Hampshire Potato Day

Get advice

Get advice from Alan Wilson author of books on Potatoes and we hope, in addition to potato seed sales we will hope to have, yet again, the following have said they will return in 2017:

• Talks – Chris Bird from Sparsholt College  , history, modern methods, varieties to choose and as many questions as you care to ask!
• Children’s activities run by Friends of Whitchurch Primary School
• Refreshments from H’s Coffee Shop
• Runner, Broad and French Beans and Pea seeds and Onion and Shallot sets at very competitive prices – Charlton Park Garden Centre
• Heritage seed sales – Thomas Etty Esq
• Organic vegetables – Harroway Organic Gardens
• Herbaceous plants, locally raised lamb, wool and woolen goods – Tufton Plants
• Unusual edible plants – Edulis
• Grandma’s local home made jam, preserves and cakes
• Phoenix Perennial Plants
• Hampshire Branch of the National Vegetable Society
• Greetings cards with seeds – Grow your own cards
• A seed swap, run by Hampshire Organic Gardening Group. Bring your seeds to swap for something different
• Alan Wilson, Author of The People’s Potatoes with his new bookPlus the chance to share your experiences with other growers (~1,400 attended in 2016)

The location is Testbourne Centre, Micheldever Road, Whitchurch which is just off the A34, 4 miles north of its junction with the A303. There’ll be signs from the A34. (see the map).

When you’ve visited the Day, why not try out some of Whitchurch’s eating places or the Silk Mill – there’s a special 2 for the price of one entry tickets for those visiting the Hampshire Potato Day

To advertise the event, there is an A4 poster here and an A5 poster here (2 on one A4 page) they are Adobe Acrobat files

Don’t rush to get your favourite variety – there will be fresh stock of all varieties each day.

Seed Swap

Seed Swaps are becoming popular at various venues up and down the country with Brighton’s Seedy Sunday being the largest. We will have a selection of seeds available for visitors to swap for those they have brought along, if anyone would like to take more than they bring, a small contribution will cover the “transaction”. All seeds (provided they are viable) are welcome, flowers, vegetables, wild flowers, trees and shrubs, be they home collected or those surplus to requirements from packets overfilled by seed companies. For home collected seed all we ask is that it is labelled with the name of the species, variety and the year it was collected, if it’s unusual some details would be helpful. Pay envelopes (about 3½” x 4½”) are perfect containers but any small envelope will do, provided they are well sealed to stop the seeds leaking out.

Organic Fertilisers

Although now available in garden centres the prices are quite high. We will have stocks of

Dried blood – 1.5kg for ~£2.50
Fish, blood and bone meal – 2kg for ~£2.50
Bone meal – 2kg for ~£2.50
Seaweed Meal – 1kg for ~£2.50

Green Manure

Green manures are a very useful way to build up the fertility in the soil, without have to make and transport compost/manure. Over winter they also dramatically reduce the leaching of nutrients. One problem is that (like lots of potato varieties they are not easily available. We intend to have a small number of the 10 or so main green manures available at over 30% off retail prices: