Garden Club – March 2023 – Brian Everest

Tatsfield Garden Club Meeting with Bryan Everest on 7th March 2023

Our garden club meeting in March was well supported by 27 keen Tatsfield gardeners and wow were we in for a treat. Bryan Everest entertained us so much that he lit up the WI Hall with his wit and humour and had us all in fits of laughter. Bryan began talking on how we should be pruning roses and care after dead heading. You must be ruthless, cut out the dead wood and then cut back hard to just above a leaf joint and you will be rewarded with a strong healthy rose bush. He feeds his roses twice a year, once now and again during flowering, plus spray the stems with a Black Spot treatment- as he said it is never too early to tackle the problem and continue this on a regular basis. He explained in detail how to take dahlia, chrysanthemum and delphinium cuttings and it is these new plants that will be full of vigour and give you a wonderful cut display.

Then he diverged into the vegetable world, especially onions, shallots and garlic. He buys his Sets in early January – before anyone else apparently, and plants them in single cells and keeps them in a cold frame or greenhouse ready for planting out in mid-March. He sows all his vegetable seeds in single cells, often three seeds to a cell so he can thin them out. By this he meant cauliflowers, cabbages, leeks, lettuce and beetroot. You must sow parsnips and carrots straight into the ground where they are to grow as they cannot be transplanted.

The Bryan moved onto our Spring Show. He was disappointed when he visited last year’s show that we only had one pot of daffodils exhibited, so Bryan being Bryan he bought along 10 pots of daffodils for people to take home and grow on for the show. He had orders for 6 more, which he will deliver to Kay Longley in the next week.

We had a break for refreshments and we were greeted to steaming mugs of coffee and tea along with homemade fruity bread and warm lemon drizzle cake.

We all left the hall far happier than when we had arrived with daffodils, trays of onions, shallots and garlic, plus sweet peas and chrysanthemums.

Thank you Bryan for sharing your expertise and good sense of humour.

Sue Warren