May meeting – Ask A Local Gardener.

It’s been all go for members ands friends of Aldersbrook Horticultural Society. At our May meeting, three local expert gardeners answered members’ questions at our ‘Ask a Local Gardener’ evening. Our panellists, Elaine Fieldhouse, Marian Temple and Janet Daniels answered a range of questions about garden invaders, ideas for planting to follow Tulips and Forget Me Nots, climbing plants for shade and good plants for planting in a front garden. They began by each talking about how they had got into gardening – their expertise really shone out and there was not a question that they could not answer.

Trip to John Little’s Garden.

On Thursday 1 June, 26 members and friends travelled to John Little and Fiona Crummie’s garden in Essex. He gave an inspirational talk to our March meeting explaining how he had sown and planted wild flowers and plants to attract a wide variety of invertebrates using sand and rubble above the clay of his garden. In his talk he gave examples of brownfield sites where planting encourages a wide range of wildlife. We were thrilled to see his garden which is absolutely beautiful and inspiring and some of us are hoping to experiment by planting in piles of rubble and sand and planting more wild flowers to attract more invertebrates.

Aldersbrook & Lakehouse Open Garden Trail – a great success!!

The sun shone all day on Sunday 4 June for our Open Garden Trail. Fifteen beautiful gardens were open on the Lakehouse and Aldersbrook Estates. Although most of our houses are similar – all the gardens are different. Each garden owner had worked very hard to ensure that their gardens were looking their best – they enjoyed so many compliments – plants were sold at several gardens and there were delicious cakes and refreshments to give visitors a reason to have a seat and enjoy the gardens. More than 250 visitors came to admire the gardens and a whopping £3703.37 was raised for CHAOS, the Magpie Project and the Woodland Trust. We are so grateful to all who visited, all who opened their gardens and to Stow Bros for sponsoring such a successful event.