I have heard lots of villagers complaining about the snow, but I like it as it makes my garden look very lovely, and I can’t see all the bits that I should have cleared away in the autumn, which I had left as “over wintering places for small creatures”, my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

I did go and look, very briefly, at the veg plot, my onions are still hanging in there, but I was inside again with a cup of tea a bit smartish!! Brrr!

Our first talk of the New Year is on Wednesday 3rd Feb, in the Vale room, Blewbury, 7.30pm, when Robert Longstaff will be giving a talk on “Vegetable Growing in Containers”. I am a great fan of growing carrots in containers as the dreaded carrot fly can’t get to them, and tomatoes in a pot on the patio are much easier to pick!

The programme for the coming year is available in the Post Office, we are a very informal group of gardening enthusiasts, please came and join us for a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy a talk when we can’t actually get out on the garden yet. We have a varied programme of talks and outings planned for the year, no membership forms to fill in, and free to join! Ring for a lift if you need one, Maggie 850126, as my phone doesn’t work at the moment!

Our love and best wishes go to our Chairman, Eileen, on the sad death of her mum.

Happy Gardening

Karen Brooks

I have planted up my winter pots, and have found a way of keeping Dizzy the old doggy, away from eating the potting compost, I used to put the bark shreddings from the buddleia that I had shredded up, but she used to eat some of that too, now I have hit upon putting a thin sprinkle of sand on the top, not so tasty apparently!!

The AGM was well attended; the Garden Surprise quiz was devilishly difficult, thanks Mary!! Eileen announced the prospective programme for next year, paper copies are available at the Post Office in Blewbury, the card ones are being printed up.

If you would like a ticket for the VPA Christmas social evening, to be held on Friday 4^th December, £3.50 each, there are a few left as I write this, if you would like to book one or more, or if you need a lift, please call Maggie on 850126. This is always a nice way to kick start the Christmas season, mulled wine and hot nibbles, plus a quiz and maybe a silly game or two!

The committee would like to wish everyone a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year.

Happy Christmas

Karen Brooks

By the time you are reading this, we will have been on our guided tour of Harcourt Arboretum, and I am sure we all had a great time. I do like autumn in the garden, a chance to have a good clear out of borders, to dig over the veg plot, and plant up winter and spring pots to give seasonal colour, I have also looked at the state of my greenhouse and I think its had its day, so will be planning a new summerhouse for next year!

Our best wishes to Vic Bowman and family, June was a regular visitor to our talks and shows, we will all miss her infectious smile.

The AGM will take place in the Vale room on Wednesday 4^th November, 7.30pm, my wine glasses have been dug out of their cupboard, and put though the dishwasher and are all bright and sparkly, ready for wine or juice, and we will also have cheese and biscuits to celebrate another year. I am informed we have a “Garden Surprise” as an entertainment, I know nothing!!

We will also have on sale at the AGM, tickets for the VPA Christmas social evening, to be held on Friday 4^th December. If you would like to leave apologies for the AGM, or to book tickets for the social evening, email me karencbrooks@googlemail.com or leave a message on the answer phone 850219.

Happy gardening

Karen Brooks

I do hope that your gardens and allotments have fared better than mine this year, the tomatoes’ that I put in pots have been great, but the ones in the veg plot were a disaster, however courgettes in pots produced tiny fruits and mildew, but the ones in the plot, fabulous! Ho hum!! The pigeons ate all the cherries before I could get to them, but I did pick all the red and blackcurrants in time!

Well done to all the entrants and winners in our annual show, surprisingly good turnout for both entries and visitors, lots of new exhibitors made the competition very close with only a few points between us all! Despite the dire weather earlier in the year, and winds and rain the week before which decimated my roses, I still managed to salvage enough, but with only 1 point between 1^st and second! 11 lemon drizzle cakes made the judges work very hard!!!

