Out of sight out of mind?

At the Audlem W.I. June Meeting, what happened to 'Out of sight out of mind?'

A holiday should be just long enough that your friends can miss you, but not long enough for them to discover how well they can get along without you!

Having enjoyed a week of fun and frolics with my aged husband and various friends – yes, I do have some – I return home to the obligatory sight of a garden in disarray and a pile of post jamming up the front door.

Surely I must have avoided the monthly delight of writing up the W.I. meeting information during my absence? But no, the first letter I open is a beautiful, legible and detailed hand written synopsis of our June meeting by no other than our President Lyn Nicholas, so how could I refuse?

Several important members of the Committee were absent with permission (although mental notes have been made and it will not happen again) for the June meeting, so fortunately amongst our talented members there are always others who can step up to the mark.

This month Jean Cooke took on the onerous position of secretary in place of Doreen Hubbard who doesn't believe in floating through life when she can cruise! Jean has the ability to tread that fine line between accomplishing the impossible without having the job added to her regular duties!

Our June speaker was Jane Allinson who runs Mayfield's Plants and Garden Design from her third of an acre garden in Stanthorne, Cheshire.

Her talk was titled as 'Making the Most of your garden Space,' which looked at ways of maximising the potential of our gardens.

Jane told our members that after retiring from teaching she retrained as a gardener and landscaper at Reaseheath College. Bearing in mind that both children and gardens reflect the kind of care they get, it seemed a sensible career change.

The idea of landscaping is to raise the profile of our gardens and the client is most important when designing a garden as a wish list is needed and the landscaper's job is to 'marry up' the wish list with the space available.

Apparently there is a 'male way' and a 'female way' to design a garden – no surprises there then – and Jane illustrated this by telling us about one of her first clients who was a teaching friend and her husband. The husband had clear ideas of the design needed, but his wife completely disagreed!

A full blown domestic took place whereupon Jane retreated, discretion being the better part of valour, and said she would return when they had reached a point of agreement! Eventually the husband telephoned asking Jane to return, adding that the garden plan had been agreed – the original one – and that they were now getting a divorce!

The photos of the finished garden where superb, but one has to wonder how the wife's design may have turned out!

Who knew landscapers led such an exciting life?

Jane also explained that when costing out a new garden design a general rule is 1/3 hard landscaping and the rest goes in planting.

Here is a list of handy tips that Jane gave the meeting:

• Harmonise your house and garden.
• Use 'S' shaped paths as your eye travels along it, visually extending the garden.
• If you have a big garden, use big plants but with a small to medium garden limit the larger plants and try to find smaller versions of big plants.
• Use pots to cover bleak spots and holes in hedges etc.
• If you have a long thin garden, put an object at the end of it to draw the eye and give the image of a larger garden.

June Perry gave a vote of thanks to Jane for her enlightening talk and Jane was then asked to judge the monthly competition – Making a posy.

As I was unavailable to submit a stunning arrangement, it comes as no surprise that Anne Watson won once again and Sheila Webster came second. I'm hoping Anne will be on holiday when I next enter a competition!

Janet Creber presented our birthday ladies with bouquets of flowers and our celebrated tea ladies were Ann Pearson, Mavis Bolter and Anne Watson who not only produced the perfect posy, but managed to bake as well! What a talented lot we ladies are.

See you all in July.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.