WAGS NEWS
April 2008
Chairman's Piece
I can’t believe that half the year has gone by already, but it has.
Since the last newsletter we have been saddened by the death of one of our most popular helpers, Joe Gniadek. You will find a special article about Joe elsewhere in this Newsletter.
Talking of Helpers, to say that I’m disappointed in the lack of any response to my request that a few of you come and help the dwindling committee, and fill the vacancies I wrote about in the April Newsletter, would be an understatement. What’s the matter with you all? Do you want to see the Society flounder and fold up? Come on, get a grip! Get in touch – please!
To remind you….
We need an Assistant Store
Manager and a Trips Organiser
right now and a Newsletter Editor
from February 2009.
Please, please consider filling one
of these positions and keep this
great society afloat.
Well that’s off my chest, so now to current affairs.
WAGS Web Site
As I said in April, the web site
www.cranfordcomputers.co.uk/wags
has undergone a full content
update. Now you can find details of
some of the popular products we
sell in the shop, with their current
prices. Remember that we can
order just about anything you
need, just ask. Also shown are the
Store opening times and dates
when it is closed (No Sundays in
J u n e , J u l y , Au g u s t a n d
September).
The Newsletter section shows the current one - this should be there before you read it – and an archive going back to 2001.
Details of the Show and other Events can also be found along with an Almanac, Gallery of photographs and Questions & Answers.
We welcome any submissions towards any of the pages.
You will find a contact button so send us an e-mail.
If you can’t get what you want at the Store when you want it, please let Colin or myself know and we will consider adding the item to the stock list.
Plant Sale 17th May
Despite a not very pleasant day
weather wise, and a desertion by
just about all of our regular
helpers, (most of whom were
launching a lifeboat somewhere
along the South Coast) we had a
good turnout and lots of plants
were sold. My thanks to Iris & Les
Novell, Blondie Russell, Barbara
Caistor, Albert Reed, Roger Smith,
and Tim. If I missed anyone,
please forgive me, but I was a bit
tied up running the Store (for the first time!).
Bernard Novell
01491 873092 (If you ring during the day and there is no reply, please leave a message. I will call you back)wags@bernyn.plus.com
Catering
The next two functions on the calendar are not far off so this is my last opportunity to reach you all with usual request for help. I shall need help and cakes for both the Band Concert on 10th August and the Autumn Show on 13th September. It is always helpful to know in advance if I am going to have enough cakes and help although you always come up trumps. Nevertheless I would be grateful if you could advise me of your offer by calling me on 01491 835117 - thanks.Shop Talk
I would remind all members that if we do not have what you require please ask the Store Manager and I will see if one of our suppliers has the item you require and this will be added to our next order.
Please note that I am still looking for a Deputy Store Manager so that I can get some Saturdays off.
We are looking for people to help at the shop on Saturdays between 10.00 and 12.00. If we do not get help we may not be able to keep the shop open every Saturday. Please give your name to me at the shop or ring on 01491 837648.
We are also looking for people to help unload our delivery lorries. All deliveries are during the week and take about an hour. If you could help with this, please contact me.
Please note that the store is now only open at 10 o’clock unless there are special circumstances.
I hope that all your produce will be the best and that you will enter it in our Autumn show.
The Store will be open in the afternoon of the Show.
Colin Timmins
Store Manager
Plant Sale
Saturday 17th May
We made £225, thank
you to all who attended,
donated and bought
plants.
Incan Agriculture (part 2)
HALF a millennium ago in the Andes, on the eve of the Spanish conquest, the Incas created an agricultural wonderland. On irrigated mountainside terraces along the spine of South America, they cultivated an estimated 70 species of crops, almost as many as the farmers of Europe and Asia combined.
And what crops: White, yellow and purple roots that taste like a blend of celery, cabbage and roast chestnuts. Beans that pop like popcorn. Cereal grains containing twice the protein of wheat, rice or corn. Yellow, pink, red and candy-striped tubers. Potatoes with a naturally buttery taste. Potatolike roots with the tartness of sour cream built in. And a whole array of exotic fruits, including one that tastes like papaya, pineapple and banana. Incan storehouses overflowed with three to seven years' supply of such bounty.
