Eynsford Gardeners' Club

Who doesn't like roses?

 

‘Hands up if you like roses’ was the question that got me the first and easiest sale at the beginning of our auction which ended the summer show. With so many stunning roses to auction the sales came easy and many people walked away with displays that would brighten up the Saturday’s grey weather and fill their homes with that heavenly scent of summer.

While the world apparently went mad outside in the village with traffic jams and road rage, the only stress that people who came to the summer show had was choosing which piece of cake to have with their tea or coffee! (Banana cake, Spiced Carrot, Coffee and Walnut, Victoria and Dundee, Jo had outdone herself AGAIN!)

While the numbers were a little down, I would like to thank those who came for their stunning efforts in managing to eat all the cake!

Summer is certainly here and while we have had a few cooler days which was a surprise, rain has been scarce. In my world this means that water has to be carried down to the allotment which is a pain but as things grow and as crops start to be gathered the pain of water carrying is soon forgotten. Keeping up with watering, tending and feeding (keeping up with eating the courgettes is already a struggle!) can be very time consuming but it does pay off. However, please explain how something that you have been tending, nurturing, feeding and generally caring for can do so little when something you have hardly touched, watered or even looked at can do so well -  I simply have no idea?

Take my pumpkins (Ah yes, you knew it was coming sometime!!) well I have planted in our best soil one plant, the variety of which shall remain a secret but for the purposes of security and this write up I will simply call it a ‘Colin’ pumpkin, while in a second bed I have planted another plant, I will call this one a ‘Philomena’ pumpkin. Colin has been fed, watered, weeded around, watched, protected and given everything that you can give a pumpkin just short of a hug and to what result? Three smallish yellow round baby pumpkins that may grow but look very sickly and small. Philomena, on the other hand, has not been fed has been just given just enough water to keep it alive has been planted in ground that is not as rich and has generally been forgotten in fact until yesterday, Philomena had almost covered totally in weeds! And yet under Philomena I have found two average size pumpkins and one big perfectly round and smooth one! How on earth does this happen????????

Anyway, I shall keep you posted on the pumpkin front, am just off to sit in a dark room and cry a bit.

Jason