Newsletter
October 2007
Cookham and Cookham Dean Horticultural Society
NEXT
MEETING: Wednesday October 31st 7.30pm Cookham
Dean Village Hall “BULBS,
CORMS, RHIZOMES etc” Talk
by Brian Fisher
CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
Last month’s
meeting got us all off to a great start with an excellent talk given by Sue
Bradbury and Catherine Jago on their experiences of exhibiting at Chelsea. Although one realises that the work behind
the scenes in achieving a show garden at Chelsea however small, involves a lot
of work, I am sure that like myself, many members listening were absolutely in
awe of the amount of research, detail and very hard work which these two ladies
put into their tiny show garden.
The Committee
were very pleased with the support for our Fuchsia plant competition. We had twelve entries on the night and our
winner was Mary Fallon (left) – well done Mary. Mary also does a vital job each month in organising the
tea/coffee rota for our meetings, but could do with more volunteers. Please give her your name if you are
prepared to help – the more people who volunteer the less often you may be
asked to assist!
Please would
everyone attending meetings make sure they sign the register. It is very
important for Health and Safety Regulations that we know exactly who is in the
building in the highly unlikely event of any sort of emergency.
We will have the
book by the main door when you arrive, and also pass it around during the
meeting for those who may have missed it.
Back to
Fuchsias. There was a very interesting
article which some of you may have seen in one of the weekend papers recently
giving a warning about recent pests which they believe have come in from Europe
and one in particular called the “Fuchsia
gall mite” – a tiny insect that lives in the growing tip of the plant
and eventually causes the plant to die.
At the moment there is no known pesticide to get rid of this bug, but
some of the ones on the market are thought to give the fuchsias some
protection.Watch this space.
At next month’s
meeting we will be starting off the Society Bulb Competition and selling our
usual 3 bulbs for 50p. If you cannot
make the meeting but would like me to save you some bulbs please give me a ring
on 01628 484821 and I will put them on one side.
Brian.
PS The
lilac rose tulip with curved petals, Picture, mentioned by Sue Bradbury
is listed in the Bloms Bulbs catalogue 2007. It is 50cm tall and has an RHS
Award of Garden Merit .
Seed ordering
Thank you to everyone who ordered seeds and plants last year
through the society bulk ordering scheme. We hope you were satisfied with the
discounts. We have decided not to use Marshalls again (for obvious reasons!).
This year the catalogues will be from Suttons and
Dobies. Although they are sister companies and there is inevitably some overlap
in products Dobies offer quite a varied vegetable selection.
Again the discount is 10% on everything in the catalogues and
depending on seed sales we may qualify for a greater discount.
Having gained a bit of experience collating the orders this year I
know that some people would like their orders to go off before Christmas whereas
some people like to spend the Christmas holidays making their order out to be
sent off in January. Therefore this year there will be 2 orders. The order
deadlines will be Friday 7th December and then Wednesday 30th January.
The catalogues and order forms should be available at the
October meeting.
Many thanks
Chris Sibbald
A visit to the doctor
The Chelsea Physic Garden is no ordinary garden, with flowerbeds, glasshouse, pond and pergola. Although they are there, the layout and organisation are not on familiar lines. Plants are not grown according to height, colour and for their aesthetic value. Instead, the garden is organised according to function, and origin.
A section is given over to Pharmaceutical Plants, a veritable chemist’s shop. Here you can find cures for all of today’s ills, from asthma, angina and cancer through to psychiatric illness and parasites. Plants are organised according to the condition they treat.
You may think these are the remedies of yesterday, used by our ancestors before the advent of ‘modern medicine’. In fact, we still rely on these plants today as a source of chemicals and cures, it seems there is one out there for all our ailments if only we could find them. One in four medicines are of plant origin, although nowadays many of them can be made synthetically. Thus you will find Taxus brevifolia (Yew) used to source Taxon, needed in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer. This is a very expensive source as one tree can only provide sufficient Taxon for one treatment. An alternative is being grown Taxus baccata as twigs and cuttings of this tree can be used to produce the precursor for Taxon, much more economical therefore.
Here too you will find a cure for cancer in Catharanthus roseus (Madagascan Periwinkle). This is prolific in the Tropics so there is no problem with sustainability. Having trouble sleeping? Look no further than Valerian officianalis (Valerian) to aid a better night’s sleep. In need of an eye operation? Then drops from Atropa belladonna (Deadly night-shade) can be used to dilate the pupils. Itching with eczema? Then try an extract of Oenothera biennis (Evening primrose) If you have indigestion from the delicious cakes served in the tea room (worth the visit alone!), you can ease your stomach with tea brewed from Menthe piperata (Peppermint) The list goes on……
Another section of the garden grows plants used for medicinal purposes in different countries and cultures. A relaxing walk around the Perfumery and Aromatherapy area can then lead in to the vegetable plot and along a Historical walk to the Botanical Order Beds. The botanists will appreciate the monocotyledons and dicotyledons growing separately! Some rare Flora from Crete and surrounding area are to be found in the oldest rockery in the world, consisting of volcanic lava, and stone from the Tower of London.
