Paul Patton was the speaker for the March meeting of the Elstead Garden Club. Paul who lives at Beacon Hill is now a freelance horticulturalist training staff at stores like B & Q. He also takes part in quizzes, gives talks and writes books.  He started his career with ICI at their research station finding ways to produce better crops. His latest book is entitled "Bygone Days in Gardening".

He started his talk "Growing for the Kitchen" by saying that the growing of good fruit and vegetables starts with good compost. We were shown some slides of his own composters, both of the square wooden framed variety and the modern wheelybin shape. He went on to say that he used his own  home produced compost around plants, in the soil, and as a mulch to conserve moisture. Most of his vegetable seeds are sown in trays in the greenhouse and then planted out under cloches or in coldframes to harden them to the lower temperatures out of doors.

Advanced planning before starting is a vegetable garden essential. His slides showed the variety of vegetables and fruit that can be grown including several varieties of tomato, potato, lettuce, and cabbage as well as the more exotic fruits and beans. Strawberries benefit from a good mulch but he uses straw under the fruits to lift them away from the soil and the damp. Raspberries can be trained to grow on vertical lines as can gooseberries and other fruit but they always like a good layer of mulch around their feet.

Controlling Pests
Biological controls are used to keep down green and white fly and are more commonly used than chemicals. Fruit trees need to be fitted with a chemical band around the bark to stop female insects from climbing up to the tender parts of the tree in the spring and laying their eggs on or in the buds or fruit. He also suggested companion planting which is the growing of types of plants (eg. onion and carrots) which all produce their own particular scent; this presents the fly with a confusing set of signals and reduces the damage done. Vigilance is the basic key to keeping the garden as pest free as possible and dealing with the problem quickly. He finished the slide show by showing us beneficial insects, that should be encouraged by putting out insect boxes, etc.

He ended his talk by saying that there is nothing quite like picking, cooking and tasting your own produce.

He was thanked for his excellent talk by Denis Holmes. Denis reminded the audience to enter the Spring Show on the 25^th March. Visitors will be welcomed at 2.0 pm. The next meeting will be on the 10^th April at the URC Hall at 7.45 pm as normal when Mr D. Cheston will give a talk on Waddeston, A Victorian Garden. New members are welcome.

Richard & Diana Terry.

Dorothy Eade would like to thank everyone for their get well cards and kind wishes during her stay in hospital.