News


NEW CHAIRMAN

We are very pleased to welcome our new Chairman – Daniel Collins, Daniel is a member of the well known Collins Family and although he is a resident of Swindon, is a frequent visitor to Cold Ash.

SUMMER SHOW 2024

When you’re a gardener, you never know what challenges you will face. Last year it was the heat, this year the rain, but we still had some lovely exhibits. Congratulations to everyone who managed to protect their plants from the inclement weather and take part in our summer show on Saturday 14th September.

There were a good range of flowers including some lovely dahlias and an eye-catching blue delphinium. The wetter summer meant there were some good-sized marrows and delicious-looking figs. For the heaviest squash category, it was a close competition – with only 12 oz (about 300g) separating the two heaviest entries. The best horticultural exhibit was some perfect runner beans. The Homecraft categories were popular, with bread plaits, cheese straws, decorated cupcakes and various preserves. Some of the jars had such good seals that we struggled to open them for judging! The photography was a close competition between Anna Cload and Amy Collins. Anna won one cup, Amy the other. The juniors were asked to make Olympic mascots this year – and they had enjoyed using their imaginations and some oddly shaped fruit and vegetables. Well done to Albert and Elizabeth Grew in the 5 – 7 age range and to 8 children from Cold Ash Pre-School in the under 5 age range.

Cup winners:

Bryce Hamblin Cup (Vegetable Collections) Grahame Collins

Sir Henry Barclay Cup (Vegetable classes V1-27) Laurence Grew

Attfield Cup (Dahlia classes) Chris Jones

Dawson Cup (Flower Section) Chris Jones

Mann Cup (Vegetable classes V1-27 plus Flower Section) Laurence Grew

Edwin Ettridge Cup (Best Horticultural Exhibit) Chris Jones

Acland Cup (Homecraft section) Amy Collins

Carol Child Cup (Best Horticultural Photograph) Anna Cload

Mrs A M Collins Cup (Photography Section) Amy Collins

Herbert Cup (Whole Show) Laurence Grew

Dorothy Walters Cup Laurence Grew

(Spring and Summer Shows, excl. Collections)

RHS Banksian Medal (Horticultural classes) Laurence Grew

Many thanks to the committee and volunteers, the judges – Roger Butler (Flowers and Vegetables), Jenny Butler (Homecraft) and Dr Paul Sievers (Photography) and to everyone who took part.

Last, but not least, we had lots of good quality plants for sale – thanks to Becky, Jen and Jo who ran the plant stall plus everyone who donated plants.

SPRING SHOW 2024

We held our Spring Show and plant sale on Saturday 23rd March. After such a wet and gloomy but quite mild winter, it was so nice to see swathes of colour and the scent was lovely. The lack of frosts meant the camellias and other spring flowering shrubs were looking good. There were tulips and other spring flowers in bloom and there was a good selection of narcissi, too. The exhibitors were not just from Cold Ash and surrounding villages but also from Thatcham, which meant there had been a range of growing conditions and microclimates!

A total of 21 exhibitors produced 117 exhibits of flowers, arrangements and artwork, which made for a good show. The Flower Judge, Kelvin Mason, was especially impressed by the narcissi grown by Eddy Smith – who won both the Hardwicke Cup for the most points in the narcissi section and the Hillman Cup for the most points in the flower section, too. The miniature arrangement in a cup and saucer was popular, giving the Floral Art judge, Marylin Piper, a challenge with a total of seven entries in one class. The Mann cup for the most points in Floral Art was won by Molly Davison with her impressive arrangements.

The Handcrafts included some interesting creations – a latch hook decorated cushion in the pattern of a butterfly, a sculpted and decorated clay turtle, a bunch of fabric tulips and a

lidded basket woven out of pine needles and using waxed thread. There was also a table runner and a carved wooden long-handled ladle/cup, plus a knitted blanket, drawings, paintings, embroidery, tapestry and mixed craft. Patricia Blunt was delighted to win the MacDonnell Cup for the best handcraft exhibit with her colourful painting of ‘George’, an imaginary bird. The judge, Diana Amesbury, said, “I love ‘George’! Great colours. ‘George’ is fun and I would hang him on my wall”.

