January 2020 newsletter

From the Chairman: 

What’s coming up?

January 13th (Wednesday) – Marmalade Matters

January 27th (Wednesday) – ‘Grow your own happiness’

Snowdrops

• The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, Yelverton PL20 7LQ. www.thegardenhouse.org.uk  01822 854769.
  The Garden House has inherited a new snowdrop collection to add to its existing, long-established collection and now has over 100 named varieties. The snowdrop festival runs from Friday 15th January to Saturday 6th February, open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 11am-3pm. On 6th February Avon Bulbs will be holding their snowdrop bulb sale at the gardens.
• East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Silver Street, East Lambrook, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5HH. www.eastlambrook.com  01460 240328.
  East Lambrook Manor Gardens will be holding its third festival of snowdrops from 2nd to 28th February, boasting over 125 varieties of snowdrop with many for sale. The gardens and nursery are open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm.
• Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens, Bullers Way, Abbotsbury, Nr Weymouth DT3 4LA. www.abbotsburygardens.co.uk  01305 871387
  As well as a great display of snowdrops, Abbotsbury features a great range of winter-flowering plants including mahonias, daphnes and early camellias amongst bold evergreens and architectural bamboos and palm trees.
• Shaftesbury snowdrops, www.shaftesburysnowdrops.org  Tourist Information Centre 01747 853514
  The town of Shaftesbury offers a wealth of snowdrop-related events from late January through to mid March. There are free snowdrop walks, an open snowdrop art exhibition, snowdrop-themed craft classes, and visits to local landmarks and gardens. Springhead Garden is open through February in association with the festival while there is a rare snowdrop sale on 11th February at The Guildhall. 
• National Gardens Scheme
  The NGS has a number of gardens across the South West offering special opening times for snowdrop visits. Please visit https://ngs.org.uk/find-a-garden/snowdrop-gardens for further details of gardens and opening times.
• National Trust
  Various National Trust gardens also feature good displays of snowdrops. For details of relevant National Trust properties in the South West visit https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/snowdrops-in-the-south-west

Wildlife in the garden

 
Robin Britton shares his optimism about the wildlife to be found in our gardens.
 
"All of us have some wild creatures in our gardens – some more welcome than others. Here in West Dorset and East Devon we are probably more fortunate than most – our gardens are rarely more than a few metres from woods or uncultivated land, so there is plenty of opportunity for wildlife to come in.
 
We bought a “wildlife camera” a few years ago, triggered by heat, and caught all kinds of intruders in the act, but we can all see insects, butterflies, moths, birds and small rodents if we take a little time to sit and watch for them. My personal favourites since we came to Uplyme have been stag beetles, grass snakes and slowworms, yellowhammers and bullfinches, badgers and foxes under the bird feeders. Do take the time to watch out for these reminders that we only live here on sufferance; nature was here before us and will be after we have gone.
 
We try to keep the deer and rabbits out of the vegetables and ornamental garden (not always successfully) but it is always a thrill to see a fox cub or badger eating spilt bird seed on the lawn. Even in lockdown there is wildlife to see in the garden!"


 

Your Christmas flower photos

 
Christmas Day certainly produced a good crop of flowers this year. Robin has reported he had 25 flowers in his garden and it’s clear from some of the photos that other members had something similar.  We may well have expected wonderful winter plants such as hellebores, daphnes, coronilla, cyclamen, Japanese quince, primula and early snowdrops. At the same time the mild autumn and early winter have kept some of our summer flowers going for much longer than one might hope for, including antirrhinums, fuchsias, hardy geraniums and even tender begonias, pelargoniums and nasturtiums. Take a look at a selection of the photos submitted by our members. (There were so many submitted we can't show them all here owing to the limitations of the system used.)

A recipe from Pam Corbin – Classic Seville Orange Marmalade

A taster (literally) for our Marmalade Matters evening on Wednesday 13th January. Don’t forget to send in your questions in advance to tricia@thegardenersblacksmith.co.uk
 
With an ideal balance of peels to gel, this sunny recipe pleases most marmalade lovers.
 
Makes 8 x 300ml jars
 
1kg Seville oranges
100ml lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 litres water
1.5kg granulated sugar
 
Rinse the oranges, removing the buttons at the top. Cut them in half and squeeze out the juice. Use your hands or a small knife to pull out the papery inner membranes and coarser bits of pith from the squeezed halves and put these, with the pips, in a jelly bag. Alternatively, use a 25 x 25 cm square of muslin: gather the corners together to form a bag, and tie up securely with a piece of string or a food bag clip.
 
Use a sharp knife to slice the peel with its pith into thin, medium or chunky shreds. Put the sliced peel into a large bowl with the orange juice, lemon juice, bag of innards and pips, and the salt. Pour in the measured water and leave to soak for 24 hours, covered.
 
Transfer the soaked peel mixture to a large heavy-based pan or preserving pan. Remove the bag of pips and pith, giving it a jolly good squeeze to extract the pectin into the pan.
 
Cover the pan tightly with a lid or a piece of foil. Place over a gentle heat and bring to simmering point, then cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until a cooked piece of peel is sufficiently tender to break when gently pulled – the contents of the pan will have reduced to roughly 2 litres. Meanwhile, sterilize your jars and twist-on lids. Chill a couple of small saucers or spoons, ready to test for setting point.
 
Sprinkle the sugar into the pan a third at a time, stirring each time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil – the surface will be covered with a mass of loose, light bubbles. If you prefer a fresh tasting, soft set marmalade, boil for about 12 minutes; for a firmer, more caramelized marmalade boil for about 15 minutes. When setting point is reached, the bubbles will have begun to disperse and the marmalade will feel thick and look glossy.
 
Remove the pan from the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes or so to allow the peels to distribute evenly. Tip into a wide-necked jug with a good pouring lip, then fill the sterilised jars to the brim and seal immediately. Invert each jar for a minute or so, to ensure the lid is sterilised, then turn the right way up and leave to cool.
 
Store in a cool, dry, dark place and use within 2 years. Once opened, keep in a cool place and use within 4 months.
 
This recipe, and many other marmalade recipes, can be found in Pam’s book – Pam the Jam: The Book of Preserves.

Gardening volunteers still needed for Pavilion at Uplyme

Roots of Remembrance

A treat for the eyes

Your contributions welcome!