Tatsfield in Bloom (TIB) report to the THS AGM 2022

Our 2022 Tatsfield in Bloom project is going very well. The introduction this year of small shrubs and perennials (thanks Pam and Jan) are settling in, we look forward to seeing them at their best in their second year.

The new bed beneath and village centre noticeboard looked very good soon after planting but it is struggling now in the very dry conditions.

The summer bedding scheme has made a big impact in the village centre, however the very vigorous ‘Surfinia’ Petunias are taking some work with dead heading and cutting back the vigorous purple colours to stop them overwhelming the yellows and whites.

Watering all these plants has been quite a challenge (thanks to Paul for organising the watering teams) during the current very dry conditions but, so far, we have coped very well. We are expecting Thames Water to announce  restrictions on the use of water. All our watering has been by watering can with the exception of the Tatol Bed (thanks to Jim McKenzie); if there is a ban on using hosepipes we will have to review how we can keep the plants going.

We have had to restrict our Saturday morning work in the village to caring for the bedding plants as our numbers are now down to just a handful of volunteers. We will continue to try and recruit more volunteers and hope that our numbers do not fall further.

The final part of our 2022 Jubilee project will be to plant the many young seedling trees that we have been saving for two years. We are in discussions with the Parish Council to find suitable sites around the parish and hope to get the planting done before the end of the year.

Jon Allbutt