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Twelve of us had such a lovely afternoon with Lynda Creegan on Tuesday. We had our usual discussion comparing notes on the state of our vegetables and everyone seemed to be enjoying a good growing season.

Lynda has an extensive small holding and we were all delighted to see a multitude of raised beds full to bursting with every sort of vegetable. The squashes were already large and orange, the potatoes ready for digging, the corn ripening, soft fruit looking good and that is only a fraction of what is growing!

Lynda has some beautiful goats which are providing excellent manure for her raised beds. Goat manure has the advantage of not needing to be rotted down for a year, thus there is a steady supply. When we had inspected the vegetable beds we admired the Golden Guernsey goats who are now enjoying retirement after producing many offspring and having been milked by Lynda for cheese making. (See Photo Gallery below)

We had a delicious tea together afterwards and some of us bought jars of Lynda's honey from their hives. Many thanks Lynda.

Next month, August, we shall take a break and reconvene in September at Meryl Evan's house. I will give everyone details nearer the time. 

Enjoy the Summer holidays! Joy Collett

Another beautiful day when our Vegetable Group had a lovely meeting at the home of Carelle Sherwood. Ten of us sat in the shade outside and shared information about our potagers. Our format is always the same, giving each person a chance to tell of their successes and failures and the group will then give advice and make comments.

Several of us had been troubled by salad rocket leaves and other brassicas being nibbled into a lacy pattern. Helen Gray was onto the case immediately and identified the flea beetle.  An internet site suggested sticky papers being placed over the crop and I also discovered you can spray with 2 parts alcohol, five parts water and a teaspoon of liquid soda. Val Ford has since let me know that Yellow Eco Sticky Traps are very effective. Apparently the insects even like the colour yellow! Perhaps we shall eliminate this beasty. 

A few of the members had been disappointed with their tomatoes.  All the rain we have had seems to have caused tomato blight although Meryl Evans found that some of them were cheering up with a good feed and sunshine.

John Mitchell brought along some young butternut squash plants for anyone who wanted them and Joy Collett brought turks turban seedlings for distribution. We shall all have plenty of squashes. Helen Gray brought along garlic, just harvested and a basket of rhubarb arrived too.

Carelle walked us around the garden where we admired plenty of fully laden fruit trees and then to her potager which consists of a substantial amount of large raised beds. It is an impressive sight with every sort of vegetable, including the brassicas.  Raspberries were plentiful and were being picked each day and the asparagus and rhubarb had done very well.  All of this was interspersed with some pretty cutting flowers, including the zinnias, already blooming.

We finished our afternoon with a delicious tea.  Carelle had surpassed herself with wonderful cakes and sandwiches! On behalf of us all, thank you, Carelle.

Joy Collett

The second of our 2018 Vegetable Group Meetings was held the home of Ariane Saveal who lives in Salle Lavallette. There was a good number present and it was a wonderfully warm afternoon to explore Ariane's lovely property on a mill stream.            We started our meeting, as usual, by telling each other what we have planted, what is and is not doing well and what we hope to achieve. IIt seemed that with a cold period from the end of April and beginning of May several seeds didn't germinate - beetroot and carrot seeds were mentioned quite a bit. On the positive side, however, most of the members were able to relate successes with bean plants, courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes;  to name just a few. Some of us had real successes with broad beans which are ready to eat. Several of those present had some good looking soft fruit so we shall await samples at the next meeting.  We had a lovely walk around Ariane's garden. She has a very good sized potager with several beds and a wonderful orchard area which is being developed.      Ariane went on a course locally to learn about grafting fruit trees and we were able to see the results of her efforts with several splendid specimens of heritage varieties. That was something that inspired a lot of us and we hope we might be able to give everyone a little more information about these courses in the future. Everything in the potager looked healthy and being beside the water was well irrigated.

  A most enjoyable meeting that ended with a wonderful tea and we do thank Ariane for her hospitality. Joy Collett 

 The Special Interest Vegetable Group met on Tuesday, 24th April at the home of Joy Collett.  It was a well attended meeting and a dozen of us had plenty to tell each other about their plans, what they had planted and expectations.     Most of the group had already sown a variety of vegetable seeds and potatoes but there was a difference of opinion on putting out young plants as there is always the danger of a May frost.     There was a bit of seed swapping and Lynda Creegan had brought along runner beans, pumpkin seeds and castor oil seeds. Joy had enjoyed some success with the Turks Turban pumpkin and had seeds to give away.   Helen Harrison and John Mitchell brought along some excellent rhubarb and had asparagus plants to give away.     It seems that asparagus has had a good degree of success and both Sheila Harris, Carelle Sherwood and Helen Harrison had more than enough.

 We had a look at Joy's small potager where the broad beans are now beginning to pod but apart from some good looking raspberries, loganberries and tayberries there was not yet much to see here, unlike my neighbour's potager where we all admired his endless rows of perfectly aligned vegetables.  Afterwards  we had tea and agreed that the next meeting would be held  on Tuesday, 22nd May when Ariane Saveal agreed to host the meeting in Salle -Lavallette. Joy Collett