Now these ''lost crops of the Incas,'' are being rediscovered and reintroduced around the globe as an exciting and nutritious addition to standard urban diets and a valuable source of agricultural income for the third world.
''This is a fantastic wealth of food crops that has been overlooked by the world for almost five centuries,'' said Noel D. Vietmeyer, the staff director of the study by the council, ''Some of them can come quickly into widescale production, become foods on our dinner table.''
A few of the crops, particularly roots, grains and legumes, are thought to have the nutritional content, adaptability and capacity for mass production that could turn them into staple foods like the potato.
A handful of Incan crops are already becoming familiar to urban shoppers in a number of countries. Produce sections of supermarkets and specialty stores in several American cities carry Incan delicacies like the cherimoya, the sweet, juicy fruit with a creamy texture like custard and the papaya-pineapple-banana taste; the tamarillo, or tree tomato; several varieties of multi-coloured Andean potatoes; the cape gooseberry, renamed goldenberry by the research council's panel of scientists; the protein-packed grain called quinoa (pronounced keen-WAH), the sacred ''mother grain'' of the Incas, and a small yellow-and-purple fruit, called the pepino, or pepino dulce, that tastes something like a honeydew melon. A number of these items are now being grown in the Western United States, New Zealand and other countries, and are starting to find a market.
But ''we're just scratching the surface,'' Ms. Caplan said, and indeed, the research council's panel has identified 31 Incan crops that it believes can be successfully introduced around the world. If all were to catch on, scientists say, they would vastly increase the variety of human foods.
Although there are at least 20,000 edible plants in the world, and at least 3,000 have been used as food at some time or other, ''only about 100 have been brought up to anything like their potential,'' said Dr. Vietmeyer, ''and only about 20 basically feed the planet.''
Developing Incan crops as staple foods would not only introduce variety, proponents say, but would also reduce the risk of crop failure among other staples. ''When a farmer is able to diversify, it makes life safer.'' Unlike other fruits and vegetables from tropical latitudes, the Incan crops, since they flourish at high altitudes, can be grown in cool temperate zones. They are especially promising as potential export crops in mountainous regions not only of South America but also of Asia and Africa, said Dr. Vietmeyer. They can also be grown in industrialized countries ''where the horticultural establishment of the world is concentrated,'' he said.
The greatest Andean agricultural success up to now has been the colonization of the planet by the potato. Today it is the world's fourth largest crop after wheat, rice and corn. The conquistadors exempted it from their prohibition because they found it useful fodder for slaves in the silver mines and for sailors on galleons. The galleons took it to Europe, where it suffered all manner of calumny and indignity before becoming established.
Europeans, the study said, considered the potato ''dark, dirty and highly sinister.'' It was said to cause leprosy, syphilis and scrofula, the swelling of lymphatic glands, and peasants would starve rather than submit to the orders of kings to cultivate it. But late in the 1700's, it took hold and revolutionized eating habits across Europe.
Lima beans date back at least 7,500 years in Peru. Exactly how they left the Americas is unknown, but they, too, have become distributed around the world. An Exotic Shopping List
Show Time
This Year's Show - Saturday 13th September
You will find your Show Schedule and Entry Forms with this Newsletter.
Please do try and enter as many classes as you can and give our Judges some challenges. Also, if you have children or grandchildren, please encourage them to enter the Children’s Classes for FREE, but if they are budding gardeners, there is no reason why they cannot enter any of the other classes. Remember, if they live in your house, they are also members of WAGS.
I look forward to seeing many of you at The Show.
Bernard Novell
Ball Colegrave
The Summer Open Evening will be on 30th July from 4pm to 8pm. Tickets on the gates will be £2; booked in advance £1.
This is the only date that the grounds will be open to the public this year. Visitors are welcome to view the spectacular trial grounds, colourful gardens, patio displays and possibly the largest display of hanging baskets and containers. You will also have a chance to see the 8 acre display of horticultural delights and to preview the new plant varieties that will be available in garden centres from Spring 2009.
Light refreshments will be available but you are welcome to bring your own food and drink if you prefer.
To avoid disappointment we would advise that you book early as places are limited.
You will need to make your own arrangements to get there.
