With the festive season approaching the garden is often forgotten at this time of the year. November is, however, a very busy month for gardeners because this is the start of the planting season for all bare-root plants such as raspberries and hedging plants like privet, quick thorn, beech and hornbeam. This is the [...]

Mary English, formerly of Nunfield, passed away peacefully at Clarence House Nursing home on 26th September. She will be sadly missed, but always remembered, by her children Paul and Pauline English; and Jacky and Terry Simmonds; her grandchildren Darren and Jason; and Christine, Nicola, Emma and Mark; and her great-grandchildren Jasmine, Amelie, Alfie, Sienna and [...]

Autumn is here and days are getting shorter.  In the hardy border some of the perennials are dying down now and will need to be cut back.  The clippings can go straight on to the compost heap together with the old bedding plants that have passed their best.  Add a little Garotta to the compost [...]

Over the week-end of June 27/28 a wonderful exhibition took place in the Village Hall to mark its centenary year. Richard Edwards, Chairman of the Village Hall Committee, thanked all those who had helped in the preparation and organisation of the event and then invited the Deputy Mayor of Dacorum, Cllr. Roger Taylor, to declare [...]

It all started on a very wet Saturday at the end of June when St Paul’s Church was filled to capacity for ‘Music for a Summer Evening’ provided by Chipperfield Choral Society. Alan Taylor conducted the choir in John Rutter’s arrangement of well-known folk songs ‘The Sprig of Thyme’ and Duncan Byrne added his marvellous [...]

This is a very busy month for gardeners as autumn is almost upon us. A huge selection of spring-flowering bulbs can be found in the garden centre and it is a good time to purchase them before some of the scarcer varieties are sold out. Hyacinths for growing in bowls to flower around Christmas time [...]

The weather during May and early June was extremely hot and dry. Maybe this summer is going to be a scorcher! If this does happen we shall have to make sure that our water butts are full just in case we end up with a hosepipe ban because vegetable crops must be kept watered in [...]

Three years ago Chipperfield Choral Society, as a prelude to their diamond jubilee celebrations, gave a performance of the ‘Messiah’ by George Frideric Handel. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death so the choir chose to sing the composer’s Dettingen Te Deum at their Spring Concert held on 4 April at the Barbirolli [...]

The garden season reaches its peak this month. The Chelsea Flower Show is later this month and we shall have hours of television programmes and loads of gardening supplements to assimilate. The chance of getting frosts goes down as the month proceeds so it is now time to plant out the beds and borders with [...]

We have the Easter holidays this month, time to spend just a little more time in the garden. The flowering cherries and crab apples plus a host of shrubs and bulbs should be filling the landscape with a mass of colour. When flowering has finished, it is time to prune most of the spring-flowering shrubs. [...]

After one of the severest winters for many years gardeners will be hurrying to catch up preparing for the spring. Hopefully the hard frosts will have done good by breaking up the soil which had been dug and will have got rid of some of the bugs which cause problems. Lawns may have suffered and [...]

Chipperfield was blessed throughout the month of December with a feast of Christmas music. Traditionally our Choral Society begins the festivities with their wonderful Christmas concert and this year was no exception. A packed St. Pauls Church on 6 December saw Director of Music, Delia Meehan, conduct the choir of almost 100 voices in a [...]

TOM STUART-SMITHAround 100 local gardeners filled the Parish Room on 30 September to hear a talk by one of Britain’s top garden designers, Tom Stuart-Smith. Living locally at the Barn, Serge Hill, Bedmond, Tom is passionate about herbaceous perennials and their use in medium and large gardens and his talk was well illustrated with views [...]

Winter came a little early this year and some of us gardeners did get caught out. The weight of the snow falling on trees and shrubs during October made branches break and led to some early pruning. It did remind us of what might be to come and that we should make preparations for inclement [...]

We are fast approaching the time when the clocks go back and gardening after tea is at an end. October is, however, a very busy time for us gardeners as we should be planting tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbs. For rock gardens, tubs and containers there are a host of small-flowering bulbs [...]

What a feast of music, song and dance Chipperfield enjoyed this summer!On 21 June Chipperfield Choral Society gave their concert Summerfest at St. Pauls Church. Director of Music, Delia Meehan, recently returned from examining music candidates in Hong Kong, accompanied the choir on the oboe in John Rutters Psalmfest, which opened the concert. The performance, [...]

Summer has not yet gone and already in the garden we are preparing for next spring. Bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocus are on sale in the garden centre together with a huge selection of species suitable for rock gardens, sinks and containers. Most bulbs are spring flowering and can be planted out [...]

We have two wonderful speakers this Autumn: 24 September – Terry Simmonds will be giving a talk about his family and the Simmonds Nursery. A rare chance to learn about some of the history of our village and its people.Tickets £3; CHS members £2.30 October – Tom Stuart-Smith, the renowned garden designer, seven times Gold [...]

Gardeners do spend a lot of time talking about the weather. Last summer we had a lot of rain which made the weeds grow furiously and lawns needed more mowing, slugs and snails were more active and diseases such as Potato Blight were rampant. Should we have hot dry weather, we should be taking steps [...]

Wednesday  24 September: Terry Simmonds will give a talk on the history of his family and the Nursery which his family created. Come and listen to him talking on his experience and expertise on plants and gardens.  Tickets: £3; CHS Members  £2.Friday 30 October: Tom Stuart-Smith is 6 times gold medal winner at Chelsea, winner [...]