Meeting September 13

Our first meeting of the autumn was well attended on a rainy evening at Roundwood Park School. Our guest speaker was Chris Thorn of Ayletts Nurseries in St Albans.

His subject was ‘Towards sustainable gardens’.

Chris opened his talk with an invitation to see their new Celebration Garden showcasing 60 years in business. The nursery originally grew dahlias and over the years Ayletts have won 39 RHS gold medals (36 in consecutive years) for their dahlias.

Chris reminded us that compost containing peat is to be banned from 2024.

Ayletts stock a huge range of composts and the peat free composts are coming down in price as more and more gardeners are changing to peat free varieties.

Newer and more environmentally friendly slug and snail pellets are now available. Slugs injest these new pellets which give them indigestion causing the slugs to bury deep into the soil to die, thus leaving the soil surface free from contamination.

Given climate change it is even more important to conserve rainwater. New ground watering systems can be connected to water butts to deliver a drip by drip to borders and beds. On the market currently is a system made entirely of car tyres!

Interestingly we were told when disposing of black plastic plant pots and seed trays there is no point in putting them in your council recycling bins as the machines at the recycling centres cannot ‘see’ black plastic so they are diverted to landfill. Ayletts now sell blue plastic pots which can be recycled. Ayletts offer to take your old black plastic pots and can recycle them in Germany who have the machinery to convert them into coat hangers!

Next time you buy clothing in M&S it might be your old plant pots coming home to you!

Ayletts are constantly investing in new products and ideas and ways to help customers to become more sustainable gardeners.

Those with all electric cars can now take advantage of 6 newly installed charging points in the car park.