Brailes Gardening Club – December 2025
The club’s 2025 programme ended on a convivial note – a party! Members gathered in the village hall, bringing with them a wide pre-planned range of food to share. Tables joyously laid out with festive tablecloths and flower arrangements added to the party atmosphere, together with a none too serious team quiz. The case of Beaujolais Nouveau duly arrived on its actual release date, which gave members the opportunity to be among the first to sample this year’s vintage.
Looking back, members recalled a wide variety of garden visits and talks/demonstrations on gardening throughout the year. At our first meeting in February, we held a Gardeners’ Question Time which gave the opportunity for members to present their questions on all matters horticultural to an expert panel.
Our first presentation of the year was on Evenley Wood Garden, by Head Gardener Dan Winter. Set amongst beautiful Northamptonshire countryside, this 60 acre woodland was bought by keen local plantsman Timothy Whiteley in 1980 and he spent the next 37 years of his life planting specimen trees, shrubs, bulbs and other perennials.
There followed our first garden visit of the year, to the Old Rectory in Albury, near Thame. The garden setting was just gorgeous, quintessential England, with the parish church and a thatched cottage providing the perfect backdrop.
The second garden visit of the year included two destinations in Oxfordshire, starting in Denton. Denton House is a large walled garden surrounding a handsome Georgian mansion, which was rescued from a planned demolition some sixty years ago by its current owners who could see the potential for planting an outstanding garden at the property. Following which we visited an altogether more modern garden in nearby Garsington which was maintained meticulously and offered a contrasting note.
In between the garden visits, Duncan Coombes presented a talk on climbers and wall shrubs with his usual relaxed style and expert knowledge. The following month, we saw a totally different style of presentation on seasonal gardening for wildlife by garden designer Lottie Newitt, which comprised a demonstration on how to plant different colourful combinations of flowering plants and shrubs. Also included was a sale of plants included in the presentation, which proved highly popular with members.
With autumn not far away, our September meeting on the topic of plant propagation was a timely reminder on how to prepare new plants for the next season. The guest speaker was Andrew Mikolajski, a gardening author and RHS judge.
Timothy Walker, botanist and horticultural lecturer, gave the final talk of the year, on the topic of “Colour in a Small Garden”. His talk was inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden’s Gold Medal winning exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show but contained so much more content by way of explanation of some of the theory and practices employed by artists and gardeners to achieve a variety of effects.
Our first meeting of 2026 will be our Annual General Meeting, which will take place on Monday 19th January, doors open at 6.30pm for the 7.15pm meeting. This is always a much less formal affair than it sounds as most of the evening after a brief AGM is spent socialising over a freshly cooked fish and chip supper! It is also an occasion when the programme of talks and activities for the coming year is announced and there is the opportunity to enlist in annual membership of the club for a fee of £15. Members, partners, friends and visitors are all welcome (free entry for the AGM, £12 per person for the fish and chip supper which must be booked in advance).
Vic Lee
(Contact email: vi**********@********et.com)