The Lydden Vale Gardening Club meets on the second Wednesday of each month between September and April in the Buckland Newton Village Hall enjoying a mixture of talks from guest speakers, practical sessions where you can learn top tips for all things gardening. During the summer months we visit award winning gardens, garden centres and enjoy Alfresco Social evenings. We welcome all ages and levels of experience and are keen for all generations to benefit from the enjoyment of gardening. If you live in Buckland Newton, Pulham, Glanvilles Wootton, Kings Stag, Alton Pancras or neighbouring parishes and if you’re interested in having a fine garden or rewilding, planting or harvesting the results of your labours, or simply visiting gardens and learning about the history of gardening, we would love you to have you with us. If you are not already a member of the Club and are interested in gardening and think you might like to join, we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch by emailing Jan at greystonebn@yahoo.co.uk or Antony at Bladeley365@outlook.com The Club’s final outing of the summer season, on a beautiful August afternoon, was attended by 33 members and guests who visited “Carey’s Secret Garden” near Wareham, well named as you would be unlikely to come across this garden by accident! The south facing three-and-a-half-acre garden is, unusually, walled on three sides only, with the fourth bounded by iron railings to allow the frost and early morning mists to roll out of the garden to the River Piddle flood plain, leaving the plants growing in the garden unscathed. It was constructed towards the end of the 19th century to serve the Trigon Estate and was in its heyday in the 1920’s before starting a period of long decline and by the late 1970’s had ceased to be used as a garden. When purchased by the Constantine Family shortly prior to the Covid Pandemic it was unrecognisable as such being totally overgrown with Laurel, brambles and tall grasses. Simon Constanine, son of the new owners recognised the potential of the enclosed former garden and embarked upon its restoration, soon discovering that the walls were in a remarkably good condition and that the gardens themselves could be reinstated under the guidance of his design team headed by Paul Scriven and Dan Smith, to provide a balance between a formal traditional walled garden layout and those aspects that we find attractive today with a more informal approach including areas of rewilding, and the use of natural gardening techniques. We were fortunate to enjoy a guided tour by Dan and see all that has been achieved thus far in this exciting ongoing restoration project which will ultimately include workshops with courses and talks allowing visitors to deepen their knowledge in beautiful surroundings. Carey’s Secret Garden is not the “Lost Gardens of Heligan” recreated in Dorset and is much more compact, but its setting is very special, and it is already recognised as a centre of excellence for certain plants, particularly Salvias. If you have an interest in garden restoration projects Carey’s Secret Garden should be on your list. Our forthcoming winter season had been programmed to start on 10th September but has been brought forward by a week to Wednesday 3rd September due to exceptional circumstances. Steve Fry of Castle Gardens Sherborne gave a talk on the Subject of “Garden Friends and Foes”. Antony Parson Wednesday 9th July saw the Gardening Club’s Summer Social hosted this year at Naish Farm, Home to Emma and Matthew Goss-Custard and Emma’s Gluten free bakery business, Honeybuns. We were fortunate to enjoy a glorious summer evening with guests having the opportunity to either experience a tour of the bakery, which was much enjoyed by those who did so, or to see around the farm and learn about the art of beekeeping from Emma’s beekeeper Mick Bunyan. Mick kindly explained about the many varieties of bees found in the UK, how some have been domesticated whilst other varieties inhabited a freedom hive, essentially a thatched nest which allows the bees to evolve as they would in the wild. Naish Farm has been extensively rewilded with orchards planted hedgerows laid to create a paradise for birds, small animals and insects. After the tours members were able to enjoy a sharing super with wine or soft drinks followed by puddings accompanied by Honeybuns delicious gluten free cakes. June Visit Surprise and delight crossed the faces of members of the Gardening Club as we arrived on a sunny evening at Homeacres the home of Charles Dowding. I missed the talk he gave to the club earlier in the year so only knew he was the pioneer of No Dig and was intrigued to see the results. As we arrived, we were met with an abundance of healthy vegetables as far as the eye could see. The garden is dual purpose for both teaching and selling the produce grown. Charles runs courses, welcomes groups such as ours as well as using it for his many YouTube postings, but such is the success of his methods, his plot now yields £34,000 per annum, selling produce to selected restaurants and retailers. His journey began with one of the first box schemes as a teenager selling veg from door to door, around the village where his family farmed. And last year Charles was awarded the Elizabeth Medal of Honour from the RHS in recognition of his contribution to gardening, despite, as he was proud to admit, having NO formal horticultural qualification! Charles’s no-dig approach avoids soil disturbance, thereby allowing a profusion of microbes to do their work, and relies on mulching for soil improvement, which has been widely recognized for its benefits to soil health, biodiversity, and productivity. He also tends to plant by the cycle of the moon. Most of us were surprised by the lack of weeds or pests. He is able to plant many varieties early thereby avoiding many of the garden pests we encounter, by the time they appear his vegetables are either strong enough to cope or have already been cropped. He also makes good use of horticultural fleece, covering the plants directly to bring them on and/or protect from pests. We were intrigued by his composting methods, bins large and small are scattered about the property all working frantically to produce the much-valued compost. Worms are put to good use too. Charles emphasised his method of no dig requires less compost for the same amount of harvest, if not more, and to prove his point he has two identical trial beds - one dig the other bed is no dig - he gets more produce from his no dig plot. At the end of a fascinating and inspiring evening we had much ‘food for thought’ and no doubt each of us took away a tip or piece of advice to put into practice, based on what we had witnessed at Homeacres. Having thanked Charles, we moved off to the pub, Alhampton Inn, run by the local community, for a welcome drink and a delicious meal. It was a lovely opportunity for members to mix and mingle socially, I recommend popping in if you find yourself nearby but do note food is restricted to weekends with just Fish and Chips on a Friday. If you are interested in gardening, enjoy good talks, seeing other gardens as well as your own, or experience problems with your own garden that you would like to share and would welcome advice on, the Gardening Club could be for you. Feel free to contact Antony at Bladeley365@outlook.com or talk to Jan on 01300 348627. Antony Parson