JUST 18 members of Crediton Probus Club met at Downes Crediton Golf Club restaurant for its monthly meeting on September 4.

The president invited Eric Rodd to give grace.

On completion of our meal, Russ introduced Joe Down, a new member.

The draw was won by John Stone and the quote given by John Marshall.

Keith Beetlestone then introduced our speaker, Elizabeth Holman. Elizabeth is a professional gardener and had come to give us a talk on "Resuscitating tired gardens".

Elizabeth said that there were seven key causes of the development of garden problems which could be listed briefly as:

1 overplanting, 2 loss of light in borders, 3 neglect, 4 boredom 5 a lack of nutrition, 6 right plants put in the wrong places and, 7 lack of colour, variety and all-year interest in certain borders.

She gave examples of each of these areas in turn, illustrating with before and after photographs the ways in which most problems could be solved fairly readily – if over the long-term.

In doing this she said that overplanting was a particular problem in urban gardens, her illustrations showing the dramatic effects of "freeing plants up". She emphasised the importance of nutrition in tackling a garden’s woes, saying that mulching (with well-rotted horse manure) together with the application of a granular fertiliser would produce excellent results. Miracle Gro, or something similar, should be applied once-a-month (rather than once-a-season). If plants were getting leggy, they should be pruned.

She summarised some of her solutions to frequent garden problems as: Don’t overplant; read the label; don’t neglect the least favoured areas of your garden; let the light in – prune; add variety and colour and finally FEED, FEED, FEED!

Elizabeth then tackled several questions on garden care from members. She thought that most gardens should "bounce back" from our hot summer.

Gerald Hill then thanked her for a very interesting talk which he was sure members would remember when tending their plots.

The meeting finished with the toast “til the next time!”

KB