Don’t forget it’s Garden Club this Thursday 10th May with the final speaker before the summer break! The club will be welcoming Geoff Hodge with a talk on ,Scented Plants and the Scented Garden’.
Geoff may be a familiar name as he is a freelance horticultural author, editor and broadcaster, writing regularly for publications such as ‘Garden Answers’.
You’ll learn plenty, have a good laugh, and he donates lots of extra raffle prizes!!
Please feel free to bring any spare seeds/seedling/plants to offer to other members. – 7.30pm at the Community Centre – all welcome – guests £2 per person, with tea/coffee/biscuits to start & raffle at the end
We welcome Steve Lovell, a horticultural consultant & former Chairman of the Hardy Plant Society speaking on “Bark, Berry and Leaf – Texture in the Garden”
Steve will be looking beyond flowers and showing us what else nature provides in the plant kingdom.
The meeting will be at the Community Centre at 7.30pm – anybody can come along (guests £2).
North Luffenham Garden Club will be holding its Christmas social with quiz (optional, being put out on tables, not read out). Please bring food to share. Wine & soft drinks – first glass free then donations.
Time and place: 7.30pm at the Community Centre
Date: Thursday 14 December
Once again, just a reminder, it is time to pay annual membership fees of £10.00 for which we have interesting speakers from October to May each year and organised outings each summer.
Sally Lambert has again kindly agreed to run a workshop on Sat 25th November from 10am – 1pm @the Community Centre, where she will guide us in making our own wreath, and other arrangements.
Cost is £5 per person, which includes tea/coffee & a mince pie.
You will need to bring any equipment you have – oasis, secateurs, vase/container you intend to use, pine cones, ribbons, decorations – plus foliage & flowers. Prunings of woody clematis stems, dogwoods etc make a great basis for wreaths – we all share bits and pieces too.
Please book your place with Katy Ellis on 01780 722173 as soon as possible.
NB: The next meeting is to be held a week later than usual, on Thursday 16th November, at 7.30pm.
It is also the AGM, followed by Stephen Ashpole from the village, to present a talk on Organic Gardening, which will be full of information about the whys and wherefores on this subject.
The Show is a celebration of local talent and is Open For All to enter with many categories: plants, painting, needlework, card craft, woodwork, photography, baking, jam making, vegetables, flowers and fruit for example.
At North Luffenham Community Centre
On Sunday 10th September
Entries are open to everyone and if possible should be made before the show using the attached Schedule or you can get a hard copy of the Schedule from The Fox or Edith Weston Village Shop.
There are some simple guidelines in the Schedule and we will help you with any queries beforehand and on the day (contact details inside back page). We’d love to see what you can do – be proud and show it off!
Photography. Here are this year’s categories to keep in mind over the coming month so you can get snapping: Flowers and Plants, Gardens, Sky, Countryside Activities, Animals (wild or tame), Linked theme (one set of three phtos linked together in some way), Open (includes anything not already covered already). There is a also a class for U16s, which is free, for any of these themes.
How to enter:
Complete the entry form in the middle of the Schedule
Take your Entry Form and money, either to Katy Ellis, 24 Sycamore Road, North Luffenham, before show day, OR to the Community Centre between 2pm – 5pm on Saturday 9th September
On Show day bring your entries to the Community Centre between 8.30am and 10.30am. Judging starts at 11am, then open to the public from 2.00pm for viewing, afternoon teas and Prizegiving.
Easton-on-the-Hill Horticultural & Crafts Society have some spare seats available for their visit to Coton Manor on Saturday 22 July departing 10.30 from Easton-on-the-Hill Village Hall and returning at 16.00 from Coton Manor.
Tickets are £17.50 for non-members for entry to Coton Manor and include transport.
Please contact Joy Forster on 01780 762156 if you are interested.
Colton Manor is a peaceful 10 acre garden occupying a hillside position extending down from the 17th century manor house. Landscaped on different levels, it comprises a series of distinctive smaller gardens, providing variety and interest throughout the season, and enhanced by flowing streams, fountains and ponds. Beyond the confines of the garden there is a magical 5 acre bluebell wood and colourful wildflower meadow at its best in June and July.
