For any other Cothigardeners, like Fiona, who were efficient enough to mark the diary, you’ll see that today, Wednesday December 15th was due to have been our pre-Christmas get together and lunch.
Sadly, that’s been off the agenda for a long time now, but given the ongoing state of restrictions which will certainly stretch into the early part of 2021, Elena and Fiona have made a valiant effort at coming up with a revised possible programme for the early part of 2021, which was to have been filled with a bumper selection of visiting speakers, since it’s the tenth anniversary year of the founding of the club by Yvonne and Colin and friends.
The early meetings for 2021 are now planned to be Zoom events, which whilst not being accessible to all, at least gives the opportunity for some members to interact in a remote way!
For anyone unfamiliar with ZOOM, you do need to download the ZOOM app in advance onto your device, and you’re then sent a personal secure code, which you’ll need to use to allow you to join the meeting on the night.
We will email anyone hoping to be part of these meetings more details in due course.
The programme, below, is still a little tentative so do please bear with it, and look out for more notifications from Elena when physical meetings or even garden visits can take place again:
Kari Astri – “Water, shade, clay and weeds” – Date to be confirmed.
How this gardener is still learning to embrace and love her garden, (and most of the things that dwell within it).
Many of us don’t inherit a garden that is a blank space. We may have our own ideas and planting preferences, but how the garden develops is also shaped by what is already there. I’ll be sharing thoughts on gardening, planting and some new favourite plants from the last few years spent working on the ongoing project that is our quarter-acre garden in Wiltshire.
Kari has already visited and talked to Cothigardeners twice before in recent years, so we’re really delighted that she’s offered to give us a new talk via Zoom, at very short notice.
Wednesday, 17th February 7.30pm ZOOM meeting
Dr. Lizzie Wilberforce – title still to be announced. Lizzie has over 10 years experience as the conservation manager for the reserves of the Wildlife trusts of South West wales, and is always an interesting speaker, with her background as an ecologist. She’s recently changed jobs and is now working as Nature Reserves Project officer for Plantlife Cymru. We’re very grateful for her stepping into this February slot at short notice.
Wednesday, 17th March 7.30pm ZOOM meeting.
Philip Aubury – “The answer lies in the soil”. Good gardening starts here. Soil improvement, fertilisers and compost making.
Philip’s career started as a Nurseryman, then lecturer, Parks Manager until he finally became Director of Birmingham Botanical Gardens in 1987. He retired in 2007.
Wednesday, 21st April 7.30pm ZOOM meeting
Julian Wormald (from Cothigardeners!) – “Wildflowers, Meadows and Gardens – challenging ideas for more naturalistic gardens.” 
This will look at various aspects of wildflower hay meadows – their biodiversity, aesthetics, creation, ecology and management; and contrast this very briefly (since this is a time reduced zoom talk) with currently trendy “pictorial” meadows. Finally, it’ll consider how we can learn from wildflower hay meadows to develop more naturalistic and diverse plant based communities in our gardens. This section mainly focuses on our grass free multicultural meadow terrace garden: how it’s developed over 20 years, is maintained and changes through the seasons.
Lots of ideas for people to think about as our gardens are springing into life.
Wednesday, 19th May 7.30pm ZOOM meeting
Stephen Anderton – “Courageous Gardening”
A fresh approach to gardening. Stephen investigates gardeners’ techniques, ideas and inspiration, in everything, from breeding and pruning to planting and design. He shows remarkable gardens from all over the world and explains how their makers have single-mindedly planned and created exciting effects. The many unconventional ideas on offer here make this one of his most popular lectures.
Stephen is the long-standing garden writer for the Times, as well as a lecturer and author. Trained originally in Drama and then Landscape Design, he worked in historic gardens where, latterly as National Gardens Manager for English Heritage, he was responsible for several major restoration projects. Discovering Welsh Gardens was published in 2009; his official biography Christopher Lloyd, His Life at Great Dixter appeared in March 2010 and Lives of the Great Gardeners in 2018.
For those keen on outside visits, Elena has plans for these possible visits for later in the year when the weather improves – further details to follow :
Helen Warrington, Ty Cwm Nursery – An open air talk at her nursery.
Bob Brown – A visit to his garden for a guided tour.
Garden Safari – Visits to our very own Cothi Gardeners members gardens.
Plus if we’re not allowed back into the hall for a longer period:
The possibility of an outdoor cinema in the grounds of Coronation Hall
A film: ‘Flicker and Pulse – A year in an English garden’
A striking and poignant portrayal of time passing in a beautiful English walled garden. Using real-time and time-lapse footage, the film explores the relationship between the seasons and the plants and people who work within the walls of the garden. The Beeches, Barcombe is an 18th Century house with 8 acres of land and gardens which include the 300 year old lovingly restored walled garden in which the film was shot.
Dr. Lizzie Wilberforce (our February speaker) has sent a link to a survey she’s created on how people view wildlife, and visits they might make to nature reserves – in particular the local Plantlife Cymru reserve at Cae Blaen-dyffryn, click here to view, which is located beside the Pumsaint to Lampeter road. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete, but if you’re able to, do please have a go – it’ll provide useful insights for Lizzie and Plantlife into how much we all know about, and use this lovely orchid rich site. Please click here to complete the survey.
It’s a bit early to be planning garden visits for 2021, given the time of year, and changing Covid restrictions, but the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) has many local gardens due to be opening by arrangement to visitors next year. We’re still lucky to have 3 lovely nearby Cothigardeners’ gardens which will be open to visit under the NGS next year:
John and Helen at Ty’r Maes (April to October)
Brenda and Alan at Bwlchau duon (June to August)
Julian and Fiona at Gelli Uchaf (January to October).
Click here to find the complete listing of gardens in Wales which are opening in this way, with pictures and details of all the gardens involved.
Finally, to finish this rather long post, and as flagged up to members by Elena in her recent email, this is going to be my last post as website manager. 😊👍😢 (Take your pick!)
After 2 years as chair of Cothigardeners followed immediately by 2 years doing the website, it’s time for a bit of a break, and for the club to have a different input on things. You’ll see that I’m going to surface again anyway with a ZOOM talk in April, which I hope you’ll be interested in, and am still going to be doing my own blog and website, but I need a bit of a break from too much screen and keyboard work, which has anyway been increasing for another project.
For all of you quiet, retiring folk who haven’t yet volunteered to Elena to take over the website, do please give it some thought, and make a positive new year resolution, and tackle a new challenge. It’s great fun, keeps the brain cells working and I’m happy to talk anyone through how it’s done, having done this with 3 other people already, to set up or run their own blogs, and who all got the hang of it in a couple of hours or less.
I’m always here as a back up adviser/problem solver, as indeed are the clever “Happiness Engineers” at WordPress, who are only a click away if anything untoward happens – it rarely does, believe me.
Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of deciding what to include, and then seeing how many people read or look at what you put up on the web. I see that over the last 2 years, about 1500 people per annum from 42 different countries have seen a little about what’s going on in Pumsaint!
I started our own website as a complete computer technophobe. The fact that I’m still going after 10 years, and well over half a million words, shows how easy it is, and how much I value doing it, both as a way of creating a record, spreading information, and as a stimulus to finding out new things.
Thanks to everyone for looking at anything I’ve churned out over the last 2 years, and for everyone who’s sent me anything to include on this website. Fiona and I send everyone our very best wishes for a happy and peaceful Christmas, and hope to see you soon in 2021. (And thanks to Fiona for creating the wintry images for this post).
Cothi Gardeners 