ALWAYS keen to be topical, the Frome Selwood Horticulture Society welcomed speakers on meadow flowers and then vegetable growing at recent monthly talks.
Paul Jupp gave a thought-provoking review of the essential need to increase pollinators and increase biodiversity. His message was clear: unless we provide a food source for pollinators and increase habitat and biodiversity “we face ecological devastation”.
Paul was first awoken to this fear on his tenth birthday, when reading the Living Planet Report. From that date in 1970 to the report in 2010, insects had reduced by 60%…. Taking the opportunity to do something about it, after redundancy in 2010 Paul set up his own Community Interest Company (CiC), Meadow in my Garden, specifically supplying wild seeds.
His seed packages sown between March and June give months of fabulous flowering, and include mixes to suit verges and road side planting, shady canopies and even flowers for bright weddings. He has also evangelized his message at Chelsea and Glastonbury, as well as with any group interested in picking up their garden hoe.
Paul’s community activism has been subtle. Working with groups in redundant or overgrown urban spaces, he has encouraged Plant Life’s ‘No grow May’ and got groups involved in creating bee corridors, planting fruit trees, building compost bins and planting bulbs either under turf or wherever there is space. By the end of the talk, Paul had taken us on his journey from the fear of ‘extinction of experience’ to the far more hopeful ‘making nature a normal part of childhood’ and ‘How can we create communities?’ Now that is a message learnt from our insect neighbours.
One of Paul’s seed mixes was for vegetable gardens for aphid control. Victoria Logue gave a humorous talk on her experiences of vegetable growing, feting a single wobbly carrot as perfect…as it had come from her own efforts. Not so much perfection, more the joy and failures of vegetable growing, Victoria gave a realistic insight into tips, and traps, which gave a ray of hope for all who were quietly expiring in the heat. Hope eternal for the FSHS Show in August, that produce will adorn the tables.
The FSHS meet on the second Tuesday of the month, 7.15pm. Critchill School. All welcome.
Contact Jane 07776 208531 or jane.norris9@ gmail.com
