Jackdaw Chatter - The Quarterly Magazine about Stow-cum-Quy
Hello from Darwin Nurseries
Hello there, I hope this issue of Jackdaw finds
you all well and healthy and not too cold, not used to the cold are we? Our
winters are soon over now but we had some long cold snaps a few years ago.
I remember in the sixties when it froze for a month and my father had a Fordson
super major with a snowplough on, the village (Pirton in Hertfordshire) where
I was brought up was cut off and he was out for what seemed an eternity wrapped
up in his army trench coat and after making a way through some big snowdrifts
to open the roads, he came home with his ears and fingers close to frostbite.
Haven’t seasons and tractors changed so much? Is it for the better?
Well it has been a busy time here at the Nurseries, we have been planting
an orchard, fifty trees in all, they did not take long to plant but it was
fencing them in and digging the wire in to stop the rabbits from eating the
bark that took the time, they have been busy munching on so many trees, it
is frustrating.
We have planted a good variety cherry, plum, apple, pear, and to top it all
a couple of walnut.
We then fenced off one of the plots, doing the same with burying the wire
so we can plant all the things that the rabbits love to eat whilst the other
plots can grow things that they do not seem to touch potatoes pumpkins etc.
Hopefully we will be much more productive than the last years crop.
Whilst we were working down the field it was so tranquil, some days we could
hear the roar from the a14 and the noise of the planes from the airport but
other days nature had a way of intervening. We had Field fares and redwings
all around, a robin shared our work by feeding right next to us, and a green
woodpecker giving it’s laughing type call, English partridge passed through
not taking any notice of us at all as well as all the other birds, it’s
a shame when our lives are so busy that we miss out on so much.
The re vamp of the work shop has now finished and we are very happy with the
result, it is so much warmer and user friendly also with the bonus of so much
more light now that the patio doors are in place.
I know Xmas has long gone or so it seems but I must thank Mrs Fromont and
her family for the wonderful demonstration of their fair organ. It poured
with rain but like true troopers they did not let any one down and we were
truly rewarded with the sound of Xmas carols, I walked up to the road and
could still hear it’s music. I recommend any body that knows where and
when they are demonstrating their fair organ again to go and have a listen
(and do not be afraid to ask questions as the whole family are so informative)
Thanks again.
Well it will soon be time for all the bedding plants to arrive and we will
be busy potting up and making hanging baskets, we made over seven hundred
last year and our co workers really enjoy this time of year. We will be holding
a hanging basket making demonstration this year, Caroline will do an introduction
talk on the history of the Nurseries, where we came from and where we would
like to go or grow from here and I will be doing a demonstration and talk
about colours textures etc and making a couple of hanging baskets, then it
will be the turn for a couple of people to have a go at making their own.
Please see posters nearer the time or give us a ring at the end of March.
Tickets are £1.00 each and it will be limited to fifty.Lastly here are
a few notes for the garden for March
Plant of the month: Hollyhocks
Now is the time to plant these traditional cottage garden favourites, grown
for their tall spikes of flowers in a range of different colours. Select a
site in full sun with well-drained soil. Keep an eye out for rust and spray
with a Fungus Fighter at the first signs of the problem.
Prune late flowering hybrid Clematis back to within 20cm from ground level.
Sow hardy vegetable crops outside, such as Leeks, Parsnips, Spinach, Turnips
and potatoes.
Sow early crops of herbs under glass
And lastly please remember be happy with horticulture
Till next time.
Mark Cornell
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