On Saturday 11^th October, our annual plant bring and buy stall will be held at Abners, Church Road, at 2.30pm, plants and cakes and chutney will abound, please bring any plants that are surplus to your needs, and also a cake or jam etc to help us raise funds for next years shows etc. I have made more marrow and chilli chutney after we sold out for the last 2 years!!! If we are lucky, Mo will make Apple Pies! Yummy!!

Also in October, the committee have organised a guided tour of Harcourt Arboretum, Saturday 24^th October, thinks its in the afternoon, but if you would like to join us, please email me on karencbrooks@googlemail.com or leave a message on the answer phone 850219, stating whether you can offer to drive or just want a lift, we will organise a car rota nearer the time, we will ask for donations for the petrol, and there will be a nominal fee for the tour itself.

PS; we found the garden roller, think it had gone on holiday, but was found trying to disguise itself as a gazebo pole!!

Happy gardening Karen Brooks

JUNE NEWS – BLEWBURY & UPTON VILLAGE PRODUCE ASSOCIATION

I hope everyone is keeping up with the weeding – they seem to be growing even faster this year!

1^st August – We are holding our annual show at Blewbury School (2.30pm – 4.00pm). Please pick up a Show Schedule and enter any of the sections which include fruit and vegetables, flowers, floral art, handicraft, cookery, photography and wine. We would love to see new competitors – especially in the Children’s Section!

19^th September – We have planned a coach trip to ‘Garden Organic’ at Ryton, Coventry. Registration to book can be made at the stand on the 13^th June or by contacting either Eileen Bracken (details below) or Austin Maytham on 01235 850126.

MISSING. As you know we have garden equipment available for anyone to borrow. We have lost an item: namely one garden roller which works by filling it with water. If you borrowed it and still have it please give me a call so we can arrange to collect it. We have a keen gardener who would like to use it.

Programmes are still available from the Post Office at Blewbury or from Maggie Maytham in Upton.

Notelets produced from the VPA photographic competition are still available either at the Post Office in Blewbury or from Maggie in Upton.

If you have any news for the VPA that you would like put in the VPA section of the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01235 510095 or Eileen.bracken@talktalk.net

Eileen

Not good weather at Easter but at least it’s improving, to give us the opportunity to start planting.

For those of you with access to the Web – information has been received from DEFRA regarding another bug!! It’s called the Allium Leaf Miner and attacks onions, leaks and garlic. Evidence is feeding punctures on leaves or larvae inside the plant. The adult flies around in March/April and September/October. About 3mm long with a black and yellow belly. Legs are black with yellow knees! DEFRA recommend that planting alliums is delayed until after April. More info available on www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/allium-info.pdf

I hope you have all collected a programme for the coming year from the Post Office in Blewbury or Maggie Maytham in Upton.

We are trying to arrange a visit to the Organic Garden which is near Coventry – the plan is a Saturday in Mid September. Will keep you posted with the details in due course.

During the Blewbury Festival in June we are having a stand on the Saturday – please visit and catch up with what we are doing and see some of the tools you can borrow for a small donation. We also have notelets with photos of Blewbury and Upton which can be bought either in a pack of 6 or individually.

The next monthly meeting is Wednesday 6^th May at the Vale Room (7.30pm) with a visit from Dews Meadow Farm Products. The June meeting is on the 3^rd at the Vale Room with wine tasting with the Brightwell Vineyard.

If you have any news for the VPA that you would like put in the VPA section of the newsletter or on the web, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01235 510095 or Eileen.bracken@talktalk.net

Look forward to seeing you at the next monthly meeting.

Eileen

No – Karen has not disappeared! We have had a change of jobs on the Committee and I volunteered to keep everyone up to date with news about the Association.

What luck – a week of magnificent weather, giving us the opportunity to clear the rubbish left by winter and plan for the coming months. Let’s hope there’s more sunshine to come!