Tel No: 01295 814702 or 01295 810632 (main switchboard
Learning to Work With Nature's Clock
"WHEN the oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear, plant corn." This was a treasured bit of planting advice given by many Eastern Indian tribes and followed seriously. The local Indians knew that the soil had to be warm enough to receive the corn seed. And if the oak leaves were beginning to unfurl, the Indians knew that their vital crop of corn would not be chilled in the ground needlessly.Another adage that they used to follow was planting by the phases of the moon. They were particularly careful to observe the rise or wane of the new moon to know when to plant or delay planting of particular crops.
The Indian tribes understood the phenomenon that temperature is one of the major factors governing the survival of plants and seed. How many times have modern-day gardeners heard that they should prune the rosebushes when the neighbourhood forsythia was in flower? Or that they should put down pre-emergent crabgrass controls before the lilacs were in full bloom?
Here is another one: controls for the black-vine weevil (on rhododendrons and yew) should be delayed until the largeflowered rhododendrons are in flower, usually early to mid-June. These concepts are often shelved by many as just plain old wives' tales.
But are they?
The local Indian tribes did not have access to radio, television or local newspapers to tell them what the day's weather would be. All they had to depend on was what they observed outdoors, on nature's clocks. These masterful gardeners were rarely wrong and produced their crops abundantly. Their lives depended on it. As for those who may pass off these claims merely as old tales, wise have been any of those who have followed what comes naturally.
Although these early practitioners of following nature's schedules did not realise it, they were leading the way to one of the horticultural world's newest sciences called plant phenology, the study of biological clocks.
Many proponents of gardening do not believe this is serious science, but there are many others who are giving it deep consideration. And why not. For the old adage has always been that nature knows best.
The world of plants (and insects) sets its own timetables and does not rigidly follow a calendar, as so many suburban gardeners are prone to do. Granted, certain outdoor chores can be done by the calendar: getting the ground ready usually by April 1, for example, so it can settle down a bit before planting. And certain months are said to belong to certain plants: May for dogwood, June for roses and August for the tomato and corn harvest.
But the emphasis on environmental awareness has given this study credence, particularly in the field of insect control. Instead of making spray applications by the calendar, professionals and home gardeners alike are learning to observe what is going on outdoors before they get the spray equipment out.
Fewer services are (or should be) contracting for take-care visits to homes by the book, just because "they are going to be in the neighbourhood that week." Rather, the maturity of particular insects is being observed and the progress of the plants watched. Sometimes spraying is either deemed unnecessary or delayed until a later time. One of the researchers who is following this tack is Daniel Herms, an entomologist for the Dow Chemical Company.
Dr. Herms found, for example, that while studying the pine needle scale closely, he observed that its hatch coincided with bloom on the common lilac. Hence the application of any materials to control the scale was delayed to a time when the insect was most vulnerable
Although borers are rarely seen, the damage done results in either weakening or death of many plants, particularly dogwoods, lilacs and peach trees. If the plant subject to the borer damage is monitored closely, the controls can be applied at the time when the insect is most vulnerable, rather than waiting until the damage is done. In this way, the trouble can be nipped in the bud before the valuable plant is ruined.
The study of phenology goes back over 200 years as recorded in the annuals of the Royal Society.
Robert Marsham [1708 - 1797] began recording seasonal records of nature's distinct events in 1736, an activity known as phenology.
He meticulously catalogued detailed records of seasonal weather and temperature changes; tree foliation; crop growth and progress; migrating birds; flowering dates of individual species like snowdrops and wood anemones in Spring; first sightings of butterflies and swallows; and listened for the first call of the cuckoo. His ground-breaking work developed into the 27 'Indications of Spring' and were eventually reported to the Royal Society in 1789.
This pioneer of phenology created an enormous amount of interest with scientists, the British aristocracy and others with an interest in natural history both at the time and since. Robert Marsham had the vision to realise the deep significance of his findings and would tirelessly continue his phenology work and recordings up until his death in 1797.
Robert Marsham would not only prove to be an innovator by cataloguing nature's seasonal footprints, he was also equally focused on the importance of managing his forestry plantations near Norwich, and experimenting with improving tree cultivation and growth.
