Keep raking up leaves from lawns and paths, and off the beds if they are laying thickly, if not they can be left for the worms to break them up and incorporate them into the soil.
Tie-in long whippy shoots of climbers and wall shrubs. Prune roses to prevent wind-rock and this is also the time to prune most deciduous trees, but a lot of deciduous ornamental grasses can be left until the spring. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for November 2020
There is a story of a pompous man pushing into the front of and airport check-in queue. The check-in girl tells him to go to the back of the queue. ‘Do you know who I am?’ asks the man. The check-in girl asks the queue, ’can anyone help? This man does not know who he is.’
I sympathise with this man, not because of pushing into a queue, but because I am not known by my name any longer. The days when I heard people say, ‘Hello, Mike, nice to see you,’ have gone because, in COVID protection mode, no one sees me.
I am known to my computer but only as a string of digits. The screen wants to know my ID number, password, authentication code, admin password, username, wireless key, PIN, account number or registration key. Then there are numbers and codes sent to my phone which last only an hour or so. If I go to a bar or restaurant, my phone communicates with a QR code. I can text my order and someone brings drinks. [Read more…] about Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?
Bulbs glorious bulbs. Now is the time to buy and plant bulbs for spring displays. Life might not be back to normal but at least we can add some colour and enjoyment to our gardens. Why not think about adding some pots of winter colour, such as heathers, pansies, violas and cyclamen.
Overgrown clumps of herbaceous perennials can be divided now. This will invigorate them and improve flowering and overall shape. Lift the clump and split the outer area of the clump, discarding the centre which will be the oldest part of the clump.
Don’t worry if you are not able to do this now, some can wait until next Spring, just make a note of which ones need attention.
Continue to deadhead plants to prolong the display. Why not treat yourself to some Spring bulbs that you can scatter around the garden or put into pots to give some brightness at the beginning of next year.
[Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for September 2020
It’s an afternoon in August and, after the morning’s continuous rain, my wife and I have been out for a brisk walk around the wooded roads of Brownhill, Merdon, Lake and Lakewood. It’s warm and the overpowering sweet smell of Scots pine and Douglas fir pervades the landscape. There are still large numbers of conifers among the mature oak trees where they were once a dominant species.
I first moved into Lakewood Road in 1955 when the woodlands prevailed; the area to the west of the Lake was a pine forest through which I regularly went horse-riding. It is now, tragically, an inaccessible tangle of overgrown species – but that’s another story!
At that time, in the rectangle of land formed by Hiltingbury, Hocombe, Lakewood and Hursley Roads, there was little development, the oldest house being our neighbours’ house,The White House, the land for which had been acquired in 1908. The area was woodland and heathland. I galloped across this land frequently and, like many other boys, rode my bike aerobatically over ‘the bumps’ behind the present Ashdown Road.
As a young boy, I had that wonderful sense of freedom, space and adventure. The land was ripe to be plundered and developed and, from the 1890s, the land from Ford to Brownhill, and Hiltingbury to Hocombe was destined to fall under the woodman’s axe to make way, initially, for exclusive houses.
In 1963 I met Mandy Fry, a girl who lived with her parents and sisters in their family farm in Bramdean. Mandy was lodging during the week with my Aunt while she was attending Eastleigh College and that’s how we met when visiting one day.
In October 1966 Mandy and I bought a plot of land in Malcolm Road. We had plans for a house drawn up. Although passed by the local authority, we still had to take the drawings to Scammel & Smith, the local estate agents, to have the drawings approved by them for the Hiltingbury Estates before we could start building. [Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 3
In October 1960 in Chandler’s Ford, the Monks Brook river that ran behind our house burst its banks and many of the houses in Mead Road were flooded, some up to 18” of water inside, but I remember our house staying dry inside because the ground floor was built higher than those around it and stayed just below the floorboards.
In the 1950’s during my teens I had a paper round working for the newsagents on the corner of Mead Road and Park Road. On Saturdays I used to take a tea chest full of old newspapers to the waste land opposite the newsagents and burn them on a bonfire. [Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 2
My family came to live in Chandler’s Ford in the 1880’s when my great grandfather Levi Hammerton and his family moved here from the Bournemouth area. Levi worked as a builder building houses in and around Chandler’s Ford.
In 1902 Levi was presented with a beautiful oak carved swivelled chair with a plaque that reads: Presented to Mr Levi Hammerton by the Inhabitants of Chandler’s Ford as a mark of their appreciation of the many services rendered to the Parish 1902.
[Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 1
This is a perfect time to be thinking about taking cuttings of some short lived or tender plants that might not over-winter such as some penstemons and salvias.
Select a vigorous shoot, preferably a shoot that hasn’t flowered, otherwise make sure all buds have been taken off, cut a 5cm length as near to a leaf joint as possible, strip off the lowest leaves and insert into compost. Keep in a cool, moist environment out of full sunlight. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for August 2020
This is a true story. The illustrations are by my nephew Hari Gopinathan, a talented furniture designer and freelance illustrator Hari Gopinathan (Instagram handle).
Paul,
I owe an apology to your cat. On my evening walk yesterday, I saw him halfway to Tesco, looking lost and forlorn. An elderly couple was engaged in conversation with him. He was instantly recognisable: a mix of tabby and white with tortoise shell grey, playful kitten approaching full cathood, no collar, and slight to moderate belly. It was Sonny and he was lost.
Sliding my headphones off, I said to the couple,
“It’s my neighbour’s cat”. [Read more…] about Cat in the Bag
Divide congested clumps of bearded iris after flowering. Dead head bedding plants, roses and herbaceous plants to encourage more flowers.
Trim evergreen hedges, including conifers. Feed dahlias and cannas every two weeks with a high potassium fertilizer, such as tomato feed. Prune early-summer flowering shrubs, such as Philadelphus, once they have finished flowering. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for July 2020
By the time you read this, I will have been locked-down for 100 days, from March 9th in fact.
This is not the first epidemic or pandemic I have experienced. The first, in 1961, amounted to nothing very much but, without prompt action, it could have been even more serious than the present one.
I returned home to my student flat late one night to find the door locked and bolted. I rang and banged and shouted and eventually my flat-mate, Taffy, appeared on the balcony.
‘You can’t come in, mate.’
‘Stop messing around, Taffy and let me in.’
‘Can’t, it’s smallpox.’
‘There’s no smallpox here. Let me in.’
‘But there is in South Wales and in Bradford. We are possible contacts because we spent the weekend in South Wales. We are in quarantine for 10 days and must have no contact with anyone. Public Health sends someone around with food which they leave at the door.’ [Read more…] about Pandemics and Epidemics – I have been locked-down for 100 days
So, after all those weeks that we have had in lock down, and the sunshine and showers our gardens have received we should all be starting to notice a difference when we look outside.
Hopefully, as businesses start to reopen, garden centres will as well, and any gaps in the garden can then be instantly filled, adding more colour to the garden.
Steve Allen has shared these videos, in which he captured some happy moments in the neighbourhood of Chandler’s Ford during the lockdown. These included music on Thursday evenings, and a piper playing for a neighbour’s birthday.
With Steve’s permission, we are sharing these on Chandler’s Ford Today.
1 – Malcolm the Piper was playing for a Scottish lady on her birthday.
[Read more…] about Music in Chandler’s Ford during Lockdown: “Love thy neighbours is so true”
Lakewood Road decided to have a socially separated street party yesterday for VE75. I replied to the invitation and said I was at an original VE day party. Several people expressed an interest in the comments so I thought Chandler’s Ford Today might like to see them. As it turns out, I am not the only one who attended an original party.
Am I the only one in Lakewood Road who attended an original VE day party? I was seven years old or, as I would surely have reminded people, seven and three quarters. When Mother picked up the newspaper that day, I was having breakfast. She opened it, yelled for joy, and ran out into the street declaring ‘The war is over.’
That evening I was taken to a bomb site about a mile away from our house in Sheffield. We children were given currant buns to eat – wow, and a fizzy drink. Normally the best we could expect was some bread and margarine or dripping if we were lucky. There was a huge bonfire, taller than the adults. Someone put a figure of Hitler on it. The most vivid memory was of fireworks which I had never seen before. I learned about rockets, Roman candles, Catherine wheels, sparklers and bangers. Roman candles were my favourite.
There was bunting strung everywhere made of any scraps of material that could be found. Houses, walls and shops had ‘V’ painted on them in whitewash. The morse code …- for V was daubed on doors. I did not know at the time about Beethoven’s 5th symphony but I had heard the call sign on the radio preceding the coded messages going out to the resistance workers. Whitewash signs reading ‘Welcome home, Jim’ or Fred or Sam were beginning to appear. A little insensitive if your neighbour no longer had a loved one to welcome home.
It was a brief and joyful interval but the overall mood was one of relief and thanks that it was all over at last. Our parents had been through 2 world wars and fortunately, we had not lost a close family member.
