tea in the garden, pretty metal table & chair, photo credit nsanchez on canva

Gardeners Club Diary 2024

The Gardeners Club Diary 2024 – thought we’d pop this into the blog for you so if you’re thinking about coming along you can find out the range of events and gardening talk topics we have. And as a reminder to save any friendly disputes among members as to which speaker came when 😉

We held Flower & Garden Shows in Spring, Summer and Autumn. Plus there was our popular Spring Plant Sale. And in 2024, a new event, an Autumn Craft and Artisan Fair with a gardening, wildlife and country theme.

A quick list first, followed by a bit more detail on both the talk and the speaker, including a link to their website.

Date Topic Speaker
March 20 Bees and their relationship with plants Mike Waller
April 17 Chartwell Gardens and Winston Churchill ‘s influence Chartwell Team
May 15 Trees for small gardens Marie Shallcross
June 19 The creation and restoration of Painshill Park Cherill Sands
July 17 The history of the Crystal Palace Ian Bevan
August 21 An evening with Brian Everest Brian Everest
September 18 Pests, diseases and controls in the garden Kevin Tooher
October 16 History  of Sissinghurst Castle Garden Stephen Harman
November 20 Talk & Demonstration, Social, AGM

 

Gardeners Club Diary 2024 Evening Speakers and Topics

Bees and their relationship with plants with Mike Waller

March 20

Bees and plants have a very close relationship: they are an integral part of our ecosystem. Yet UK bees are in decline and we cannot survive without bees. As gardeners we can do our bit to improve matters.

As well as boosting our mood when we see them in our gardens they play an important part in causing our gardens to flourish and develop in both colour, diversity and density. But how exactly does it work? Mike Waller plans to enlighten us.

Mike has lived with his wife Lis in Biggin Hill for almost fifty years. Working long hours in London for most of those years left little time for serious gardening. Since retiring and having a large garden he spends much of his time looking after his bees, pond and many borders. He is “currently learning how to evolve my garden to make a good habitat for wildlife and particularly my bees.”

bee on lavender, Gardeners Evening Speakers, jenna-lee-122713-unsplash.jpg

Chartwell Gardens and Winston Churchill ‘s influence with Chartwell Team

April 17

Churchill bought Chartwell in 1922 and was heard to say “A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted”. It became a National Trust property in 1946 although it wasn’t opened to  the public until 1966, after Churchill’s death. Find out more here

Chartwell, Churchill's seat, koi fish pond Oct 2017, Gardeners Evening Speakers, Biggin HIll Horticultural society, photo credit Marie Shallcross

Churchill’s seat by the Koi fish pond

Trees for Small Gardens with Marie Shallcross

May 15

Considering both how small is a small garden and what trees would “fit”. A run through of fruit trees, ornamental trees for blossom and bark and ‘nearly a tree’ . There will be plenty of deas for your own garden and Q & A time too. A pdf download list of suggested trees for smaller gardens on our local soil will be available from this website after the talk.

Marie Shallcross is a garden designer & consultant; gardening teacher, offering individual lessons in a student’s garden and running workshops in her own garden; gardening speaker & writer, who lives locally. See her website Plews Garden Design , plus Instagram and Facebook for regular gardening tips & inspiration  And why not check out Spitfires and Slow Worms on Instagram and Facebook to follow her local gardening adventure with a seriously overgrown hillside garden.

planting a mini orchard, marie shallcross

Marie planting a mini orchard in a client’s garden

 

The Creation and Restoration of Painshill Park with Cherill Sands

June 19

Cherill Sands is a garden historian who has been engaged as Historical Consultant at Painshill Landscape Garden near Cobham in Surrey since 2004. Painshill was created in the 18th Century by Charles Hamilton and is regarded as one of the finest examples of the English Landscape Movement.

Find out more about Cherrill and her work on her website

Painshill Park, view from gothic tower,photo credit AS Russell

view from the Gothic tower, Painshill

The history of the Crystal Palace with Ian Bevan

July 17

Designed by Joseph Paxton, this daring cast iron and plate glass structure was originally built in Hyde Park, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was then moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham and surrounded by formal gardens.

Ian Bevan has “spent more than 30 years researching and promulgating the history of the Crystal Palace through walks and talks.”  He has the Freedom of the City of London and is the author of ‘To the Palace for the Cup’, a history of football at the Crystal Palace.

For more about real and virtual walks, have a look at his website, Ian’s Walks and Talks

sphinx, crystal palace, photo credit whitemay

sphinx, Crystal Palace

 

An Evening with Brian Everest

August 21

Brian Everest is our local gardening expert and show judge. A champion flower and vegetable grower he gives freely of his knowledge an d makes us laugh as well. He is a regular judge at Biggin Hill Horticultural Society Flower Shows.

Brian Everest, Tatsfield Horticultural society talk, dafodils, Gardeners Evening Speakers, Biggin HIll Horticultural society, garden shows, photo credit Marie Shallcross

Brian giving a talk at Tatsfield horticultural society in March

Pests, diseases and controls in the garden with Kevin Tooher

September 18

The answers to at least some of our gardening problems!

slug, lego policeman, credit andrew martin

slugs beware!

History of Sissinghurst Castle Garden with Stephen Harman

October 16

Made one of the most famous gardens in the world by Vita Sackville-West, Sissinghurst began as wilderness. It’s now run by the National Trust

Sissinghurst, white garden, april 22, photo credit marie shallcross

the white garden at Sissinghurst in spring

Talk & Demonstration, Social, AGM

November 20

One of our Domestic Section Judges, Gina, is giving us a demo and tasting of some seasonal recipes and ones to make from the veggies you’ve grown in your garden this year.

 

And that was our Gardeners Club Diary 2024!

Why not come along and enjoy yourself – we’re a friendly bunch of gardeners and a few “nearly gardeners”  too.

Check out the Events listings for the current and forthcoming year’s meetings. You can always come and find us on Biggin Hill Horticultural Society’s Facebook page.

And you can always contact us by email

As your local friendly gardening club, Biggin Hill Horticultural Society offers more to members than ‘just’ talks. There are always gardening sundries such as plant labels, plant feed, and even second-hand gardening books, for sale at our gardeners evenings. And you can ask members for tips as there’s generally someone who knows the answer to your question.

garden bench, snow

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