A Story of Three Gardens, Hori-Hori and more….

Having set up the village hall for the last meeting of 2025, I felt a sense of excitement for what is always a super social occasion for the gardening club.

We have a more relaxed format which began with a talk by Tricia Johns who told us the ‘Story of Three Gardens’. Tricia and David’s first garden project was at their London home. Their small front garden with its window boxes was delightful and the rear garden was transformed from a bare patch with its clay soil into a plant filled south facing haven backing onto a park. They also skilfully created interest on the house wall using trellis and a stunning clematis and a gravel garden filled with pots and structural plants.​

It must have been difficult to leave their lovely garden when Tricia and David moved north to Yorkshire. They once again took on a rear garden which was overgrown and full of rubbish, but facing south and backing onto a large open community space. They created borders, a wildlife pond, a brick-paved seating area and areas of gravel garden. The planting was superb and done under the watchful and approving eye of Harriet the cat, who didn’t lift a paw to help. Tricia and David’s garden appeared in Gardener’s world magazine in the Reader’s Makeover’ section 2001. We had no idea that we had celebrities in our midst!

When Tricia and David moved to Suffolk they inherited a much larger garden, backing onto arable farmland, on clay soil again with a stunning large wildlife pond. They set about stripping back the garden and redesigning it with gravel pathways through contoured mounds and seating areas to take in the beautiful countryside views. Here they also created a vegetable garden, compost bays and built a greenhouse onto the garage. They were able to showcase their hard work when they opened their stunning garden to the public from 2010 to 2013. Tricia and David now live in Shropshire and have once again taken on a garden in need of some TLC, so we wait with anticipation for the final chapter in their garden renovation story.

​Tricia’s story was followed by ‘Desert Island Gardening Tools’ , a new feature at the December meeting. Members were asked, “If you were marooned on a desert island, which gardening tool would you want to have with you?”

​Laura Jones' reply was her Japanese Hori-Hori, described by some as the swiss army knife of gardening tools. Laura uses it for weeding, particularly those with long roots, bulb planting, as well as general planting, for cutting turf or dividing plants. A good all round tool which had the distinct look of a Samurai sword about it! Helen Sharp brought along her ‘Speed Weeder’ a hook shaped tool which Helen has found useful for working in clay soil. Sally Harris had forgotten her ‘Very Versatile Tool’ but managed to describe its 30 degree angled blade with a sharp inside edge, ideal for loosening soil and weeding. It sounds like another lethal weapon for the gardener. Our very own Ruth Henley also brought along a Japanese tool, a hand held hoe. Although this cost a lot of money, Ruth says it is worth every penny as its sharp pointed blade is ideal for weeding and digging holes for planting. Finally, Judy Robertson showed us her tool, similar to the Hori-Hori, but a little less intimidating, again expensive but ideal for planting bulbs.

Talks were followed by afternoon tea with a delicious selection of sandwiches, savouries and cakes, during which we did Jill Perk’s quiz. Not as difficult as last year’s quiz, but still a few tricky questions to trip us up! 

​The Christmas decoration competition was a great success this year, with nine fabulous and varied entries. Well done to all who entered and particularly to Laura Jones who won the most member’s votes for her stunning door wreath.

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