'No Soggy Bottoms' please – Tattenhall Gardening Society, 12 April at the Barbour Institute (7.30pm)

It's not just pastry cooks who don't like soggy bottoms. There's a category of plants, the alpines, that can cope with being high on a hill with a lonely goatherd but like good drainage. They survive the cold (they can overwinter under snow) but having wet roots is bad news.

Alpines come in many forms, many involving exquisite dainty flowers, and are a particularly good range of plants for gardeners, new and old. At the next meeting of Tattenhall Gardening Society we'll hear from Nick Lightfoot about a great way to grow them in small gardens, or in the vicinity of Tattenhall's clay. He will tell us about growing alpines in containers, a subject he is well qualified to discuss. Nick is the Garden and Collections Manager at Ness Botanic Gardens, near Burton in the Wirral, and has had a role in setting up an excellent alpine container display.

Come along on Wednesday 12th April, to the Barbour Institute in time for pre-talk hot drinks. Doors open around 19.30 and the formal start is 19.45. Members can attend for free but visitors are welcome to join in for a small payment on the night (£3).

Looking slightly further forward, put a note in your diaries (physical and/or digital) for the Annual Plant Sale. This will take place on Saturday 13th May, from 10.30 to midday, outside the Barbour. You can buy an interesting range of vegetables, flowers, grasses, annuals and perennials – the exact plants will depend both on the success of our members' potting up skills and how well the seeds and pricking out have gone. We usually have tomato plants on the front row. All monies raised from the sale help to support the Annual Show, which will take place early in September. Recycling, of sorts.

If you want to know more about the Gardening Society (regular talks, plant sales, annual show and the occasional trip) please contact Jen Benefield on 01829 770692.