On a beautiful sunny morning members of the RGS gathered at St Margaret’s church to remember Jeannette Sweetland, a plotholder on Site 3, who died a few weeks ago. Jeanette was known for her gardening expertise, interest in art and the natural world and beautifully kept allotment plot. She is much missed by her allotment friends and neighbours. We joined her friends and colleagues from St Margaret’s to share reminiscences of Jeanette’s many kindnesses and planted a lovely rose in the church grounds in her memory.
The RGS chose to plant a Gertrude Jekyll rose, named after the famous plantswoman and garden designer, in remembrance of Jeanette, pictured here painting happily on her plot.
Sound for Plants: Do your plants love a good tune? Are you interested in supporting a research project looking at plant growth and music? Do you ever play music to your seedlings?
Studies show that 63% of home gardeners play music for their plants. Did you know that certainsound frequencies influence plant physiology. For example, some boost growth, some deter pests, some strengthen roots, whilst others increase yield!
Join Isaac Igbokwe, a london based researcher and engineer, exploring how sounds backed by plant-science can be an organic alternative to chemicals and GMOs. He need’s gardeners, farmers, and greenhouse owners to test his soundtracks for free this season!
Interested in helping? Could you participate? Email Isaac at Imperial College: ii624@ic.ac.uk with the subject line “I’m Interested – Sound for Plants.”
Please include:
When you’d like to start the trial
A few photos or a short description of your setup (plants & sound system)
Art-K of Putney came to the allotments on Sunday 12 April and gave a most enjoyable Art Taster Session using watercolours to 12 RGS members. Many thanks to Sue for organising the event and to Steven, the teacher from Art-K.
“Thank you for arranging this afternoon’s art session. I really enjoyed it and found it ever so relaxing. Stephen was lovely and it was well organised”Amanda Flint.
Art K offer adult and children’s classes at their premises in Lacy Road.
As you will know we have been unable to source unbagged deliveries of horse manure for some time now. Carriers are understandably reluctant to use their ( relatively new ) ULEZ compliant trucks to transport fresh horse manure. However, we have found a riding stable off the Kingston Road with a plentiful supply for those willing to go and help themselves. All the stable ask in return in a voluntary contribution to a charity they support. Take your own bags / trugs and spades and help yourselves !
in addition, a local lady has offered a supply of guinea pig bedding on a weekly basis. The guinea pigs are fed only vegetables ( no meat derivatives ) and the bedding material is either hay or flax. As such it would be suitable for mixing as “brown” into compost bins on site and balancing out the mainly green material we generate on our plots. Please contact Shan K ( plot 127a ) karwatowski@gmail.com if interested in this material.
Katy on site 3 enjoyed the composting workshop from South London Urban Growers: she writes…
I thought the composting workshop was very interesting and definitely worthwhile, despite the 4 hours on a cold, windy rainy day….I am still warming up. Alice, the trainer knew her stuff and described it as a sharing not a lecturing format as she was keen for everyone to contribute their own experience, which we all did. And learned a lot from hearing about the involvement and roles others had in helping out or running garden communities. It was very valuable to be given the chance to build a hot compost from scratch, all of us chipped in to build the basics for the new compost to take off once more brown and green is added. The attendees were really keen and interesting people, some with a lot of experience in gardening projects thanks to council grants – created a very warm and friendly vibe. Age range was anything from 30 to over 70…. Read more about the workshops
S.L.U.G plan more of these workshops – keep up with them on Instagram…Here
Our volunteers are manning another sharpening day. Bring your blunt gardening and kitchen tools to Site 2 (the Pleasance) from 9am on April 25th. PLEASE NOTE CASH payments ONLY.
Spring is here – we all love to notice signs of renewal of the season – but when exactly is the start of Spring?
There are three different measures we can use:
Meteorological – fixed every year to ensure statistics are consistent throughout time. Spring in the northern hemisphere starts on 1 March and autumn on 1 September. Dates have been decided using temperature data.
