, 2025 - 21:06

By Victoria Plum

“It’s not what you find, but what you find out” is a maxim followed by Graeme Simmonds, this month’s speaker at the Reepham & District Gardening Club, who talked about “History beneath your feet”, which includes those little oddments that give us clues about past lives and send us on a path of discovery if we have a curious mind.

Not so much about exotic gold torcs but small objects, regrettably lost and difficult to replace. (Just one field yielded many coins over a wide span of time, but our speaker would not reveal where this field is!)

There are mysteries. Many bronze-alloy thimbles are found on fields all around. Graeme showed us a box with perhaps 200 in, and I know a farmer locally who has found many on the fields in Cawston.

Some are tiny. So perhaps there used to be many people in the past, with very small fingers, sitting in the fields sewing?

There is another theory. In Tudor times it was legally allowed for the poor to glean the fields after harvest, to pick up the odd grains of corn left behind after harvest; many people depended on this.

It would have made your fingers sore, rummaging in the soil and stalks for tiny grains, so perhaps you and your children would wear thimbles on several fingers for protection when engaged in this important task. They might get lost as you worked.

I didn’t give this theory much credence until I remembered that in Tudor times corn was broadcast by hand − no seed drills to provide neat rows until the agricultural revolution and Jethro Tull around 1701, so that randomly placed plants would have been more difficult to work round. So now that theory makes sense to me.

The Gleaners (Des glaneuses), an oil painting completed in 1857 by French painter Jean-François Millet, held in the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris.

Do you belong to the EPT (Earwig Protection Trust)? Hooray for earwigs. Did you know that they eat aphids and are very good mothers? They are omnivores, but particularly enjoy aphids of all sorts, codling moth, leaf rollers, scale insect and psyllids.

The insecticides you reach for will kill all these things, but earwigs have only one brood per year whereas aphids have many. When you have killed the earwigs with your spray they cannot quickly breed more to consume the aphids, which can rapidly reproduce and resurge later on.

Dave Goulson, author of The Garden Jungle: or Gardening to Save the Planet, is sceptical of some pollinator-friendly plant lists. He suggests noting which varieties are attractive to insects at the nursery or garden centre to help with your choices.

Having just written this, I went to Woodgate Nursery (10% discount with your gardening club membership card) and there on the lungwort were three big bumblebees.

Next month, on Tuesday 15 April, involves the gardening club AGM at 7.15 pm (always very quick) in the Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham, followed by Martyn Davey, who always has lots of helpful advice.

The famous annual plant sale takes place on Saturday 10 May, from 8.30 am until sold out. Please pot up any extra plants to donate for the stall in Reepham Market Place; more details next month.
Help with gardening at Booton Hall

Monday, March 10, 2025 - 09:02

Piers Willis needs more gardening help at Booton Hall. Last year, with the aid of Reepham & District Gardening Club contacts, he filled this role, but unfortunately his aid is unable to continue. If you happen to know of anyone, please contact him by email.

Piers also gave us a tour and lemonade in the luxurious shade in his garden. He has offered to do so again and guarantees a sunny day.

Tina Sutton
The not-so-rosy environmental impact of importing cut flowers

Friday, February 21, 2025 - 09:15

By Victoria Plum

I want Sarah Bernhardt! It is the most gorgeous blousy pink peony I have ever seen. There is a cerise, dark red version but the pale pink is my favourite.

At this week’s meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club, Sarah Hammond, a local flower farmer from Knapton, gave an interesting talk on peonies, how to grow them (keep soil clear round roots, no mulch, position for hot sun and extreme cold) and how to get the biggest flowers (remove the lower buds) with lovely enticing photos.

She grows other flowers too, and is a member of Flowers from the Farm, a group of growers who are promoting British-grown flowers.

You might have heard about the substantial carbon footprint of cut flowers, from roses to Gypsophila, all sorts of flowers that we regard as everyday, are, bizarrely, flown in from Africa and other countries.

The longer-term costs are degrading of soil by continued overreliance on the same crop year after year, extremely high use of water, which is often at a premium, let alone the cost, in every way, of gas as a preservative, and transporting the product by air and road.

Exponents of this foreign trade maintain that financial and environmental costs are less than the cost of hot-housing in this country, but I feel the time has come to suggest that we shouldn’t expect to have exotic flowers at our fingertips throughout the year; we should accept their seasonality.

I have no desire for roses or lilies all through the year; I am happy to enjoy them all the more when in season, in the same way that I rarely buy tomatoes in winter because they are tasteless.

I happen to know that Alstroemeria, for instance, an excellent long-lasting cut flower, can be grown under glass or plastic in this country with no added heat and very little, if any, water.