The Stableyard cafe offers a great selection for lunch. You may bring your own food, however picnicking is not permitted at the garden.
The Garden Club are running an outing to Hidcote (morning) & Kiftsgate (afternoon), two stunning gardens in the same village in the Cotswolds on Sunday 9th July, leaving Empingham @ 8.30am/North Luffenham 8.45am. Open to all – take a picnic or eat at either of the gardens.
Tickets are for coach travel plus entry – £22.50 if you have National Trust membership (you must bring your own card on the day) or £33.50 without.
For information or to book places on the trips, please contact Katy Ellis on 01780 722173 or email ktellis1606@gmail.com. BY FRIDAY 30th June
At the Garden Club Autumn Show, to be held on Sunday 10th September 2017, there will once again be a photography section. Here are this year’s categories to keep in mind over the coming months so you can get snapping!
Flowers & Plants
Gardens
Sky
Countryside Activities
Animals (wild or tame)
Linked theme (one set of three photos linked together in some way)
Open (includes anything not already covered)
There is also a class for under 16s for photos on any of these themes.
The next Garden Club Meeting will be on Thursday 9th March @7.30pm in the Community Centre when we welcome Mike Davey with ‘A Suburban Garden throughout the Year’ . Tea/coffee and biscuits served at the start of the evening with a raffle after the speaker. £2 for guests – all welcome.
**Next meeting – this Thursday 12th January @7.30pm in the Community Centre**
Stuart Dixon on ‘Ramblers ‘n’ Scramblers’ (roses and clematis)
With an increasing number of reports stating that Gardening is good for the mind, body and soul, why not come to our informal meetings where we welcome speakers on a variety of subjects in horticulture!
This month we look forward to the return of Stuart Dixon, a seasoned speaker who is a Horticultural lecturer, writer and broadcaster, featuring on BBC Radio Nottingham for the gardening show.
Programme 2017
9th Feb – ‘Improving your Garden’ by Jeanette Merillon
9th Mar – ‘Suburban Garden throughout the Year’ by Mike Davey
13th Apr – ‘Plants that Excite!’ by Andrew Ward
11th May – ‘Easton Walled Gardens’ by Jackie Murray
22nd June – evening outing to Leicester Botanic Gardens
9th July – day outing to Hidcote garden (jointly with Empingham Garden Club)
9th September – Annual Autumn Show
All welcome – annual membership £10 per person or pay £2 on the night with refreshments, raffle and plant sales. All enquiries to Katy Ellis on 01780 722173.
On Sunday 16th October (10am – 5pm), the Garden Club are inviting people to come and press their own apple juice outside the Cricket Pavilion on the Oval. They will have equipment on loan to enable you to press your apples, whether home-grown or bought, and make tasty juice (which can also be pasteurised to lengthen shelf life). Teamwork will be needed so please be prepared to help muck in to help each other out. The Pavilion will be open for use of the toilet & making hot drinks.
Just turn up on the day – first come, first served basis so you may have to wait, or come back later in the day. All queries to Katy Ellis on 01780 722173 (ktellis@fsmail.net).
North Luffenham Garden Club
The Garden Club holds a monthly meeting so that members can share their knowledge, interest & passion for gardens and gardening. At meetings we have a guest speaker, followed by refreshments and a raffle, plus plants for sale.
Our regular monthly meetings will begin on Thursday October 13th @7.30pm in the Community Centre when guest speaker David Thornton will be talking about
‘Growing Better Vegetables’ followed by a talk by local grower Penny Dawson on Harvington Hellbores on November 10th, and Garden Designer, Andrew Mikolajski,
joining us for our Christmas social evening on December 8th. Annual membership is £10 per person or £2 per meeting – all are most welcome.
Sunday September 13th – from 2pm at the Community Centre
Tea/coffee & homemade cakes & raffle, with prize giving at 3.45pm
Admission £1 (members/children free)
Katy Ellis with Grenfell Medal
All are welcome to come along and view the fine display of this year’s local produce and crafts – our annual show is a celebration of what people have achieved in their gardens and allotments and a showcase for hidden talents in cookery, flower arranging, painting, crafts and photography!
