Last Wednesday we braved the showers to visit the gardens at Middle Temple. Kate Jenrick, the head gardener, gave us a very interesting tour and described how she maintains the gardens and chooses her plants. For those of you who couldn’t make it here are some pictures kindly taken by Stephen King. Plant Sale A …
May events and date changes
Dear Gardeners, there have been a few date changes recently (and a mistake in the DBA newsletter) – so this is post to keep your diary up-to-date. Wednesday 8th May 2019 Visit to Middle Temple Garden off Fleet Street, London EC4 9BT This is open to members of De Beauvoir and Islington Gardeners only. You …
London In Bloom 2018 – prize winning gardens by our members
Gillian Daniell writes: ‘It’s exactly a year ago now since we entered our three gardens for the LONDON IN BLOOM competition and went on to win THE GOLD MEDAL 2018. The competition was initiated by London in Bloom and Britain in Bloom in order to encourage people who are lucky enough to have a front …
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De Beauvoir – a new gardening year
If you missed our March meeting it was a corker! It was so well attended that we almost ran out of space. The appeal of a poster about otters in Haggerston obviously worked magic, even when the speaker had to share the floor with our AGM. This is my resume of the event with a …
Open Garden in Spain
On my recent visit to Spain, I visited Cortijo Opazo which is part of the Open Garden programme in the Alpujarras - a lovely unspoiled area in southern Spain where we've been going for over 20 years. It is purported to have the cleanest air in Europe and fantastic walking. A British couple bought the …
Gardening advice – prune clematis now…
We talked about including some relevant topical advice on the website and our first tip comes from Tigger on clematis. Before March comes storming in next week, time to prune your clematis. There really isn’t a mystery about what to do. If you know when the clematis flowers, you will know how to prune it. …
Wonderful wildflowers! Jennifer Benyon shows us how to grow and care for them
If you missed this really practical and inspiring talk by Jennifer Benyon don’t despair. We’ve put links here to her well researched suppliers of wildflower seed mixes – Pictorial Meadows and Meadow Mania. If you want inspiration both the websites mentioned have lots of images and you can see wildflower planting in London Fields, the Olympic Park …
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A private view of two National Garden Scheme gardens
As the drizzle set in around 6pm on referendum day our little group gathered at St Peters to be conveyed, in a variety of member’s cars, to the top of a hill in Highgate with views over London. Barbara Barnett had arranged this private viewing of two gardens and few of us knew what to expect. …
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John Little’s Home
Those of you who came to the meeting in May will remember John Little, who kindly invited the Club to visit his home in Essex. Four of us went yesterday and were blown away by his eco-friendly garden filled with amazing ideas. He and his partner also entertained us royally with a two hour tour of the …
Making an advent wreath
If you missed last night’s monthly meeting you missed a wonderful and pine-scented demonstration of wreath making by local florists Anna Day and Ellie Jauncey of The Flower Appreciation Society. We sipped mulled wine and nibbled mince-pies as they made two beautiful wreaths from a selection of evergreens including fir, bay, rosemary and ivy as …