In case you haven’t heard, at our AGM it was agreed that the annual membership fee would be dropped which means that everyone in Blewbury and Upton is automatically a member of the Association! We would love as many youngsters as possible to become involved with the VPA and take part in our Annual Show in August – which includes competitions in gardening, cooking, photography and lots more (full details will be available when the Schedule has been completed next month).

The 2009 Programme is now available – you can pick up a copy at the Post Office in Blewbury and from Maggie Maytham in Upton. We have some fantastic monthly talks this year. Because the VPA is not just a ‘gardening club’ there is a wide variety of subjects – including a visit in June from an Oxfordshire vineyard owner with wine tasting!! We would love to see new people coming to the monthly meetings and taking part in the special events. There is a £2 entry for the monthly talks (to help pay for the hire of the hall) and a raffle which helps towards the cost of the speakers.

Don’t forget, there are also gardening tools you can borrow from the Association for a small donation. Details are on the back of the 2009 Programme.

If anyone has any snippets they would like put in the VPA section of the newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01235 510095 or Eileen.bracken@talktalk.net

Look forward to seeing you at the next monthly meeting on Wednesday 1^st April at 7.30 in Upton Methodist Hall when Jenny Gordon will be talking about The Power of Flowers – Aromatherapy. This VPA meeting is the last for the season in Upton.

Eileen

Once again, venturing out into the garden is brief and disheartening, the snow has bashed down some of my shrubs, and the seed heads I have purposely left for the birds are disintegrating into brown untidy muddles, my wellies have sprung leaks, and even the dog doesn’t want to go out, I am hoping for some sunshine soon.

The programme of talks and events has been printed and is now available from the Blewbury Post Office, or from Maggie in Upton. The show schedule is coming along nicely, you will be pleased to know that Dawn and I have solved the printer problem, there are 3 doors in the wretched machine, and the toner cartridge was in the “secret” door! Thanks to George, who helped out!

The next talk will be on Wednesday 4^th March, Bill Bossom will be talking on “The Gardens of Capel Manor” at Upton Methodist hall, 7.30pm, let me know if you need a lift, 850219. Future talks include wine tasting by Brightwell Vineyard, and aromatherapy!

Happy Gardening

Karen Brooks

At times during this winter, it has seemed as though spring is a long way off, but hiding in a border under the lilac are my “Blewbury Tart” snowdrops, the hyacinths are popping up, and the hazel tree is looking like its about to pop its tassels all over the place! I noticed the snowdrops in the churchyard are out too!

Our first talk of the New Year is on “National Parks”, by Adrian Thornton, of the Council for National Parks, with illustrations. It is at the Methodist Chapel in Upton on Wednesday 4^th February, 7.30pm.

Hopefully the new programme booklets will be ready to pick up then, the show schedules are going to take longer as I still haven’t worked out how to put the new toner cartridge into the printer, I have no instructions and a screwdriver! I will call on my neighbour, Dawn, we shall giggle and drink coffee and we might find a way soon!

Our best wishes and love go to Joyce who is not feeling very well at the moment, get well soon.

Happy gardening

Karen Brooks

Congratulations to all the competitors in the summer show in July at Upton, there were a magnificent turnout of entries, albeit some very late ones which made our organising go a bit awry, but it all worked out ok in the end! My roses had turned up their toes for the weekend but rallied for the following week, typical, never mind, I will look after them for the autumn show on Saturday 13th September. Please try and have your entries into Maggie by Weds 10th, as she needs to get all the paperwork prepared.

If you can not find your schedule, then, as usual, Blewbury post office will have them, or you can now find it at http://www.uptonvillage.co.uk/vpa by kind permission of the Upton Web pages. It’s all too clever for me; I knew where I was with a little card and a piece of paper!

You all know the drill, send entries to Maggie, or bring to the post office, or Joyce, then turn up at Blewbury School, from 9am onwards to put out your entries, come again at 2.30pm to view everyone’s hard work and drink tea and eat cake, collect prizes at 4 ish, auction at 4.15ish. Good luck everyone!

Happy gardening
Karen Brooks