COLINTON GARDEN CLUB
NEWSLETTER NO 78 April 2007

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Photography

Saturday
21st April 2007

Second digital photography workshop at Napier University,
10.00 a.m. – 12 noon

Monday
23rd April 2007

Annual General Meeting
at Dreghorn Loan Hall at 8.00 p.m.

Urgent – Pallet Garden

You’ll remember that last year a team from Colinton Garden Club came second in the Pallet Garden competition at Gardening Scotland at the beginning of June.

Obviously we would like to defend our success and
go for gold this June! We need a volunteer to lead a small team and volunteers to participate in developing and putting together the pallet garden.

We already have some ideas, for example:

• An evolutionary trail incorporating fresh water, seawater, ecological planting; a tree fern, flowering plants.

• A plant family e.g. liliaceae; bluebells, fritillaria etc, with a diversity of plants in that genus.

• A desert garden with sand and stones and cactus.

• A garden of invasive species such as rhododendron ponticum, thistles, willowherb, dandelions, thistles

• A garden based on RL Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses"

All other ideas welcome!

If you think you would like to take part, please contact Christopher Davies, phone 441 2152, or e-mail him on chair@colintongardens.org.uk

Bulb Orders

We will be placing our next bulk order at the end of July, and if you would like to benefit from the Club’s special discounted wholesale prices, please get in touch with me. Parker’s new catalogue will be available in late June, and it’s our intention to collate the order and send it in by late July. If you contact me you can borrow a catalogue to make your selection and if you let me know in advance, I will let you know when the catalogues have arrived.
Alison Gilchrist (441 6053)

Summer Outing: Saturday
7th July 2007

Our summer outing this year will take us to Branklyn Garden in Perth and Drummond Castle Gardens by Crieff, Perthshire. Leaving at 8.45 a.m. from the tennis courts in Westgarth Avenue, we will drive to Perth where coffee and scones await us at the Parklands Hotel. From there we will visit the National Trust for Scotland Garden at Branklyn.

Our journey will continue to the town of Crieff for lunch. We suggest you either take a picnic or make your choice from a local pub or restaurant. Our afternoon visit is to Drummond Castle Gardens just south of Crieff, one of the finest formal gardens in Europe. A tour of the garden by the Head Gardener is included.
Heading home at around 4.30pm we should arrive back in Colinton by approximately 5.45pm after what I am sure will be another wonderful outing.

To add your name to the list please call Christopher Davies on 441 2152 or e-mail him at chair@colintongardens.org.uk. Don't hang around as I'm sure seats will fill up very quickly! The cost per person is £18.50.
Pat Taylor, Programme Convenor

From the pen of our Chair…

Dear Friends,

This year, so far, we have had two talks which have looked at the natural environment. John Clark spoke about wild life in the garden, especially birds, and Giles Laverock concentrated on wild flowers. Both speakers have written to say how much they enjoyed speaking to us and how responsive they found the audience. Giles is expecting to see Colinton full of wild flowers, no doubt supplied by Scotia Seeds, and for whatever reason there seem to be more well-fed birds around this year than usual.

In conjunction with the daily diet of ex-hortations about the environment, such talks have the effect of focusing our attention on the richness nature has to offer and how much we can benefit from finding the right balance between the wildness of nature and the cultivation of our gardens – by letting nature take the lead without trying to force it too much into our preconceived patterns.

A couple of weeks ago, Elisabeth and I were in Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife, and I felt it my duty – as your representative – to visit the Botanic Gardens. They were imposing and laid out in careful straight-edged beds at right angles, but somehow the impression was too organized: more like a reference manual than a good read. We thought of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, the natural shapes and exuberance of the trees, shrubs and flowers in the undulating grounds, and in spite of the warm sunshine of Tenerife, we knew which we preferred. Outside Puerto de la Cruz we spent a lot of time in the wilderness of the mountains where forests, clearings, terraces, vegetation and wild flowers vied with each other in splendour, against the blue horizon and the sea far below. How
inspiring Nature is!

