October 2013 Newsletter
Madam Chairman’s Piece
The show was the last event of the WAGS 2013 calendar, and a great day it was. I now have a mountain of carrots and tomatoes to eat up – soup for a month I think. You have to pick a lot to find a set that look the same size, colour, and shape!
Autumn is with us now, but we’ve had a good summer on the whole. How were your runner beans? Mine were rubbish! Some people have had a bumper harvest and some, like me, the worst ever. Why is that? (Answers on a postcard please, or email if easier!)
We have the 2014 Dobies Catalogue in store, offering a great discount on seeds as usual. We should have the new 2014 membership cards soon too so don’t forget to renew.
If you have any ideas for WAGS 2014, I would love to hear from you. Anyone out there want to help us run a trip or support us running the store?
Thank you to all WAGS members for your support of our society; don’t forget to recommend us to your green fingered friends.
Sandra Halstead
Madam Chairman
Autumn is with us now, but we’ve had a good summer on the whole. How were your runner beans? Mine were rubbish! Some people have had a bumper harvest and some, like me, the worst ever. Why is that? (Answers on a postcard please, or email if easier!)
We have the 2014 Dobies Catalogue in store, offering a great discount on seeds as usual. We should have the new 2014 membership cards soon too so don’t forget to renew.
If you have any ideas for WAGS 2014, I would love to hear from you. Anyone out there want to help us run a trip or support us running the store?
Thank you to all WAGS members for your support of our society; don’t forget to recommend us to your green fingered friends.
Sandra Halstead
Madam Chairman
WAGS Autumn Show
We had a great show this year; when all the exhibits are displayed it really does look good. A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the show and to those who exhibited. Thanks also to all our judges who give up their time to share their expertise, and to the mayor Bernard Stone for handing out the prizes and helping with the raffle.
Finally a big thank you to our kind sponsors who support WAGS by covering some of the costs of staging the show, please give them your support:
Our Major Sponsors: Champions, Pettits & Rowse Honey
Sponsor of the Floral Art Section: Keri Harvey The Florists
Sponsors of individual Classes & Children’s Prizes: FeetFirst; Wallingford Bookshop
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that all of you who took part, and those who came to see the exhibits, enjoyed yourselves too.
Picking out a few winners, Jean and Antonio Teles again excelled themselves on fruit and vegetables, as did Pat Collier for her Floral Art. There were some amazing entries for the arts and crafts and the judges spent a long time deliberating them. The speciality judges and photography were also very pleased with standard of the exhibits to judge. As usual, there is a list of Trophy Winners in this newsletter.
The only disappointment was that only two children were entered for the children’s classes. So thank you Amy and Ben for making the effort and I really hope we can get more children entering next year. If you have any suggestions for things the children would enjoy making, please do email them through to me.
For anyone who missed the show, the website has some additional photographs, so do take a look: www.wags- wallingford.com.
We didn’t capture all the exhibits, so if you have any photos, particularly of winning entries, please email them to us using the form in Contact Us.
All you WAGS members out there, I look forward to seeing you on September 13th 2014. We plan to have Roke and Benson Brass band at the 2014 show.
Sandra Halstead
Show Secretary
Finally a big thank you to our kind sponsors who support WAGS by covering some of the costs of staging the show, please give them your support:
Our Major Sponsors: Champions, Pettits & Rowse Honey
Sponsor of the Floral Art Section: Keri Harvey The Florists
Sponsors of individual Classes & Children’s Prizes: FeetFirst; Wallingford Bookshop
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that all of you who took part, and those who came to see the exhibits, enjoyed yourselves too.
Picking out a few winners, Jean and Antonio Teles again excelled themselves on fruit and vegetables, as did Pat Collier for her Floral Art. There were some amazing entries for the arts and crafts and the judges spent a long time deliberating them. The speciality judges and photography were also very pleased with standard of the exhibits to judge. As usual, there is a list of Trophy Winners in this newsletter.
The only disappointment was that only two children were entered for the children’s classes. So thank you Amy and Ben for making the effort and I really hope we can get more children entering next year. If you have any suggestions for things the children would enjoy making, please do email them through to me.
For anyone who missed the show, the website has some additional photographs, so do take a look: www.wags- wallingford.com.
We didn’t capture all the exhibits, so if you have any photos, particularly of winning entries, please email them to us using the form in Contact Us.
All you WAGS members out there, I look forward to seeing you on September 13th 2014. We plan to have Roke and Benson Brass band at the 2014 show.
Sandra Halstead
Show Secretary
Apple Day in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell
Brightwell cum Sotwell will be holding their 4th Apple Day on Sunday 13 October at the Red Lion pub from 12.00 to 15.00.
This free event is a celebration of this year's apple harvest and includes apple tastings, traditional cider, apple juice, jams, honey and cakes for sale and kids’ apple-themed games.
The highlight of the day will be retired fruit farmer, Paul Chilton's impressive traditional display of some of the 70 heritage varieties of apple found in the village. This is an opportunity not to be missed as it is rare to see so many varieties together.
There will be juice-making all day using the Village Press.
Each pressing will mix and blend different apple varieties so no two combinations will be the same.
You can try them all and see if you can taste the difference.
You can follow preparations for the day on the Brightwell Village Orchard Group website
This free event is a celebration of this year's apple harvest and includes apple tastings, traditional cider, apple juice, jams, honey and cakes for sale and kids’ apple-themed games.
The highlight of the day will be retired fruit farmer, Paul Chilton's impressive traditional display of some of the 70 heritage varieties of apple found in the village. This is an opportunity not to be missed as it is rare to see so many varieties together.
There will be juice-making all day using the Village Press.
Each pressing will mix and blend different apple varieties so no two combinations will be the same.
You can try them all and see if you can taste the difference.
You can follow preparations for the day on the Brightwell Village Orchard Group website
How to Choose the Correct Seeds
With the Dobies Catalogues in the WAGS store, it is time to think about what you’re going to grow next year. How do you choose from the numerous cultivars of popular crops such as carrot or tomato?
- Look for cultivars with the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM); their worth has been proven (and reviewed periodically) by trials at RHS gardens. You can find out more at: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Plant-trials-and-awards/Plant- awards/AGM-fruit-and-veg
- Price and number of seeds per packet vary markedly. Big packets with lots of seed usually come from open-pollinated plants. Pollination has been left to nature, so they are relatively cheap to produce and suppliers can afford to be generous.
- Seed of new cultivars often includes F1 hybrid or F1 as part of the name, for example carrot ‘Flyaway’ F1 or beetroot ‘Action’ F1. The price indicates the high cost of producing F1 seeds from highly bred parents in controlled conditions.
- F1 seed germinates reliably, and produces uniform plants of higher vigour and yield than the more variable plants raised from open-pollinated seed.
- Seed packets are date stamped at the time of packaging, and have a sow-by date. Buy just enough for the coming season, especially of crops of limited viability such as parsnip.
(adapted from RHS Garden Magazine)