My garden is struggling in the growing department at the moment, unless you include weeds that is! The soil is claggy, the seedlings keep wilting or getting eaten by ravenous slugs, and it’s all seemed rather slow to take off compared to other years. As one of the more recent volunteer organisers of the Rye Flower and Veg Show, I’m trying not to feel the pressure to enter beautiful produce on the day. There are about fifteen weeks until the next Rye Flower and Veg Show (Saturday August 31), so there’s still time to get my act together!
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show, we thought it would be a nice idea to have a bit of a Q&A with different gardeners in our local area. I thought what better place to start than by interviewing the more seasoned organisers of the show. So, first up the lovely Lorna Hall.
Where is your garden – home / allotment / other? Describe it for us.
Lorna: We are on the edge of Rye, with a cottage garden (read floppy planting held up by weeds) and a kitchen garden area. We are in a rural part with all the bugs and birds and pests that brings. We consider ourselves a wildlife supermarket.
What is your earliest memory of a garden?
Lorna: My dad’s wired raspberry bushes where my sister and I stole the fruit and the scent of the leylandii hedge that we used to hide behind.
How long have you been gardening?
Lorna: Shockingly to me it’s over 35 years and I’m still learning.
Did anyone teach you to garden or did you teach yourself?
Lorna: I’ve learnt by osmosis, lucky mistakes and bitter experience.
Do you have a favourite celebrity gardener? Why do you admire them?
Lorna: Can I have two please? Christopher Lloyd at Great Dixter – I loved his exotic hot garden. I also adore Sarah Raven’s cutting garden which I tried to copy and her clever use of colour combinations.
What is your favourite flower to grow and why?
Lorna: I love a rose and a sweet pea but my favourite must be the peony. Anything scented really. On the other hand the striking dahlia…it’s very difficult to pick a favourite!
What is your favourite vegetable to grow and why?
Lorna: Tomatoes – they taste so much better than shop-bought. I especially like the plum tomato Roma.
What is your favourite gardening task?
Lorna: I love planting out seeds and seedlings. It’s the best time of the year (April /May / June) and there is so much to look forward to.
What is your least favourite gardening task?
Lorna: I suppose it must be weeding, it has to be done but it’s a bit boring.
Do you speak to your plants?
Lorna: Generally not directly to them but I do talk to myself in the garden about what I’m going to do next (I pretend that I am talking to my dogs!).
What’s your favourite breaktime drink and snack when gardening?
Lorna: A big old mug of builder’s tea with a custard cream during the day and a cold glass of rosé after I’ve finished for the evening.
Apart from the standard consumption of your produce do you make any extra items like preserves / cakes etc…?
Lorna: I sometimes bake, using my asparagus in flans and my courgettes in a moist sponge cake but more usually I make pickled cornichons (which I love), runner bean chutney, blackcurrant vinegar and rhubarb gin – yum!
How’s your growing season so far?
Lorna: It’s got off to a very slow start with courgette and tomato seedlings just sitting there, doing nothing. The beans (runner, broad and French) are planted out but looking a little sad – but I’m sure it will all come together in the end.
Will you be entering the Rye Flower and Veg Show this year?
Lorna: Of course, I haven’t missed a show since it started 20 years ago.
What do you like about the show?
Lorna: It’s relaxed, good-natured and a great community event and because of the spread of classes absolutely anyone can enter – and win!
Thanks so much to Lorna for sharing how her garden grows. There will be more gardener insights coming soon – next up Helena Hudd who has also been organising the show for many years.
The schedule for the Rye Flower & Veg Show has been confirmed and is now online: https://ryeflowerandvegshow.co.uk/classes-and-prizes-2024/ so you can get busy planning what you are going to be entering this year. If you are new to taking part in the show, rest assured, it really is an inclusive and fun community event to be part of!
Until next time – happy growing!