April talk by Chris Thorne

Chris Thorne, retail manager at Ayletts Nurseries, did a great talk on “News from the Garden Centre Shelves” in April.
He displayed a current selection of many of the numerous and puzzling products that line the shelves of the “Garden Supplies” department. You name the situation in the garden and there is at least one product to deal with it. There were different brands of weed killer, bug killer and plant feed and Chris did a great job of explaining why one was perhaps better than another. There were products that you never even knew you needed such as water storing granules for your hanging baskets, and granules of fungi to put in the compost when plant-ing new plants to help them establish themselves quicker. Then, there were products that can make your life so much easier such as a spray on product that, in a few days, takes the green off of your garden furniture without all that spring scrubbing that has been an annual event at our house. I am very hopeful for that product I can tell you.

He went on to show us some new plants which included a grafted tomato plant and a small clump forming clematis.
It was an evening of so much interest to gardeners that it has been difficult to cut it down to just this article.

Pam Cotton