By Isle of Wight Observer
Freshwater Horticultural Society kicked off the flower show season, with its Spring Show Saturday. Not only were there flowers but also home-baking, handicraft, photography, floral art and children’s classes.
Saturday (March 23) sees Brighstone and the Niton & Whitwell Society shows, followed by the Isle of Wight Horticultural Association on April 6, in Ryde. Please go along and support our Island shows either as an exhibitor or as a visitor.
With the spring weather finally arriving, albeit slowly, we will all soon be able to take advantage of the improving conditions and get out in the garden and start getting ready for the weeks and months ahead.
There are so many jobs to be done over the next month. Seeds to be sown, cuttings to take, shallots and onion sets and first early potatoes to be planted.
Now is the perfect time to study your show schedules, and plan what you want to aim for this year. Many of you will have visited our Island shows in the summer and autumn, and fancy having a go at growing some prize-winning flowers and vegetables. Well, now is the time to start preparing!
If you are a beginner at entering your village show then start gradually, concentrate on just growing two or three things well, rather than trying to grow everything.
Think about how much space and time you have to grow your prize-winning entries. I’ve heard many visitors saying, ‘I’ve got better than that in my garden,’ or ‘I can grow better carrots than those.’ So why not give it a go? If they don’t make it to the show bench then they will still be useful in the kitchen!
Garden centres have now got their summer bedding and hanging basket plug plants in, so, if you have a heated greenhouse or polytunnel, you can pot these up and grow them on ready to plant out at the end of May.
It’s still a long way ahead before the fear of frosts will be gone, so there is still a need to protect tender plants. Happy gardening and fingers crossed for some lovely weather in the month ahead.
Mal Butler