Astronomical – follows the equinox and can vary slightly each year. Spring falls between 19-23 March and autumn 22-24 September. In 2025 astronomical Spring begins on the 20th March
Phenological – follows biological events and their response to weather and climate. This is a fascinating study which shows how nature reacts to changes in climate. Nature’s Calendar uses public sightings of plants, animals and fungi to track the effects of weather and climate on nature. This is a Citizen Science project from the Woodland Trust.
To see how this works see the BBC article here . Find out more about the Nature’s Calendar project here
Peat Free compost is here and ever improving – but it’s a challenge to get to grips with the changes in growing. To help, the RHS has started a ‘Peat Free’ advice service and it’s open to all, not just members. To ask your question, just send an email to Nikki Barker at peatfree@rhs.org.uk
It seems that we need to be more careful with watering – it’s not true that it doesn’t hold water well – but the top dries quickly and gives the impression of dryness. If we then water without checking further down, the waterlogged plant may die.
At our AGM in November, author Michael Gilson, spoke about the early days of the Dover House Estate, created on ‘Garden City’ principles as part of the house building initiative after the first world war. ‘Homes for Heroes’ were declared by prime minister Lloyd-George – which would include the right to green space to grow food. Each house would have it’s own green space and allotment plots would be part of the design.
Of course, many who rented the houses were not naturally green fingered, and had never owned a garden before, so Richard Sudell, a Quaker and political firebrand as well as a well known plantsman and garden writer took on the challenge of helping. He set up training allotments and gave lessons, forming the Roehampton Estate Garden Society. It seems that meetings of the committee took place in the basement at St. Margaret’s church, just below where we have our AGM. Roehampton became one of the leading garden estates in Britain as the country became the ‘nation of gardeners’./
Our centenary exhibition featured boards about this history – which are now in PDF form. We hope you will read and enjoy them.
Our 100 plus visitors to our Nation Garden’s Scheme open day were delighted with their allotment walk, commented on the many beautiful things that there were to see – in particular two lovely clematis covered arches, and the tea space by the potting shed! Many of them stopped and asked questions on the plots – some shared this year’s gardening challenges.
Most enjoyed the magnificent array of cakes and tea, with outside service provided by our younger helpers – thanks to you all! Many bought plants from the plant stall.
The event was very well organised by the committee, and our sincere thanks to them and to the many who came to help and participated . A huge effort, but very much rewarded.
More than £1000 was raised for the NGS charities.
View an online photo gallery of the occasion here. Photos by Vivienne Fowler and Bella Stebbings
In an experiment for the Spinal Injuries Association, who are keen to make gardening easier for those with mobility issues, Bill Young (54A) grew new potatoes (Duke of York) in a series of carboard wine boxes.
This method of growing potatoes within carboard boxes, is common in Australia and some parts of the USA.
Bill writes
It is ideal for wheelchair users, especially in conjunction with raised beds. Just pop the remains of the carboard box off, hey-presto, the new potatoes are in front of you. I lifted the first two plants today Saturday 8th. of June, and was very pleasantly surprised by the results. It was by far the best results I’ve had, nearly 5 lbs. of perfectly formed tubers. This method works, and I can only say – try it!
Method – I folded down the carboard lid, then folded up the bottom, it in effect created a double-walled tube of carboard. Placed the box on top of the soil. I added three or four inches of soil, then placed two chitting potatoes within the box, then covered with a mixture of compost and soil up to the brim. I watered them regularly, unfortunately they came under a sustained attack from slugs and snails. My effective remedy was to pick the slugs and snails off the plants, to be fed to the newts within Alberts pond. The potatoes grew very well, this I believe was due to the insulating properties of the cardboard. It in effect raised the plants off the colder ground. It insulated them from the colder wet soil and also the colder weather of this awful spring. The result speaks for itself – one excellent crop of new potatoes. It did however make my allotment look rather untidy, that is, until the potato shaw’s softened outlines and then covered the boxes.
The RGS plant sale held last week raised £400 which been donated to the Royal Hospital for Neuro- Disability. Thanks to all those who supported the event, bringing in many lovely plants for sale which sold more quickly that we anticipated!
Special thanks to all those who manned the stalls and so generously donated the plants. And thanks to everyone who sent in the pictures including Mark Sutcliffe and Jackie Savage.
