March Talk

On 15th March Carol Madden from the Cottage Garden Society gave an interesting and informative talk to over 50 members and visitors at St Peter’s School.

She started by demonstrating some of her gardening tools – toilet rolls to blanche leeks and nail varnish remover to clean up previously used plant labels were among the quirkier ones.

Carol loves to collect and grow plants from seed and she showed pictures of plants from which she has collected seeds and the seeds themselves. She explained that it can take a long time for a seed collected in this way to grow to flower – seven years in some cases. Because of this she is very careful to label the seed pots correctly and fully not only with the name of the plant and the date sown but also the number of seeds sown, the colour of the flower will be and when it can be expected to flower.

She told an amusing story dealing with some seeds she knew needed to be in a fire before they would germinate when using wood shavings on top of the pot for this and the unexpected outcome in the greenhouse.

Carol showed some very nice photographs and gave an interesting talk demonstrating her enthusiasm for her subject.  Some specimen plants were available to be purchased when tea and biscuits were being enjoyed.

The Society would like to thank Carol for her time, and we look forward to welcoming her again soon.