february 15th
Cliff Curd More Tips and tricks with VEGETABLES
Cliff gardens in Cockwood on a steep slope. The garden opens successfully in summer for charity through the NGS scheme. This year’s dates are June 28/29th and July 5/6th. He and his garden have also appeared on BBC TV Gardeners World. Cliff was excited to share with us all, that after 17 years of patience, he has a sizable GUAVA on the bush! For another exotic he also has PERSIMMON again this year.
He said that February was a challenging time for seed sowing with the present weather conditions, but what we can do is start chitting POTATOES ready for planting in the ground or in deep pots. He loves to encourage children and his grandchildren to find the buried treasure in the soil once the potatoes have grown and flowered. He also grows his CARROTS in pots as they avoid carrot fly if the plants are higher off the ground.
One member mentioned she grew them in sand very successfully.
All PEA and BEAN seeds are sensitive to cold and wet, it`s best to start them off in modules in slightly moist compost so they have good roots before planting out in their rows with support. At the first sign of black fly, nip out the tips as the black-fly are mainly attracted to the new growth. If a plant is infected, you could try a fine spray on your hosepipe to spray them off. Always pick Peas and Beans young for best flavour. He grows 4 seeds in a module, then plants out the whole pot – the pea shoots will hold each other up. He has set up wire mesh between 2 posts for the Peas to scramble up as they grow towards the sun. The young plants may need protection with fleece against mice and pigeons.
Cliff brought some SQUASH from home to show us that as long as the skin is ripened this vegetable will keep well for months.
LETTUCE likes a moist soil, however pigeons and slugs like this salad too. Cliff uses his own invention of a lemonade bottle with a wick to keep the slugs at bay, so the lettuce grows healthily.
Cliff is also experimenting with growing TOMATOES as cordons for a heavy crop. Most tomatoes will layer it they are trailed on the ground but that depends on variety. He grows 18 varieties at home and recommends these for good flavour: Black Sea Man, Kellogs Breakfast, and Sungold. He uses a “soup” of Nettles and Comfrey as a fertiliser in the watering routine.
january 18th
coffee Social
We have started our 165th year with a coffee social. Our celebration cake was cut by Val Forester and Sue Thompson, two of our longest serving members. Val was chair twice and a member of the committee for many years, Sue has been our show secretary for over 20 years now. The society was delighted to present Dawlish Community Transport, The Strand Center and the Methodist Church with cheques for £165 each as a thank you to all the support they give us through the year to hold our plant sales and our summer show. We were delighted to see so many of our members there alongside visitors.
november 2024
Trials and Tribulations to Growing Tea in Devon with Kathryn and Jo Harper
When they moved to Ashburton and had renovated their house, they decided that they wanted to use the 14 acres that went with their house in a purposeful way. They considered chickpeas and lentils; they ruled out wine and decided on tea. Their unexpected journey into tea started on new years day 2015 when they bought 500 seeds on the internet, along with 4 bags of compost and a mini greenhouse, starting themselves up for £48. Unfortunately, the seeds were of such a poor quality that only 12 germinated. Next, they went down to Penzance and took cuttings, ending up with 800 leaf node cuttings. After 2 years of trying, they had just 250 plants.
Then Nigel entered their lives, he is a tea specialist and an international consultant, he sourced good quality seeds from Nepal and from the 2,500 seeds within eight weeks they had 2,480 seedlings. As the plants need to grow on for 2 years before you plant them out and have a stem that is pencil thin, there next task was to purchase a poly tunnel to bring them on.
Still without a business plan and still working blind they started to plant up a tea garden. Then they needed to find out how to process tea, and build themselves a micro factory, importing the equipment from China. A tea house and classroom followed. The tea garden now has over 7,000 plants and they pick four times a year, starting in late May.
Tea is the second most drunk beverage after water.
Their tea tastes so good due to the low UV levels and low rainfall leading to slow growth leading to great flavour. They have just won an international for their teas. As the tea they sell still have the bud and two leaves compete you can achieve 4 to 5 infusions.