This was the starting statement from our speaker Nancy Lowe.

Nancy’s talk ‘The Secret Life of the Soil’ was fascinating and very informative. She began by explaining the Gaia Theory proposed by James Lovelock who suggests that all organisms on earth are closely integrated to form a single, self-regulating system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.
Nancy described these earth’s systems using analogies with the human body; Lungs of the Earth, the oceans produce most of the oxygen on earth, Earth’s Kidneys, how wetlands cleans the system and a Vascular system, how migrating animals and birds carry nutrients around the system.
Nancy focused on the composition of soil and stated that in one teaspoon there are over one billion organisms with around twenty to thirty thousand different species. Each organism has a function, shredding material, breaking down leaves and helping to improve soil structure. Many organisms produce nutrients e.g protozoa eat bacteria and excrete nutrients. Fungi in the soil can break down tough pollutants.
With this knowledge, gardeners can play an important role in maintaining healthy soil for increased drought tolerance and for plants that are self-sufficient. Nancy gave us useful advice about no dig gardening, gentle weeding and using mulch wisely to maintain healthy soil.
Nancy supported her ideas with scientific research and the whole talk was enhanced by some amazing graphics which demonstrated her concepts. The talk generated much discussion afterwards and many of us agreed that we have been ‘doing it wrong’! I think we have all taken some ideas that we intend to implement in our own gardens this year and hope to see the benefits.
This was the second visit by Nancy to the gardening club and we are already looking at her list of talks to invite her back next year.

Nancy's website is www.thenaturalgardener.org.uk
see also https://advancingecoag.com/plant-health-pyramid/

The first meeting of 2026 for the gardening club is our annual luncheon which is always a
joyous occasion. It is lovely to have something to look forward to after the Christmas
decorations have been taken down and the days are still short and this year’s event is being
held at a new location; The Swan in Aston Munslow. Around twenty five members and their
guests will be gathering on 22nd January for what promises to be a delicious three course meal.
This is a lovely occasion and a chance to relax and catch up with friends and fellow gardeners.

It is also the start of an exciting new year for our gardening club with lots to look forward to. The next club meeting at Stoke St Milborough village hall is on February 12th when Nancy Lowe will be talking about ‘The Secret Life of the Soil’. We first met Nancy last February, when she gave her talk on ‘Gardening with Wildflowers’. We enjoyed it so much that we are looking forward to welcoming her back again this year.

January and February are difficult months for the gardener, but you might, like me, have been
eagerly searching the borders for the first signs of spring. I am always delighted by the first
snowdrops of the year, which this year I spotted two days before Christmas. I also adore the
wonderful spidery, bright yellow blossoms of the witch hazel (Hamamelis) with its wonderful
fragrance. Do remember, if you are not fortunate enough to have snowdrops in your own
garden, there are stunning displays that can be seen at the National Trust gardens at Attingham Park and Dudmaston Hall. If you have never been to St Peter’s Church in Stanton Lacy, I can highly recommend a visit as the magnificent display of snowdrops throughout the churchyard during February is guaranteed to lift your spirits. This year the snowdrop weekend is the 7th and 8th February at 2.00 until 4.30, where a nice cup of tea and a slice of homemade cake is also on offer.

If you would like to join us at our next gardening club meeting, then please come along to Stoke St Milborough Village Hall on Thursday 12 th February. Nancy’s talk will begin at 2.30pm, but there is tea, coffee cake and biscuits available beforehand and a chance to chat with other gardeners, so do come early. The hall is open at 2.00pm.
If you would like more information about our gardening club please contact me.
Bev Harris
Secretary
[email protected]

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.

If you have ever journeyed along the B4368 through the village of Monkhopton and been delighted by the view of a field of glorious blooms, then you have almost certainly passed Katie Briggs Thomas’ business; The Petal Passion Flower Farm.

Katie came to our November meeting to tell us how she set up her business and went from beautician to flower farmer. When COVID shut down Katie’s beauty business in March 2020, like many of us she spent time in her garden and found that she was rather good at growing flowers.

An unlikely flower farmer, Katie had suffered debilitating hayfever until the wonders of modern medicine made working with flowers a possibility. So to develop her passion, Katie bought one and a half acres of the field behind her home and a polytunnel. She began creating flower beds and planting 1000 bare root roses, dahlias, peonies and many other varieties of perennial flowers as well as annuals like cosmos and zinnas, to create stunning floral arrangements.