Through the concerted efforts of a dedicated team of Stratton Strawless (Norfolk) villagers; Dr Tim Sparks of the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology in Huntingdon, David Tattersall, Chairmanof the ETT Marketing Group in Norwich, and our website designer Chris Ridley, we are able to offer you an enlightening insight into Robert's extraordinary innovative work as a precursor of modern arboriculture; his fascination with natural history and all the family's illuminating recordings; and Robert's - on occasions - tragic family traumas which might have deflected a less dedicated mortal.
We hope you will enjoy navigating through this glimpse into history reflecting many of Robert Marsham's truly remarkable achievements, with such a scientific and political focus on climate change, CO2 emissions, forestry protection and environmental issues today, both Robert Marsham and phenology will become even more significant with the people of Great Britain and across the world. For more information see http://royalsociety.org
Joe Gniadek 1st February 1920 – 14th April 2008
Born in Poland only son of 7 children to a wealthy farmer. At the start of the 2nd World War Germany invaded Poland. The family were separated and Joe was put in a POW camp in Russia. He escaped and joined the Polish Free Army aged 19 and ended up fighting all over Europe, finally fighting alongside Allied troops at the Battle of Monti Casino. When the war finished Joe had a choice, to return home to Poland or be shipped to America or England. He decided to go to England where he was posted to Nettlebed near Henley on Thames.
It was there he met Peggy his wife of nearly 60 years and started family life raising 2 sons Eddie and Bill. The family moved to Crowmarsh in the mid 50’s where he worked at Walter Wilder’s foundry. It was there he became known as “Little Joe” and became an avid dart player at the Bell Pub.
In the 60’s Joe changed his job to work at the Morris car factory in Cowley. This is where he gained his liking for horse racing; he became a bookies runner at the factory for the local bookmaker. Joe took early retirement and continued to be very successful at backing winners to supplement his retirement; in fact Joe loved most sports on TV.
Now retired, Joe’s love for gardening grew and grew, he started entering local flower and vegetable shows with great success. Joe joined WAGS (Wallingford Allotment & Garden Society) where he became an ever present face at the Saturday morning garden shop and eventually joined the Committee, helping weekly with the Store and Annual Show. Even though his back garden was big enough for 3 green houses, flower boarders and a large vegetable plot, Joe took on an allotment and when the adjacent plot became free, he took that on as well, all this gardening kept him fit and well and all the family, friends and neighbours were well supplied with fresh vegetables and it filled all our freezers.
Joe was also a very good cook and would enter cakes in the Annual show, with his growing of veg and cooking, no visitor left his house hungry or came away without a bag of “goodies” to take home.
Joe was generally a very healthy man, but in May 2007 he suffered a severe heart attack, so he had to let the allotments go but he still managed to keep his garden and green houses immaculate. And even on the day he passed away he had been to Root One garden Centre to see if anything caught his eye which he hadn’t grown before.
For a few weeks after the funeral Peg was still getting plants in the post which he had ordered, she had no idea just what he had ordered so each parcel was a surprise, all of these she pricked-out in the green house and shared with the family.
Sadly his garden is not quite so immaculate at the moment but his family are all helping and peas, beans and of course flowers are planted out, just the way Joe would have wanted.
The Last Word
On a related subject to phenology, Robin Page gave an interesting article in the March 2008 edition of the Countryman on traditional weather lore.
So many of the “old wives tales” are dismissed in this modern era of weather forecasters and multimillion pound computer systems that only seem to get half the weather right.
Gardeners and farmers would do well to take heed of some of the many sayings that still hold true.
For instance, Robin Page tells of some of his neighbouring farmers who sheared their sheep during a hot spring in 2007 only to lose many sheep that died of chills and pneumonia. They didn’t follow the saying:
You may shear your sheep
When elder blossoms peep.
One prediction that seems to hold is the following:
If the oak is out before the ash, then
you’ll only get a splash,
But if the ash beats the oak, the you
can expect a soak.
Which is it to be this year?
The Editor is resigning.
Is there someone out there, member or non-member, who would like to take on the role of Editor. Anyone who has a flair for words and media would find this an exciting publication to launch their talents.
Naturally, training will be available and you would need to allow two or three hours once every three months. You will not be involved in the distribution of the newsletter, that is handled by the membership secretary.
If you feel you can make a positive contribution please contact me or Bernard Novell