The Handcrafts included some interesting creations – a latch hook decorated cushion in the pattern of a butterfly, a sculpted and decorated clay turtle, a bunch of fabric tulips and a

lidded basket woven out of pine needles and using waxed thread. There was also a table runner and a carved wooden long-handled ladle/cup, plus a knitted blanket, drawings, paintings, embroidery, tapestry and mixed craft. Patricia Blunt was delighted to win the MacDonnell Cup for the best handcraft exhibit with her colourful painting of ‘George’, an imaginary bird. The judge, Diana Amesbury, said, “I love ‘George’! Great colours. ‘George’ is fun and I would hang him on my wall”.

Many thanks to the exhibitors, the judges, the committee members and helpers. We are grateful to those who donated plants and those that ran the very popular plant stall.

Many thanks to the exhibitors, the judges, the committee members and helpers. We are grateful to those who donated plants and those that ran the very popular plant stall.

October Tuesday 1st, 2023

A Guide to Pruning – Chris Bird

SEASONAL WREATH MAKING

Our November meeting was a workshop to make a natural seasonal wreath from leaves and dried flowers. The intention was that each wreath could be refreshed with  suitable additions to keep it attractive over the festive period. As last year, the workshop was led by Natasha Wilton, who runs Speckled Hen Interiors from her home in Westrop Green. Natasha has an ‘organic approach’ to flower arranging using items foraged from the garden and hedgerows rather than using imported flowers or plastic items. There were 13 participants and each started with a ring made from natural materials bound with wire.  By adding various evergreen branches, dried flowers, pinecones and some dried fruits, supplied by Natasha and Jane, some delightful decorations were created. The participants found the evening creative, informative and interesting, so thanks to Natasha and Jane for organising the event. The end results looked extremely professional and were carried home with pride. Look out for them on front doors about the village!

Cold Ash Gardening Club Summer Show

Cold Ash Gardening Club Summer Show was held on Saturday 9th September in the Acland Hall. The sun shone and Saturday was recorded as the hottest day of the year, which was a fitting end to a very unusual growing season.

 The committee had been concerned that, after a very hot June, the cooler and wetter months of July and August, fewer exhibits would be entered for the show. However, these worries proved to be unwarranted for there was an excellent display of flowers, fruit and vegetables on day.

Chairwoman, Rhona Tucker, commented that: ‘Overall the show provided an excellent example of what villagers produce in their gardens.’ 2023 proved to be an excellent year for growing dahlias and visitors were greeted by a spectacle of from the deepest shades of purple, a riot of reds and oranges, all mixed with a variety of sedate pastel Shades

E Smith won first prize for his exquisite deep purple pom-pom dahlias, whilst Ken Elms took first prize for his large, ostentatious cactus-type dahlias of apricot tinged with deep red. All the dahlias on display in the various classes were stunning and a pleasure to behold.

There were some magnificent specimens in the vegetable classes and stiff competition to win first prize among those entering: squashes, runner beans, French beans, carrots, potatoes and onions. There was a good selection of tomatoes on display: it is always difficult for the average amateur grower to find five tomato fruits that are identical in both shape, size and maturity.

A wide selection of fruits were on display despite that fact that this year fruit growers have been plagued with wasps and hornets. As evidence of global warming there were ripe grapes and figs in the ‘Any other fruit’ category.  The judge commented that the fruit and vegetable exhibits were of a high quality and as good as he had seen in any show this year.

The photography competition produced some excellent and charming images. In the ‘Single Flower’ category a delicate pale-yellow and white iris against a drab grey background won a first prize and the winner of the ‘Wildlife’ subject was an image of a shy frog. An image of allowed the ‘Garden Tools’ allowed the competitors to use their imagination and of three well-used and pretty ancient shovels and spades leaning against an old shed was most evocative and won first prize.

The Junior competition to construct a monster from fruit and vegetables allowed the entrants to use their imagination and come with some very scary-looking creatures. Children from Cold Ash Pre-School took

part and let their imaginations run riot with some very spiny specimens you would not like to meet.