Flowers from the Farm is a UK trade association started by Gill Hodgson with members countrywide. On the website you put in your locality and then choose from your local growers who provide lovely home-grown seasonal flowers, conditioned carefully and grown by individuals who clearly love their job. I think our nearest is Norfolk Flower Farm, run by Ellie Frost, a talented florist, at Edgefield.

Audience participation is encouraged at the next gardening club meeting with metal detectorist Graeme Simmonds. Join us on Tuesday 18 March at 7.30 pm in the Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham, when we will be invited to handle interesting objects he has found. You can bring any curiosities you have found for his knowledgeable appraisal.

I have already potted up some stray marjoram for the annual gardening club plant sale on Saturday 10 May in Reepham Market Place, from 8.30 am until sold out. I’ll keep an eye out for more “extras” that can be sold.

Something’s been eating my aeonium. Photo: Tina Sutton
My gardening glass is always half full

Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 15:57

By Victoria Plum

I have a National Garden Gift Voucher in my purse. With it I can spend £5 in any participating garden centre. I won this at the Reepham & District Gardening Club summer show for one entry. Just think how much I would have to spend if I had made more effort and won two, three or four classes, or even more!

My gardening apprentice, Bruno the standard poodle, has wreaked havoc with my rhubarb, irises and tree peony. I think I can rescue them soon when the ground dries out enough to put the soil back. Perhaps he has unearthed seeds of rare things which might flourish in the future! I am a half-glass-full sort of person.

Bruno in front of newly erected garden defences. Photo: Tina Sutton

I have sent the bones he has found off to Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse to be preserved alongside those of the West Runton Mammoth. (Have you noticed the small mammoth roundel on the Felthorpe village sign? It’s there because the good folk of Felthorpe reckon the mammoth probably passed through the village on its way to the coast.)

I have paid £10 to join the Norfolk Gardens Trust, following the talk at the gardening club from their representative last year, and via it I enjoyed an exceptionally interesting Zoom talk on botanical illustration, a particular interest of mine, and also in person at Bawdeswell Village Hall a fascinating talk about the restoration of artist-plantsman Cedric Morris’s garden at Benton End in Suffolk − at this event there were home-made chocolate brownies that were even better than mine.

Bring your keen gardening friends to the next gardening club meeting at Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 18 February, when Sarah Hammond will tell us about English peonies.

I have never grown peonies at all apart from the one I mentioned above. That one came as a surprise bonus in a pot I bought from a Norwich garden visit with an exotic and short-lived salvia in. I recognised the leaves when they came through after the salvia died and hoped it would be one of those gorgeous, exotic, red or luscious pink tree peonies. It wasn’t; it was the common yellow one, but pretty leaves anyway.

Remember to pot up any surplus plants you find when tidying your garden for the plant sale in May. I will be buying them to fill the gaps Bruno has created in my garden.

Good gardening in 2025!
Blickling ‘with a twist’

Monday, December 16, 2024 - 17:13

By Victoria Plum

We had no idea what to expect at this month’s Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting – the talk was to be Blickling “with a twist”.

The town hall was full with gardening club members, full of expectation at the Christmas party, then one of the servants bustled in, in her uniform and apron, introduced herself as Kath, sometime scullery maid and kitchen maid, to give us the secrets of life below stairs. A proper Norfolk gal, she took on the persona of one of the real servants from the 1930s.

The hard life up and down stairs, constantly carrying and washing (and washing up), and the mysterious ways of the upper classes, and the curious foreign things, with unpronounceable names, that they were given to eat.

She gave us a vibrant and lively idea of the venue we have all seen but never seen “working and lived in”, as she described working for “Cook” and of course Lord Lothian, who even appeared himself during the evening.

We then helped ourselves to the buffet (or “buffet”, pronouncing every letter of the word as Kath did) and punch, and sat down to see some intimate photos of past times at Blickling and to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about the place.

The pretty lit-up pyramidal Christmas trees at the front of Blickling Hall were actually metal plant supports used during the growing season in the gardens. How sensible – no waste caused by destroying conifers and then having to mulch them after the event.

(I nearly forgot to mention the raffle, full of tension and excitement as ever, but sadly no quiz.)

Blickling Hall by Sarah Wilkins

There is no meeting in January, so time to put your feet up, but remember Tuesday 18 February at 7.30 pm in the town hall, when Sarah Hammond will advise on growing and caring for English peonies.

Many excellent speakers are lined up for next year; please join us if you love gardening.
Positive news for dark and dreary days

Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 14:03

By Victoria Plum

An enthusiastic audience at November’s meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club enjoyed Juliet Collier’s talk on the National Garden Scheme in Norfolk, instigator of what we know as the “Yellow Book”. She mentioned some of the best gardens to see and also said where the monies raised (always significant) went, such as nursing and medical charities and various gardening and historical endeavours.