We also discovered something else – the humble potato with a simple sauce based on coriander and spices: “papas arrugas con mojo”. Apparently the early voyagers, when they brought back potatoes from the Andes (remember George Mackay’s talk to us last year?) stopped off in Tenerife and found that potatoes grew rather well there. Not beautiful, but wrinkled and grey, and a bit scabby. But put them in your mouth and the glories of a forgotten age are revealed. Forget the scrubbed supermarket variety, go straight back to Nature every time. We learned that the heart is more memorable than
the packaging!

Enough of reminiscences! The year is well under way and the Club will soon be moving out doors with Open Gardens, Gardening Scotland, and our Summer outing. You will find full details in this newsletter. We are most grateful to Elizabeth & Ron Partington in respect of Monday 28th May, and to the Episcopal Church, our members Bryan & Mary Dale, Dorothee & Duncan Brown, Merle and Iain Copland, Jess and Ed Duffy, and Grace Thom for so generously opening their gardens on 9th June. As concerns the Summer Outing on Saturday 7th July please register your intention to come soon, as seats are limited by the size of the bus.

On Monday 23rd April we have our AGM, when we report on the activities and financial situation of the Club. Papers will be circulated at the meeting, and are being placed on our website for your information in advance of the meeting.

We look forward to obtaining feedback from the members about what we are doing and what you would like us to do. More than that, we are aware that there are many unrevealed talents among our members – surely because of shyness or modesty – and we invite you not only to give us new ideas, but also to take a part in putting them into action. The Committee is there as your elected representatives, and we invite you to take an active role in taking the Club forward, perhaps as a Committee Member, part of a project team, or as initiator of a new idea. Don’t be modest, have a word with the Committee Member you know best and things can start to happen.

At last the days are getting longer, daylight is with us in the evenings, and warmth is in the air. Our gardens have come alive and the summer is full of promise. Let us enjoy this richness, learn from Nature and find the right balance between wildness and cultivation.

Happy gardening!

Christopher Davies
Chairperson

Dates for your diary…

Open Gardens

Monday 28th May 2007, 6.30 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.

Our evening Open Garden event this year will be at the home of Elizabeth and Ron Partington, who live at “Manotick”, 67 Bonaly Road. Come along, have a glass of wine and enjoy the Spring flowers! To get to this garden, go up Bonaly Road and cross over the by-pass. You won’t be able to park your car at their house, so please park in the road to the right, alongside the bypass, just over the bridge. Then continue up Bonaly Road which eventually leads to the Scout Camp - but don’t go as far as that! Please watch out for cars as the lane is very narrow. Elizabeth and Ron’s house is on the right hand side just after Bonaly Tower. If anyone needs transport let us know. We can arrange a shuttle system.

Saturday 9th June 2007, 10.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.

Once again members have generously offered to open their gardens to friends on the morning of Saturday 9th June. Our main base for the morning will be St Cuthbert's Episcopal Church, Westgarth Avenue where as well as the opportunity to peruse the garden and the wildflower garden, you’ll be able to buy plants and have a cup of tea or coffee. The open gardens will be at the following addresses:
• 19 Dreghorn Loan (Bryan and Mary Dale)
• 31 Redford Loan (Dorothee and Duncan Brown)
• 2 Redford Crescent (Merle and Iain Copland)
• 58 Redford Avenue (Jess and Eddie Duffy)
• 60 Redford Avenue (Grace Thom)
Bryan and Mary’s house is on Dreghorn Loan, more or less opposite Dreghorn Loan Hall and all four of the Redford gardens are close to each other. We will have a little map available at the Episcopal Church Hall. We are really grateful to the kind members who have agreed to open their gardens for us. For the plant sale, please hand in your cuttings or plants for sale to the Church Hall by 9 am on Saturday 9th June.

Alasdair Ferguson, Secretary