It is Katie’s mission to help reduce the carbon footprint of cut flowers by offering beautiful blooms locally and sourcing other materials as close to home as possible. She provides seasonal flowers for funerals, weddings, birthdays and other occasions, beautifully arranged in her casual, unique style. In addition Katie supplies florists & shops with seasonal, sustainably & locally grown flowers, with no added chemicals or pesticides.

Katie is extremely keen on protecting the environment and only uses peat free compost and natural fertilizers. She uses sustainable materials in her floral arrangements and made a plea to us to stop using oasis because it is made of plastic which does not biodegrade, but breaks down into microplastics that can harm wildlife . Katie suggested using moss in compostable bags wrapped in twine which I am definitely going to try.

Katie has plans to further develop her business and has planning permission for one more polytunnel and a large workshop from where she can run events. If you are interested in Katie’s work or events then visit her website; www.thepetalpassionflowerfarm.com or facebook page to find out more.

Our next meeting of the gardening club on 11th December has a slightly different format. We will be listening to talks by members about projects that they have undertaken in their own gardens and this year we will hold a Desert Island gardening tool demonstration. We also have Christmas afternoon tea, a quiz and a Christmas decoration competition. If you would like to join us then do come along to Stoke St Milborough village hall at 2.00pm to join in the fun. ​

If you wish to join us, our next speaker will be Katie Briggs Thomas who will be telling us how she went from ‘Lady Gardener to Flower Farmer’.

https://www.thepetalpassionflowerfarm.com

​The meeting will be held at Stoke St Milborough Village Hall at 2.00pm on 13th November.  
If you would like more information about our gardening club, then contact BevHarris on [email protected] or 07933724728.

Coast to coast by gardens...by car, with Jill and Alun Whitehead was the first of our visiting speakers' talks. The virtual trip began in Tenby, South Wales in Manobier Castle with its small garden benefitting from the castle walls as its backdrop. We then moved on to Dryffen Fernant, a most inspiring garden and one that I noted as a must visit next time we are in South Wales. Moving east, the next garden was Aberglasney which has a restored Elizabethan Cloister Garden that is the only example of its kind in the UK today. It also has an impressive yew tunnel and a 250 year old woodland with stunning ferns and meconopsis.
​​It became clear at this point in the talk that Jill, in particular, was also interested in the sculptures that can be seen in many of the gardens on this tour. This was evident in our next garden in Abergavenny; The Pant which had an enormous stone turtle and rusted metal fish swimming through lavender

We then hopped over the border into Herefordshire, to Lyndalls Garden near Ross on Wye. This two acre garden was created from bare fields and is now renowned for its displays of over six hundred types of snowdrops. We then visited Bryan Gound before stopping off at Aulden Farm, Jill and Alun’ home and garden with its many sculptures and impressive displays of irises for which they are well known.

​Moving on into Worcestershire, we came to Stone House Cottage Garden, a beautiful, romantic walled garden with numerous brick built follies. It is apparently home to one of the largest collections of rare plants in the country, so another garden for that list of places to visit on a Saturday afternoon! Along the way we stopped off (virtually) at Packwood House, Broughton Grange and Upton House, before reaching Thenford Arboretum, a four acre walled garden owned by Micheal and Ann Hesseltine. This is a stunning garden which surprisingly houses a 7.5 tonne statue of Lenin! Continuing our journey eastwards we visited Rousham, Coton Manor, The Manor at Hemmingford Grey, Chippenham Park Gardens, Fuller’s Mill, East and Ruston, Benton End, before finishing our garden tour at The Beth Chatto Gardens, one of the loveliest gardens in the UK.
​
As the talk was coast to coast, our final place was not a garden but Aldeburgh on the east coast which has many fascinating gardens and is a lovely seaside town in which to take in the sea air after an exhausting three hundred and fifty mile tour.

If you wish to join us, our next speaker will be Katie Briggs Thomas who will be telling us how she went from ‘Lady Gardener to Flower Falmer’. The meeting will be held at Stoke St Milborough Village Hall at 2.00pm on 13th November.
If you would like more information about our gardening club, then contact Bev Harris on [email protected] or 07933724728.

