May is the best month to buy plants for your garden. It’s the best time when the garden finally struggles free of winter’s yoke. When we gardeners crave to grow, propagate, to find something different, something new to plant as we stand on the threshold of summer.
So, holding The Cottage Gardener Society (Worcs.) Gardeners’ Market on 15th May 2010 was a wise choice and we were lucky enough to be to be invited to have a stall. We are Liz and Kate of Harell’ Hardy Plants.
It takes us two days to prepare for a sale. On Day One we select the plants we'll take. The ‘sure-thing’ plants are in flower or have attractive foliage. The ‘hopefuls’ are in leaf, but have a photograph taken during their flowering period to show what will come. The plants in both of these categories are chosen. On Day Two we clean and tidy each pot, give them all a drink and place them into nine of those brightly coloured plastic folding crates, slotting them in like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
On the morning of 15th May we loaded our plants into my Ford Fiesta (we once had a film crew who bet us we’d never get all the crates into my car - we won!). Liz acting as navigator, we set off for Callow End. We always wonder what sort of day lies ahead. We’ve had good days when a steady flow of plants sell, and bad days when we could read ‘The English Garden’ from cover to cover between customers!
Arriving at the village hall we found a hive of activity as people set up their stalls. They had an inviting range of items from old restored garden tools to vegetable plants, shrubs, trees, bedding plants and hardy perennials. And, to our great delight, refreshments were available as well. Luxury!. It is this good mix of different types of stall that make a successful market.
At 1.30pm people began to arrive and wandered in and out of the ball investigating the contents of each stall. the customers who stopped at our stall were lovely to talk to - friendly, knowledgeable and interesting. We did our share of stall browsing too, talking shop to other plantaholics, which is always satisfying, and, naturally, buying one or two must haves! It was exciting to hunt around the CGS members’ stalls, picking up several little gems for ourselves.
We would urge others to take part in the Gardeners’ Market. Thanks to the welcome of others members of The Cottage Garden Society we had a great day out!