Such a lot to see in so small a space, it could make your head ache, although this is very unlikely, should it do so, then help is at hand in the form of Fillipendula ulmaria (Meadowsweet) from which salicylic acid was originally made and which led to the introduction of ….aspirin.
A bit of history
The Society of Apothecaries, who intended it as a place where their apprentices could learn to grow medicinal plants and study their uses, founded London’s oldest Botanic Garden in 1673. Today the garden continues to be a place of education. The four acre walled site was originally directly on the riverbank, so the Apothecaries could set off in their barge on “herborising” expeditions to collect plants.
On a plaque in the Herb Garden is a reminder of one of the Garden’s foremost benefactors, Dr. Hans Sloane, who defined an herb garden as:
“A place in which you can learn better to distinguish good and usefull plants from those that bear resemblance to them and yet are harmfull.”
This was rather frighteningly illustrated by our guide who invited us to distinguish between a sprig of Sweet Cicely (a culinary herb) and one of Hemlock (a deadly poison), identical to an untrained eye. On our return home there was much sniffing of our Sweet Cicely plants to check for that telltale aniseed smell!
The garden is open April to October on Sundays and Bank Holidays 12-6pm, Wednesdays 12-dusk, Thursdays and Fridays 12-5pm. Nearest underground is Sloane Square, a ten minute walk, from where it is well signed.
A smaller but none the less interesting Physic Garden can be seen locally at Chenies Manor near Amersham. www.cheniesmanor.co.uk
Becky Pinniger & Mary Downes
Dates for your diary
Saturday
October 20th 11.30 and 2.30 Tour
of the Savill Garden with the Keeper of the Garden, Mark Flanagan. Free to
NCCPG members but normal entry charges apply.. Contact Jim Rodda jrodda@ukf.net
or 01494 728527
On Tuesday
,23rd October Brian Fisher will be talking on “Autumn
Colour in the Garden” in aid of Oxfam.
Fair Trade coffee and home made cakes, sale of gardening books.
Venue: Holy Trinity Parish Centre, Cookham
Time: 10.30am
Tickets £6 from 01628 628829 or The
Stationery Depot on Station Parade.
THE
GARDENER’S HYMN
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all
But what we never mention, though gardeners now it’s true
Is when He made the goodies, He made the baddies too
All things spray and swattable, disasters great and small
All things paraquatable, the Lord God made them all
The greenfly on the roses, the maggots in the peas
Manure that fills our noses, He also gave us these
The fungus on the goose-gogs, the club root on the greens
The slugs that eat the lettuce and chew the aubergines
The drought that kills the fuchsias, the frost that nips the buds
The rain that drowns the seedlings, the blight that hits the spuds
The midges and mosquitoes, the nettles and the weeds
The pigeons in the green stuff, the sparrows on the seeds
The fly that gets the carrots, the wasp that eat the plums
How black the gardener’s outlook, though green may be his thumb
But still we gardeners labour, midst vegetables and flowers
And pray that what hits his neighbours, will somehow bypass ours
All things bright and beautiful………………..
(With thanks
to Alan and Sheila Jay for this.)
A Surfeit of Swiss Chard & Chillies? - No Problem!
Arriving home from holiday, I was delighted to find that our rather strange weather had suited the Swiss chard, which despite the tornado, had grown to Triffid-like proportions in my absence. A hunt through the cookery bookshelf led me to the following recipe which I adapted from Madhur Jaffrey.
Spicy Lamb with Chard
Serves 2-3
3 tbs. vegetable oil
6 black peppercorns, 3 cloves, a bay leaf, 3 cardamom pods
1 large onion, chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
500g cubed, boned lamb (eg. leg steaks or shoulder)
1 heaped tsp. each of ground cumin and coriander
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped or ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
½ tsp salt or to taste
3tbs. plain yoghurt, stirred
about 8 large or 12 small Swiss chard leaves, ribs removed, or spinach
1 tsp. garam marsala
Heat the oil in a casserole dish or large saucepan, add the peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, cardamom pods, onion and ginger. Stir and fry over medium heat until the onion is beginning to colour. Add the meat, salt, garlic, cumin, coriander and chilli or cayenne. Stir and fry for one minute before you add the yoghurt, a tablespoon at a time, waiting until each spoonful has been absorbed. Add the Swiss chard leaves, torn into smallish pieces. Keep stirring until the chard has wilted. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 45minutes. Sprinkle in the garam marsala for the final few minutes cooking.
The whole spices are not really meant to be eaten, but it won’t matter if you do.
Serve with plain naan bread or Basmati rice, accompanied perhaps by a cucumber raita or a carrot and onion salad, sprinkled with toasted cumin seeds.
Mary Downes
Deadline
for copy for the November newsletter is 6th November. Contributions
to Gill Townend on 01628 483092 or gilltownend@aol.com.
Many thanks to those who regularly
help me out, BUT there are many members out there who could contribute handy
hints and tips....do let us share your knowledge and opinions!