I used to pick up this booklet in the spring (always available in garden centres, libraries, etc.) with good intentions but few visits. Last year I made an extra effort to visit and feel privileged to have seen some splendid gardens and how generous of the owners to share their hobby horses with us.

Gardening club members will gather at Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham, on Tuesday 10 December at 7 pm for the Christmas party. There will be an exciting entertainment, with a twist about Blickling Hall.

If you want some positive news on these dark, dismal and dreary days just look at Eves Hill Veg Co’s November newsletter. It is full of sunshine and constructive enthusiasm and details the marvellous opportunities for youngsters and those not so young to learn about growing and food production. The productivity of small pieces of land is astonishing. In my mind I contrast this with the constantly complaining farmers with their subsidised monocultures.

I know that “local” is becoming an overused cliché, but Norwich, like every city, used to be surrounded by smallholdings that fed the city with local produce. These smallholdings have all gone because the thirst for building land is so financially enticing.

Of course, we cannot, and do not want, to turn the clock back, but we should do what we can to support these hardworking endeavours and help them thrive and enjoy fresh, carefully produced vegetables on our tables.

And for your Christmas stocking I recommend Derek Gow’s diverting and fascinating book Birds, Beasts and Bedlam. He describes his career, working with various animal parks and breeding programmes, with humour and humanity, and then admits that having made many mistakes he is now following his instinct.

He has turned his farm over to a variety of breeding projects to enable the reintroduction of British creatures, like the water vole, which have had a hard time due to our land management practices. He puts into focus the zoos we grew up with: a token tiger pacing back and forth in a concrete enclosure with a token log to make it feel at home.

There can be change, thank goodness.
The inside story on How Hill

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 17:59

By Victoria Plum

I enjoyed Simon Partridge’s lively and amusing chat about How Hill at this month’s meeting of Reepham & District Gardening Club. The house stands a magnificent 54 feet above sea level!

I visit the grounds and secret garden regularly and the inside story is always interesting. Lockdown allowed this forward-looking organisation to update tired facilities so that smart, en suite accommodation is now on offer when you visit for a field course or activity week.

Sadly, the wild milk parsley, crucial for the swallowtail butterfly that always makes such a grand show at How Hill, has suffered from a fungal disease this difficult, wet year.

But the caterpillars that feed on it have now turned their attention to hemlock (though it didn’t do Socrates any good), which is much more available, so perhaps this versatility will secure a brighter future for these iconic, Broadland butterflies.

Deer problem

Troubled with muntjac in your garden? Hang up Imperial Leather soap and Mr Partridge guarantees that it will deter them.

Personally, I am only troubled by a standard poodle puppy in my garden, keen on excavating. I think it will take more than a bar of soap to stop him.

Repotting succulents

I have been bringing my succulents in for the winter, which involves a bit of tidying and repotting.

Sansevieria is one of my favourites and produces fantastic flowers when root bound. However, there are limits, and as you can see from the photo below, this plant certainly needs repotting.

Photos: Tina Sutton

In fact there are three different sansevierias growing here together. They seem to do well together. One was tiny and didn’t grow at all for about four years until I planted it close to its relative.

Another was a “rescue” from a supermarket where plants seem to be mass produced and sold as expendable interior decor items. Now they have a little more growing space for a year or three.

Next meeting

The gardening club’s next meeting will feature Juliet Collier’s talk on the National Garden Scheme in Norfolk on Tuesday 19 November, at 7.30 pm in Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham.

All welcome, bring your friends and bring your spare plants for the annual “bag sale”. Just put your surplus plants in a carrier bag so that they can find a new home in someone else’s garden: £1 per bag.
A fascinating evening with a wildlife presenter, conservationist, countryside ranger, naturalist and author

Friday, September 20, 2024 - 20:23

By Victoria Plum

On Tuesday evening, Reepham Town Hall was full and extra chairs had to be got for September’s Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting. The buildup was worthwhile because Ajay Tegala proved to be a capable, charming and professional speaker.

Having driven from Welney he was full of enthusiasm and explained how his love for, and interest in, active conservation had been inspired by childhood events. He quickly won over the audience who sat enraptured; Ajay had been enchanted by wildlife and is keen to pass his enthusiasm on to others, particularly children.

Some of his work has to do with counting and monitoring bird numbers: how do you know how well they are doing this year if you don’t know how many were there last year, and the year before?

And how do you monitor 4,000 Sandwich terns? You need to count endless, random eggs camouflaged amongst countless pebbles on a huge beach. And how do you check which ones you have counted? Who would think the answer would be pasta?

