Judy Harry
Sunday 26 April
Smarden Charter Hall 2.30pm map
followed by
Seedling Swap and Sale

Members’ lecture meeting. Guests are welcome to attend up to two meetings before becoming members.

Judy Harry, a garden lecturer and adult education tutor, and a past chairman of the Society, has been a member of the HPS for about twenty years. She will be retiring from the talks circuit in a few months’ time, and knows that she will miss it enormously. Hopefully, having her nose buried in the garden more frequently than has been possible in the recent past, will be some compensation.
Her talk will explore a frequently neglected area of gardening. By looking at plants’ seed-producing and distribution arrangements and considering their contribution to our use of plants in the garden, she will talk about raising plants from seed, and thereby hopes to enthuse members to make more use of this potentially ‘fruitful’ area of gardening.

As usual at our lecture meetings there will also be:

Plant display – Plant sale – Book sale – Raffle – Teas

Theme for this month’s plant display – favourite specimens from seed

Followed by the Seedling Swap and Sale and Kent Group’s 21st Birthday celebration!

While last year’s Seedling Swap attracted a rather disappointing attendance, those who did make it had a really enjoyable time and left with all sorts of goodies that took their fancy, often things they would never have dreamed of trying. And you really do not need to be put off if you have no seedlings to contribute because for a few pence you will be able to buy a little potful. It’s a fantastic idea, especially in these straitened times – and everybody benefits. Those with seedlings surplus to requirements don’t have to throw them away, and thus feel guilty at the waste: they bring them along, swap or sell them; those with none to swap can buy healthy seedlings at a tiny fraction of the price of a plant or even a packet of seed!
So, all you compulsive seed sowers (and would-be germinators) get cracking and let’s make this a bumper year. We will be taking seedlings from 2 o’clock and participants will be given full instructions on arrival on how the scheme works. Suitably inspired by Judy Harry’s talk, ‘Feeling Seedy’, and fortified by birthday cake and beverages, this should be the best swap yet.