The show is open to EVERYONE, not just members. Please come and show off your handiwork – there is a wide variety of classes to enter covering fruit and vegetables; pot plants and cut flowers; flower arranging; home produce; arts and crafts; and photography.
Get the children to join in as well (age groups under 8s and 8-12s).
Hall full of entries
ALL CHILDREN’S CLASSES ARE FREE TO ENTER – with CASH prizes to be won!
Schedules are now available, and entry is easy. Choose the classes you wish to enter, fill in the entry form in the middle of the schedule and return it to us with your entry fees by 5pm the day before the show (Sat 12th), bring your entries to us on the morning of the show between 8.30-10.30am then come back in the afternoon to see if you won!
For schedules, queries or advice please contact Katy Ellis on 01780 722173
The North Luffenham Garden Club held its 16th Annual Autumn Show this Sunday 14th September in the village Community Centre and school hall.
We were thrilled with the turn out, with 55 people entering one or more classes and a total of 389 entries overall, an all-time record! On Sunday morning when the entries were arriving, I was concerned we weren’t going to fit everything in! But that’s a brilliant problem to have!
Hall full of entries
The show has a really friendly, family feel to it. It really was a celebration of what everybody had achieved in their gardens, and a showcase of hidden talents with some stunning craft and photography entries.
We were also delighted that there were more children’s entries this year which included some from the School gardening club and the North Luffenham Beavers.
Entry into most humorous vegetable
A campaign earlier in the year to encourage more flower arranging entries, with a series of free classes held in the village run by one of the members, Sally Lambert and a new prize of an RHS Grenfell Medal certainly paid off too, with 20 in total.
The hall was a wonderful sight – thank you to everyone who made the effort to put in entries, and to all the hardworking volunteers who helped the day run so smoothly.
Katy Ellis
Chairperson
Results
Overall Winner (most points in the show) – President’s Cup
1st- ALan Lambert
2nd – Finola Timmins
3rd – Linda Ellis
Alan Lambert with prize winning marrows
Best in Show – The Freddie Clyant Trophy
Winner Jeanette Holdstock (stained glass lamp)
Jeanette Holdstock with prize winning lamp
Alicia CLyant presenting bowl to Jeanette Holdstock
RHS Grenfell Medal (for most points in flower arranging categories)
Katy Ellis
Katy Ellis with Grenfell Medal
Best Photograph in Show
Andrew Robinson (butterfly migration)
Andrew Robinson with prize winning photograph
Under 16 Best Photograph in Show
Jessica Ellis (garden at Prebendal House, Empingham)
Children’s Best in Show
Jessica Ellis (homemade decorated cupcakes)
Overall Winner – under 8s joint 1st
George Morris, Sam Sheppard, Nat Conant
Overall Winner age 8-12
1st Emily Barrett
2nd Ellen Marson
3rd – Jessica Ellis
Overall Winner age 13-16
1st Emily Martin
2nd Thomas Ellis
Gallery
Katy Ellis with Grenfell Medal
Jeanette Holdstock with prize winning lamp
Alicia CLyant presenting bowl to Jeanette Holdstock
Thursday May 8th – in a change to the published programme, the last speaker of the season will be Richard Baxter on ‘Orchids‘. Meeting starts @7.30pm in the Community Centre – please feel free to bring any spare plants you have for sale ( and some pennies to buy some!).
June’s evening outing has now been arranged for Thursday 12th June to Foxtail Lilly, a pretty country cottage garden, in Oundle – members are most welcome to bring friends with them, and should arrange transport between themselves, aiming to arrive at 6.30pm. There will be an entry charge of £2.50 per person, to be paid on the night, plus refreshments will be available to purchase.
If you would like some help and advice on how to look after your apple trees, Stamford Community Orchard Group (SCOG) are running pruning and grafting workshops in the next few weeks.
The pruning workshop is on Saturday 22nd February 10am – 1pm at Castor.
The grafting workshop is on Saturday 8th March from 10am – 1pm at Egleton.
Gardening enthusiasts may be interested to know that the Rutland Hardy Plant Society has also arranged another interesting lecture by Tom Hart Dyke, plant hunter and garden maker speaking on “The Captivating World of Plants” to be held on Saturday 22 February 2014 at 7.30pm at Oakham School.