Father served in WWI but in WWII he was a haulage contractor and a member of Dad’s Army which was known as the Home Guard. They practised throwing grenades using clods of earth. I was excited to go with father on his lorries loaded with the ‘tallboy’ bombs from Sheffield to the ordnance factory where they were filled. I wasn’t allowed in the ordnance factory but stayed with the guards at the gate who always gave me something to eat.
There was no thought of the 75th anniversary but here we are and it will be an interesting party. Mother’s immediate post-war aim was to get me educated so that I would not have to go down the pit like most boys in our district. Orgreave Colliery was nearby and my contemporary, Arthur Scargill, who I never met, could tell you all about that.
We had a great party yesterday, sitting outside our gates on the pavement. There was an abundance of bunting and we all dressed in red, white and blue. I learned that I was not the only one old enough to remember. Someone told how he remembered seeing Portsmouth ablaze from a raid in 1942. Another spent a lot of his time in a Morrison Shelter. Robbie Sprague was there too but he cannot remember it as he was only 1 year old.
Another resident Peter wrote the following story –
Mike, No, you are not the only one in Lakewood Road that remembers VE Day. At six years old we had a street party with bonfires in the road, not gardens, with singing and parties where I threw my teddy bear onto the bonfire, having just thrown-up on it (the teddy, not the bonfire)!
I came out of my parents’ Morrison shelter (Father fought and was wounded in WW1 and was in Dad’s Army) awaiting the demolition of the concrete built shelters in the road so that everybody could use.
However, we stayed at home in the Morrison shelter with our neighbours.
Thank GOD! We have survived and to those young lives that fought and died for us to be what we have today.
I cannot thank them myself, but I do remember them with gratitude.
I am pleased that lock-down muted the celebrations. I feared that it may become too jingoistic and nationalistic. It is a tribute to the human spirit that, when these 75-year-old memories are activated they bring a wave of emotions with them. People do not forget.
There must be other readers of Chandler’s Ford Today who have memories of the original day. Tell us your story.
We are beginning to think of ending the lock-down. How different will it be afterwards?
That little strand of RNA wrapped up as COVID-19 has altered our behaviour. It has shut our institutions; schools, universities, travel, industries, retail and the legal system. Health, policing, food and pharmacy remain active with some local travel.
Some of us have been able to work from home and found it satisfactory. A friend is wondering why he keeps a London office; a weekly meeting in an office hired for half a day may be sufficient. Others strive to work amid the domestic activities of children and housework. The fashion for open-plan living areas in houses has not helped.
It is a bit strange writing this column while we are all stuck at home keeping social distance, and none of us can predict if things will change before May. I have noticed that more people are taking an interest in their gardens so perhaps some of this information will be helpful.
Summer bedding can be planted out in the garden and pots once the risk of frost has passed. Dahlia plants can be planted out at the end of the month. Any herbaceous plants that will flop over or be damaged by high winds need to be staked. Keep up with the weeding, either by hand or hoeing them. Evergreen hedges can be cut from this month, but check for nesting birds before getting the hedgecutter out. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for May 2020
As you may already be aware, I support Marie Curie and chair the local Eastleigh and Chandler’s Ford Fundraising Group. Thank you to everyone who has generously supported our activities in the past.
Marie Curie are experiencing very challenging times both in delivering services for people with terminal illnesses and with ongoing fundraising during the coronavirus pandemic.
Every March the Charity raises millions of pounds with the Great Daffodil Appeal. Most of this was lost because of the current situation. Also the Marie Curie shops have had to close.
I realise that many Charities are asking for help at this time and you may be supporting one or more of those. However in light of this critical situation, I am reaching out to you on behalf of Marie Curie to ask for your help.
Every day and night, Marie Curie Nurses and frontline staff give vital support to dying people and their families, in their homes and in hospices across the UK. At this time of national emergency, when the NHS is being put under extreme strain, these crucial services are needed more than ever.
[Read more…] about Coronavirus Emergency Appeal for Marie Curie
Check roses for black spot, remove and destroy any infected leave and treat with a fungicide. Cotinus and Sambucus grown for their foliage effect can be cut back now.
This month can be quite a busy month, but a lot will depend on the weather and the risk of frosts.
Perennials that are congested and overcrowded can be lifted and split this month. Overwintered dahlias can be kick started by potting them in free draining compost, when they start to produce new shoots, the first of these can be cut and potted to multiply your stock. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for March 2020
