Club Events.....
Looking forward to the coming months, here is an outline programme.
Friday September 10th _ We have a meeting in the sdf in Coutures when the Herb Group will speak about their special interests and two speakers will finish the Rose Group’s presentation, held over from April. The presentations will take place before and after the pot luck lunch, the Herb Group in the morning and the Rose Group in the afternoon. There will also be a book sale to raise funds for the IGC. All details are below.
11. 30 Herb Group Presentation
The following is to support the presentation at the meeting on 10th
September & Gill Howl suggests that you print them to accompany the talk
to save giving handouts at the meeting- if you would like to download them
from Gills originals, click here:
Herb group handouts.
BOOKS
FOR FURTHER READING
Jekka's Herb Cookbook by Jekka McVicar
(Hardback June 2010 £25 or £14.99 from Amazon)
Jekka's Complete Herb Book by Jekka McVicar
Grow your own Drugs by James Wong
The Herb Book by Arabella Boxer and Philippa Back
Marks & Spencer publication 1980 available from Abebooks.co.uk
Recipes from a French Herb Garden by Geraldene Holt
World of Herbs by Lesley Bremness – 1990
Herb Gardening by Claire Loewenfeld – 1970
Health Secrets of Plants & Herbs by Maurice Mességué – 1981
(these last four books are available second-hand from amazon.co.uk)
Comfrey for Gardeners from www.gardenorganic.org.uk
HOUSEHOLD & GARDEN USES FOR HERBS
INSECT REPELLENT
Equal amounts of dried rosemary, wormwood (artemisia absinthium) and sage leaves
Strip the leaves from the stalks and crush. Mix together and place in bowls in rooms to deter flying insects. Effective for about a month – then replace.
MOTH REPELLENT
Equal amounts of dried tansy, rosemary, thyme and wormwood & vodka
Strip the leaves as above and crush finely. Mix together with a dash of vodka. Place into cotton, muslin or jute sachets and tie off. Pop into cupboards and drawers to deter moths. When they first stop giving off their scent give the bags a squeeze to release more volatile oils. Next time, they will need replacing.
Strew pennyroyal in doorways or cupboards to repel ants and most other insects.
Bunches of tansy, southernwood (artemisia abrotanum) or elder leaves deter flies and bluebottles.
The prunings of disinfectant herbs such as thyme, sage, rosemary or lavender provide a germ-killing solution for use on kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Boil the leaves and stems for half an hour, then strain. Store in the fridge for up to one week.
Vases of fresh herbs perfume rooms and, as the plant essences evaporate, they cool and purify the air.
In the kitchen, dried aromatic herbs can be added to oven gloves or a tea-cosy by tucking them inside the hem or a specially made pocket. The handling and heat releases the scent.
Sprigs of elder or bog myrtle (myrica gale) affixed to hats minimize summer midges – and lavender or wormwood deter flies.
Sweet Waters can be used for scenting linen or sprinkled around rooms or as a final hair rinse for a subtle perfume. Make a strong decoction of leaves or flowers in a covered pan, then strain well. Use rosemary, lemon verbena, sweet myrtle, bergamot, sweet marjoram, bay, costmary or eau-de-cologne mint.
Rub a sage leaf over your teeth to clean and polish them.
Place a pot of the small-leaved and compact Greek basil on a kitchen window sill to deter flies.
Mice are deterred by the smell of mint or tansy leaves.
Use winter savory with Jerusalem artichokes to avoid flatulence problems.
WEB PAGES
Lunch
2pm Rose Group Presentation
There will be a book sale at this meeting, all books 1 euro. Do bring along your leftover holiday books. All proceeds to help the IGC funds.
Think about bringing a guest too, it would be a good day to introduce the IGC to prospective members. The committee looks forward to seeing you all on 10th September.
The arrangements for the day are that if you wish to stay for the pot luck lunch then you bring a dish for 6/8 people, your own cutlery, plates and a glass. The IGC will provide bread, water and wine.