Count out, for instance, 1,000 pieces of penne pasta into a bag, drop one piece by every egg and when you have done the entire area and you have two bits of penne left you know that you have counted 998 eggs or “nests”. You can easily check which eggs have been counted because there will be a bit of pasta, which is non-polluting, by each one.

I was interested to see that Konik ponies, and a breeding herd too, are used at Wicken Fen to keep scrub growth at bay and naturally spread seeds via their dung and hairy coats.

Wicken Fen is being expanded by flooding areas that had previously been drained for farming, and these small Polish horses cope better with wetland conditions than our native, ponies which are mostly from higher, drier areas.

It was altogether a fascinating evening.

Earlier, we drove up a perfectly ordinary road towards Boundary junction, Norwich, then into the perfectly ordinary Waldemar Avenue, passing the perfectly ordinary grass and bordered gardens and, having parked, were welcomed into the extraordinary garden of Sonja Gaffer.

She was inspired by the late Will Giles’ fabulous south-facing garden at Thorpe (he gave a talk to the gardening club some years ago). He grew banana plants and many exotic and exciting plants, and she followed suit with a whole exotic microcosm in what had been an ordinary suburban garden.

In 20 years, she has filled, jam-packed I should say, a relatively small space with more plants than you can imagine.

She told us the history of her ideas, described how huge tender trees are carted up into the house loft, others into shelter against the cold winter.

Then there was time for tea and cake and we picked Sonja’s brains about hardiness and names of the exotica and all the stuff gardeners are fascinated with.

We arranged this visit at the last minute; if you would like to be alerted to any exciting trips suggested by members please ensure the gardening club committee has your email address.

Above: Exotic blooms at Waldemar Avenue, Norwich. Photo: Eileen Lerpiniere. Below: Reepham & District Gardening Club members at Waldemar Avenue, Norwich. Photo: Tina Sutton

Join us for the next meeting at Reepham Town Hall to hear Simon Partridge update us on How Hill, Ludham, on Tuesday 15 October at 7.30 pm.

And keep an eye open for any plants to bring to the bag sale in November: this is a good chance to pick up something interesting and pass your excess plants on to someone else.

If you are not a member of the gardening club do come along as a guest, everyone is welcome.
Fierce competition at summer show

Saturday, August 24, 2024 - 17:22

By Victoria Plum

The well-attended Summer Show and Social Evening of the Reepham & District Gardening Club was fun as usual, and the quality of entries high, particularly considering the difficult conditions of this year’s weather.

There was fierce competition over the tomatoes, but no violence this year, thank goodness.

Prizes were won (judging is democratic as we all mark our favoured “best” in each class and then the committee adds up the score) and we all enjoyed the evening.

The quiz was closely contested and a tie-breaker necessary. Who knew that the percentage of water on the world’s surface was 71%?

Photos: Karen Brockman

Trip to Booton Hall

The wonder of email is that we can all be contacted easily and quickly when an interesting opportunity arises.

So when a local homeowner contacted me initially because he was in search of another gardener (I don’t really know why he needed help because the gardens proved to be immaculate) and threw in the offer of a look round his gardens we sent an email around to members and a trip to Booton Hall was quickly planned.

Piers Willis, the owner, gave us a delightful guided and explanatory tour of his extensive grounds, ending in the sheltered walled garden where we sat in the sun and enjoyed a cooling drink while admiring the view.

What a privilege, not just to be welcomed into that personal and creative space that is a garden, but to have the owner explain his reasoning and plans.

Some members of Reepham & District Gardening Club at Booton Hall. Photo: Tina Sutton

Fiddian’s Folly

The lanes were busier than usual around North Barningham for the National Garden Scheme opening of Fiddian’s Folly. What a superb garden: no herbaceous beds but a place to explore and enjoy the eccentric creations of the owners Dick and Debbie Fiddian.

Brick and stone and “ancient ephemera” structures, incorporating interesting, changing levels, have been created, a 40-year project, is in what was a quarry. There was even a “chapel” with plainsong playing to add another layer of atmosphere. The owner will give personal tours to gardening clubs (now there’s an opportunity!).

Next meeting

Please note in your diary the next garden club meeting at 7.30 pm in Reepham Town Hall, Church Stret, on Tuesday 17 September. We will be lucky enough to see Ajay Tegla, well-known TV wildlife presenter sharing his experiences, illustrated of course, of ranger life on Blakeney Point and Wicken Fen – an event not to miss.

And just to mention that the October meeting will feature the charming Simon Partridge talking about How Hill, Ludham. I mention it now because you still have time to visit the delightful water gardens in the summer (although obviously best earlier in the year to see the azaleas and Candelabra primula), but always lovely on a sunny day and free (donations welcome), and you can see the wherry Hathor and glide on the Electric Eel through the reeds.

And don’t forget to give your email address to someone on the committee if you want to be in the know.