The Cottage Garden Society

Julia Boulton the editor of our magazine, welcomes relevant articles for our next issue. contact Julia at : cgs.ed@btinternet.com

All the seed has now been dispatched. If you have not received your order please contact Rob Baston on 01905 371385.

Any remaining seed will be offerered to visitors to our stands at the shows in exchange for a donation.

Gill Hadland, our new Snowdrop Group contact, was one of five finalists in BBC Gardener of the Year 2009 and achieved a spendid Second Place.

'Garden Grabbing'
Members who followed the campaigns to try and protect large gardens from being used as building projects, may be interested in an update. (Information on 2 attempts to bring in bills to change the designation of gardens as 'brownfield sites' were detailed in the CGS magazine in the last 2 years.)
The government has promised a review into this issue this year. Meanwhile another campaign is being run by Zac Goldsmith at: http://www.protectourgreenspaces.com

As from 1st October, householders in England may not cover their front gardens with impermeable materials like asphalt, paving, concrete etc. - without planning permission. This legislation is a measure to reduce the danger of flooding as a result of heavy rains experienced in the last 2 years. Using porous products will not require permission as these allow rainwater through.

Zac Goldsmith, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park, now has a campaign on 'Garden grabbing'. It reads:
"Instead of being protected as havens for wildlife, not to mention the sheer pleasure they bring communities, gardens have the status of neglected industrial wasteland. Campaigners believe we are losing up to 30,000 gardens a year this way, the equivalent of twice the area of Hyde Park.