©Kirton News 2026

Competitions, Meals, Laughter ....and some Gardening talk

It has been a while since we last contributed to the magazine, so this is a bumper-size round-up of what the club has been doing.  Our October meeting centred on our much-anticipated autumn horticultural competition!

As you can see, we had a really good turnout, which lots of entries across the five classes, from prize blooms to impressive fruit and vegetables. The categories were: most attractive autumn flower, most attractive autumn foliage, most attractive houseplant, most unusual houseplant, and most impressive fruit/vegetable. Congratulations to our winners: Su (most attractive houseplant), Sally (most unusual houseplant, Jenny (most impressive fruit/vegetable), Clayton (most impressive autumn foliage) and Nigel (most attractive autumn flower). Nigel was also crowned best in show - congratulations on your fine work! We are indebted to Rachel Leverton of Leverton’s Nurseries on West End Road, for agreeing to judge the competition for us. In the early days of the club, Rachel was a source of great encouragement to the founder as well as a great source of knowledge to many of the members, who have frequented her excellent nursery over the years. After all that, we even had time for a quiz....although I think that even Monty Don might have found it a bit tricky!

With our last meeting of the summer in July, the September meeting of the Wyberton & Kirton Gardening Club seemed markedly different, with the temperatures far more acceptable and the gardens a lot greener than two months ago. It was even dark when we left the hall, this time.

Back in July, we had a good turn-out, with a great quiz and the usual plant-swap and well-stocked raffle. Members also discussed how to manage the garden in such dry conditions under a hosepipe ban...although this suddenly seems a dim and distant memory now! (not that we have re-started using hosepipes just yet).

Although we didn’t meet in August, we did organise a summer social at Swojskie Jadlo, the Polish restaurant in town. This was really well attended and there was lots of conversation and laughter, while the food really was excellent - we all agreed that we’d highly recomment it! Some of our members also opened their gardens to the club as well, reminding us of the beautiful diversity in the range of garden styles among members. One particular example is Boston Exotic Garden, which was open under the National Garden Scheme again in August - utterly breathtaking.

In September, since we are moving into autumn and the garden is slowing down for winter, we decided to go for a slightly different talk: we invited Jenny from The Plantation to talk to us about houseplants. Jenny has a had a long career in horticulture, and although now retired, she devotes her time to curating a vast collection of houseplants at her home in Friskney, where she has a conservatory and a large garden cabin to indulge her interest (some might call it an obsession). A competitive grower, she also enters plant competitions: she recently gained second prize for her stag-horn fern at Stickney Show. We learned all about how to position plants in the house, how to care for different types of plant and how to propagate them, too. However, what really made the evening interesting was Jenny’s sharp wit, easy and informal style and clear mastery of her subject, which she underplayed but which shone through nonetheless. We were laughing all evening but learned so much.

Jenny opens The Plantation regularly through out the summer season, and although her final open day was in September, you can keep an eye on her Facebook page (search “The Plantation”) to see when she’ll be open next year. Some of our members attended in September and were highly impressed at the “indoor jungle” they found.

We are looking forward to October’s meeting, which will include a quiz and . December will include a competition for best Christmas table decoration and wreath/display.

We look forward to see you at our next meeting, second Friday of the month, 7pm, Kirton Holme Church Hall, £3 each including refreshments. A friendly and welcoming crowd, any new faces welcome!

A Message from Father Paul

With the drawing in of the nights, and the world around us becomes colder, we start to consider the end of the year. In doing so we contemplate the year that has past, the fun times we spent with friends, the moments of sadness as we recall those who we no longer see.

This is poignant time of the year for us, were our minds, our prayer are guided to remembrance. The very first day of November is dedicate to the remembrance of All Saints, when we recall and give thanks to all of the saints that have gone before us. These are not just those well-known saints which are celebrated in the Church throughout the year, but the saints that are not recalled, the saints that have gone unnoticed by the Church, but not by God. I

am sure we have all known one of these saints; they are the kind person who always helped mum when you could not be there, those who worked silently and without reward to make our world a better place, those who stood by your side when all others abandoned you, I could go on. These unknown saints who are loved by us and known to God are remembered this day.

The very next day is All Souls day, this is the day we remember all those we have once loved but have now lost. None of us are without loss in our lives, our loved ones may have died within these last few months, they may have died many years ago, but that pain of loss never really goes away their memory is always with us. We have this day to remember who they were, but also to pray for them, that they may find a home with God. Finally, we have reembrace day itself, when we recall all who gave their live in war that we may have ours.

This day however should not just be a day that we recall those who are lost, but a day when we remember the tragedy of war that we do not make the same mistakes, to do so would devalue those who gave their live. As the nights draws in take the time to consider those who were saints to you, those you have once loved but see no longer, and the peace of God that sees the end of conflict.