​Here we go again… October is an exciting time for the gardening club as it is the first meeting of the new programme.
The format for the year remains the same, but we have some new and exciting speakers to look forward to.
Our first speakers on October 9th are Jill and Alun Whitehead, who live and work on Aulden Farm which is in a very small hamlet in Herefordshire. The property dates back to the mid-17th Century, Jill and Alun purchased the property in 1996 with a plan to develop a garden on the 3 acres surrounding the farmhouse. After much hard work the house was refurbished and a plan for the garden was drawn up. They now have a beautiful garden that is home to a wide variety of plants, wild and cultivated, and an abundance of wildlife, together with a thriving business.
Self confessed plantaholics Jill and Alun, have over the years developed a depth of knowledge especially of irises. In 2007 they acquired a collection of Siberian Irises and they now own a National Collection. Jill and Alun offer a wide range of talks including how they developed their garden and business, Irises and on a selection of gardens including in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Cornwall. So it was difficult deciding which talk to choose but I went for: Coast to Coast via Gardens . . . . . by Car! which is Jill and Alun’s leisurely alternative to Wainwright's idea.
We are looking forward to seeing and hearing about the amazing gardens that they have experienced and noting some destinations for future trips away.

If you are interested in joining our small and friendly gardening club or just visiting for one of our talks, then come along to Stoke St Milborough Village Hall. We meet on the second Thursday of the month at 2.00pm.
Details can be found on our website; www.stokestmilborough.info/burwarton-gardening-club or by contacting me at [email protected] .
Everyone is welcome regardless of gardening knowledge or ability. 

We hope you have all managed to enjoy the gorgeous summer weather, where hopefully you have all had a great time in your gardens and out and about.

We are just finalising the programme for the next year of Gardening Club

We are looking forward to seeing our existing members as well as a some new ones.

The first meeting is on the 9th October, please come along and join us.

14:00 at Stoke St Milborough Village hall

All welcome 

The final meeting of the gardening club’s 2024-25 calendar was the garden picnic which this year was held at the home of Laura and Andrew Jones in Glazeley, Bridgnorth. Laura and Andrew have been at the property for about three years. When they first arrived, the garden was very overgrown and neglected. It had previously been open to the public through the NGS garden scheme and it is clear to see that there were many interesting features which Laura is now bringing back to life.

As you enter the garden you are greeted by the gentle sound of water that is trickling into a pretty wildlife pond. It was a glorious day and Laura had laid the terrace out with plenty of shaded seating , much needed as the temperature was in the high 20s. As we strolled through the garden, we discovered the bog garden, beautiful trees which included a Sequoia with its stunning red bark and a vegetable plot with resident hens. There were many outbuildings, including two very impressive sheds which Andrew had built himself. There were also stables for Laura’s two ponies which have a paddock at the far end of the garden. The ponies are called Betty and Lucy and are mother and daughter. They are rescue ponies who Laura claims have now become very expensive garden ornaments!

Where Laura had begun developing borders, they are well stocked with carefully chosen English cottage garden plants like Centaurea macrocephala, standing tall with its lovely yellow flowers.
Where borders are still untamed there is evidence of wonderful well established perennials, like a lovely dark pink penstemon, just waiting to be tamed and cared for and Laura is certainly the gardener to do that.
Our garden tour was followed by cups of tea and a delicious shared afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones, cheese, savouries and of course plenty of homemade cake.
It was a delightful afternoon in glorious sunshine, in a beautiful peaceful setting with a chance to relax and chat with fellow gardeners. In many ways this is the highlight of our gardening club’s year.
The programme for 2025-56 is now being finalised and we have a number of exciting and varied speakers booked. Watch this space and next month I will provide details of what is to come. If you would like to know more about the gardening club, then please get in touch by emailing us on [email protected].
Bev Harris
Secretary 

Here is list of potato competition entries for 2025
Thank you to everyone who took part. 
Well done Joan on your very impressive harvest of 1.701g 

Potato Competition weights 2025  (Nicola variety):
Angela Herrick        262g
Joan Palmer           1.701g    1st
Tricia Johns            465g
Eunice Cannon       791g
Laura Jones            391g
Helen Sharp            520g
Sharon Thorpe        1.049g
Bev Harris`              1.149g 
Peter Cornah          340g ​