To be sent to Erica Lainé by 8th September for the 10th September 2010
Name---------------------------------------- Guests------------------------------------
Telephone number------------------------------------------------
Yes, I wish to take part in the potluck lunch and will bring
Savoury------------------Salad----------------------------Dessert-----------------
Perhaps you could cut & past this into your email & fill in the details there?
Saturday October 2nd is an extra meeting, held at Guy and Caroline Spencer’s house between 10 am - 1pm & there will be plants, cuttings and seeds for a Grand Plant Bazaar. The idea is to bring along a plant or plants, a rooted cutting or cuttings, or some seeds to donate and to take away something in exchange.
Summer’s over and it’s an ideal time to share the surplus from the garden and chat over a cup of coffee. Please bring along whatever you can - plants, seeds, extra cuttings.
Gill will be bringing the seed bank and will be happy to talk about plans for next year.
There will be an opportunity to make a donation to Unesco’s Emergency Pakistan Appeal.
Thursday October 14th will bring Katie Butler to talk to us about organic vegetable gardening, seed collection, rotation of crops and how to make the vegetable garden as pretty as the flower garden. This will also be at the sdf at Coutures. Details of time later.
Wednesday November 10th a talk about garden pests and diseases. The garden pests section will be given by Erica Lainé and will focus on identification and the life cycle of the ‘pest’. Venue and time to be confirmed.
Thursday 9th December will be a Christmas tea and Gardening Quiz. Venue and time to be confirmed.
As you can see our aim to keep meetings to the second Thursday of the month has been thwarted to a certain extent, the 11th November is Armistice Day so we have moved the meeting back a day. The September meeting has been moved forward a day due to speaker’s other commitments, but we have managed to keep to the second week of the month.
On January 13th 2011 we will have our AGM, in line with the proposals made at the April AGM to bring all strands, financial, administrative etc. into line
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PAST EVENTS: |
8th JULY :
Treasure Trail & Picnic at Le Cledou Arboretum. Friends & Family are very
welcome.
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The meeting on March 11 was well attended and proved an interesting mixture of images and realia in the shape of a collection of old gardening tools and gardening books, plus a slide show of some very unusual and old gardening tools. Peter Vining had put the show together and brought in the tools with a few others supplied by members. The instrument for making faggots for the fire was still being used by Peter and Alex to bundle up cut bamboo. Among modern tools, the geared shears were recommended for gardeners with arthritic hands. Several members spoke about their favourite books and shared gardening tips with all. These are being collected together and will be put on the web site. |
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Gardener’s Question Time  IGC Christmas Gardeners question time at the Spencers' Thursday 10th December 2009
What a great turnout we had for this event. The panel of experts Pat Cabourn, Gill Howl and Katie Butler were ready for the onslaught of questions, of which there were many! Questions ranged from pruning wisterias, problematic buddleias, pests and diseases, lunar gardening with waxing and waning moons, various vegetables, organic gardening, nettles and weeds!
The team held it together and battled their way through, all questions
answered and discussed.......great fun! A big thank you to Caroline and Guy for their hospitality, members who donated cakes, for the brave panel, and to all members who turned up.
Also a thank you to Patricia Goddard, who sent the recipe for her
delicious chocolate covered oranges (recipes
on our website) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all
Carol |
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Once again we were treated to a lovely, well-informed presentation by Erica. This time on the transition from the ‘enclosed’ physic gardens of the middle-ages to the Italian and ultimately, French, Renaissance garden, with its formality - topiary, sculpture and orangeries. All this was accompanied by a lovely array of illustrations and photographs, bringing the talk vividly to life. Thank you Erica, we all enjoyed it enormously and learned a lot too!
We rounded
the morning off with a pot luck lunch, and miraculously, as usual, a
delicious meal appeared as if from nowhere.
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photos - Peter Vining