Gardening Club chairwoman, Rhona Tucker, commented on the day: ‘Overall the show provided an excellent example of what villagers produce in their gardens.’

FRANCHI SEEDS OF ITALY

It is always a treat to have an engaging speaker who has an enthusiasm for his subject and can talk knowledgeably about it. This was the case at our September meeting when Paolo Arrigo gave a talk ‘Italy from seed to plate’. Paolo was “2019 Slow Food Person of the year”. The Slow Food Movement promotes local food and traditional cooking. It encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock from the local ecosystem and encourages sustainable foods and local businesses. Slow Food is concerned with quality rather than quantity and you can think of it as the opposite of fast food. The audience was tested on their general knowledge. Do you know how many of the major British seed brands are produced in Britain? The audience opined 3 or 4. Well, apart from Suttons Seeds, who produce sweet pea seeds in this country, the answer is none. Most seeds we buy at garden centres are produced in: China, Israel or The Netherlands. In Britain we have lost most of our local vegetable varieties, so the seeds we sow in our gardens are not necessarily the best adapted to our climate.  By contrast in Italy, Franchi Seeds, begun in 1793, has preserved many local varieties of vegetables and these are suited to the varied climates in different regions around Italy. Paolo’s argument was that you succeed best by growing vegetable varieties using seeds that come from places with similar environmental conditions.

We learned lots of interesting things. Did you know that vegetables seeds were introduced to Britain by the Romans? Fennel growing beside the Hadrian’s Wall probably originates from seeds spat out by Roman soldiers, who chewed fennel seeds to stave off hunger and reduce wind! The Emperor Tiberius introduced the British to parsnips and we are the only Europeans who eat parsnips as a vegetable. When Signor Franchi was asked to include parsnip seeds in his collection, his response was ‘What are these white carrots that the British eat?’ We had fascinating tour of Italy and its various vegetables and cuisine with lots of advice on which vegetable varieties grow best in a British climate. All in all, an enlightening and entertaining evening. We hope he comes again.

BENS BEES

June’s talk on bees was a fascinating introduction to the world of bees and beekeeping. Ben, the Head Beekeeper of Ben’s Berkshire Bees, drew in a large audience. He started beekeeping in 2014 and after getting his first hive Ben was hooked and has gradually increased the number of hives which now runs to over 100, mainly based between Cold Ash Hill and Ashmore Green Road.
Ben has worked towards the British Bee Keeping Association (BBKA) qualification and is registered as a bee farmer, which has set him on a professional basis. He now breeds queen bees, which is a more profitable operation, and sells them across the country.
He told us that there over a hundred types of bees in the UK but only honeybees (Apis mellifera) produce honey. They are not endangered. In London there is an over density of hives which has resulted in a drop in honey yield.
Ben focussed on three different groups of bees which fall into two categories, solitary and sociable.
Solitary bees – live on their own. They can make burrows underground, or live in quarry faces, old wood, and even masonry. A female solitary bee builds her nest and provides food for her young without the help of any worker bees. Despite this some solitary bees may appear to live in colonies, with many bees making their nests close to each other in a suitable piece of habitat. There are over 250 kinds of solitary bee.

Social bees
As their name suggests, social bees live in groups. Honeybees are particularly sociable and can live in groups of up to 50,000 together in a single hive. Bumblebees are also sociable but live in smaller groups of 50-500. Both types depend on queen bees who lay all the eggs for the group.
A honeybee colony typically consists of three kinds of adults: workers, drones and a queen. Several thousand worker bees cooperate in nest building, food collection, and brood rearing. Each member has a definite task to perform, related to

