Shroedinger's Garden, Guy Deakins February's zoom talk.

In February 2025 we hold our monthly meeting on Zoom. The weather can often be poor and it is also a chance for us to share our meeting with Tendershoots. In exchange we are entitled to attend the talks that are arranged by other clubs in the Tendershoots network. This is the website address for Tendershoots if you would like to see what else is on offer: https://tendershoots.uk/ Check out the ‘Programme’ tab. Some talks are recorded and available to watch on catch-up.

Guy Deakins was our speaker who spoke to us on the topic of ‘Shroedinger’s Garden’. Shroedinger came up with the philosophy of ‘If you can’t see something it doesn’t exist’. Guy himself had studied psychology but now lectures at Capel Manor Horticultural College (our nearest open garden which many of you have probably visited). Guy’s talk was about the psychology of gardens, how we look at a garden and what we see because of the way we look at the garden.

He told us that different parts of our brains have different memory stores and we see how we are taught to see so we use preconceptions. The famous historic landscape gardener, Capability Brown arranged spaces to get us to see his gardens as landscapes, but they were an illusion. Gertrude Jekyll, another famous garden designer worked with Lutyens. He used mathematics to design the structure of gardens while Jekyll who apparently was very short sighted and could hardly see further than a few inches in front of her used tone and colour to design the planting.

Some psychological thoughts on gardens. If you are trying to hide something e.g. an ugly wall, then you are denying the reality. You should try and work with it (we may not agree). Japenese gardens are designed for the soul and the rocks are there as they are said to have a soul The more unhappy you feel the more you will seek unhappiness whereas in reverse if you feel happy you seek more happiness.

It was a very different type of talk. Thought provoking. It may make you look at your garden or any garden you visit in a different way.

 

 

Christmas Social/The Christmas Garden, talk December's meeting

For our December meeting this year we did our Christmas social slightly differently. Our falling   attendance numbers at meetings and the uncertainty of the weather at that time of year mean that we decided not to have an entertainer, but instead we had one of our favoured speakers to give us a talk on ‘The Christmas Garden’. This was followed by an opportunity for members to get together and mix and socialise while enjoying a bring and share buffet. Our thanks to Veronica Perry for suggesting the idea of the shared buffet and to everyone who contributed by bringing a dish or two.

The talk was an enjoyable tour of both indoor and outdoor plants that may grow and flower at Christmas, but also those that bloom at other times of the year but strangely have names suggesting Christmas. So we have the Christmas Rose (it’s a hellebore), Christmas box (Sarcococca), Christmas cactus (Indoor plant) and Poinsettia which do bloom at Christmas time. But then we have other plants like the fuschia ‘Hollys Beauty’ and ‘Santa Claus’, Tulip ‘Christmas Dream’ that as we all know don’t flower at Christmas at all. One of the most interesting facts that I learned was that in their natural habitat of Mexico and Central America Poinsettia’s can grow into 12 foot/small trees. In the UK they are sold as house plants that most people find difficult to care for after Christmas.

The bring and share buffet was fantastic. We had a range of dishes, many home made including Barbara Humm’s home made mince pies, Pasta salad, Barbecue chicken wings, special friend rice and Cheese Puffs (The recipe can be found below and is very east to make. They can be made in advance and frozen and cooked straight from the freezer).

We take on board that it would have been good to have some music accompaniment to the socialising and we will bear this in mind for next year.

We hope all our members had a good and healthy Christmas and New Year.