its adult age but surviving and reproducing take the combined efforts of the entire colony. Individual bees (workers, drones or queens) cannot survive without the support of the colony. A queen bee can lay about 1500 eggs per day but can be killed by the colony if production falls.
Drones do not sting and their sole purpose is to mate, they will be disposed of at the end of the season to save resources. Workers are essential members of the colony. They forage for pollen and nectar, tend to queens and drones, feed larvae, ventilate the hive, defend the nest and perform other tasks to preserve the survival of the colony. The average life span of worker bees is approximately six weeks. A lone queen early in the season can produce her own colony by laying worker bees and progressing from there but sometimes a colony will split and take up residence in another area.
Bumblebees are distinctive for their fuzzy, pile-covered bodies and bold colours, which helps them ward off predators. Unlike honeybees, they don’t make honey, as they don’t need to store food for winter – they typically live for one year, at most. Bumblebees are among the most important pollinators.
To help the bees in our gardens we were advised to avoid pruning at the beginning and the end of the season, grow spring bulbs for a supply pollen and nectar and ivy for later in the year, when there aren’t so many flowers around. A bee hotel for solitary bees made from hollow stems, facing south provides a good habitat. Ones with cardboard tubes that can be replaced are particularly good.

ACTION FOR THE RIVER KENNET Report by Fred Davison

May’s talk by Anna Forbes from ARK provided a fascinating description of conservation work to protect the rivers Kennet and Pang. The Kennet is some 45 miles long and a most important tributary for the River Thames, contributing up to half its flow in summer months. In contrast the River Pang is a mere 14 miles long, with a source a few miles to the west of Compton. Both these waterways are precious chalk streams and havens for plants and wildlife which, increasingly, need our protection. Animals such as water voles, grass snakes, reed bunting, brown trout, and brook lamprey flourish in the River Kennet. Crayfish are also common in some places, although these are American invaders that have escaped from crayfish farms and replaced our native species. Ark has tried to reintroduce eels into the Kennet by rearing and releasing freshwater elvers. Hopefully, these will grow to adulthood and one day return across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea to breed. We met ‘Margaret’, an eel who had been reared as part of this project but has been kept as a ‘pet’ and yet to be released into the wild.

ARK volunteers carry out an amazing amount of work to keep our local rivers and their banks clean and in good condition. Volunteers do litter picking, removing all manner of things such as supermarket trolleys and even old mattresses from the riverbed. They also carry out important survey work: checking numbers of fish and invertebrates such as caddis flies in the river to monitor the health of the river.

They look out for vole latrines to assess the population of the very shy water voles. Most important of all, and we can all contribute here, volunteers take walks along the same sections of riverbank at regular intervals to check for foreign invaders such as mink and to look out for any signs of pollution. Since the Government has drastically cut back on funds for The Environment Agency to carry out regular monitoring, it has become the responsibility of volunteer groups, such as ARK, to provide early warnings by sounding the alarm when sewerage pollution is released from storm overflows.

Volunteers take all shapes and forms and schoolchildren get a great deal of fun and satisfaction from conservation work. There are also plenty of opportunities for retirees to don a set of waders and enjoy the benefits of fresh air and teamwork. If you are interested in volunteering to work with a group on the Pang or the Kennet you can get more information from www.riverkennet.org

Gardeners can make an important contribution to keep our local rivers and streams healthy. Advice to them includes:

  • If you garden near a river or stream, don’t mow right up to the edge – leave a buffer zone between the water and mown land.
  • A buffer of vegetation slows down surface water
  • run-off.
  • Always leave watercress in the river.
  • Keep your compost heap well away from a river or stream.
  • Never throw garden waste into the river.
  • If you have a septic tank, make sure it is well maintained.
  • Slow the flow – look for ways to catch and slow the flow of water through your garden.
  • Install a water butt and avoid the hose pipe, which can use up to 1000 litres per hour.
  • Use water wisely as our water supply relies on aquifers that also feed the river.

Finally, high levels of phosphorus in rivers cause algal blooms. Phosphorus enters waterways from treated sewage, septic tanks and sewage spills. Dishwasher and laundry detergents can account for 16% of the phosphate content of sewage in treatment works and septic tanks. So, if everyone used zero phosphate products, sewage effluent would be much less polluting and our local rivers cleaner. Choose phosphate-free, eco-friendly detergents.

Spring Show 25th March, 2023 CUP WINNERS

Denis Hardwicke Cup ……… E Smith

Hillman Cup ………. ……….. C Jones

MacDonnell Cup ……… …… J Cox

Mann Cup ………. …………. Molly Davison and Jane Geater