On 14 August, Geoff Hawkins gave an interesting lecture on how to enhance your garden with different shrubs and how to care for them.

A man of many talents, Geoff used to manage the 30-acre estate of a private house in Alton, looking after the greenhouses, ponds, shrubs and trees, and now spends his time teaching and giving talks to organisations such as The Grayshott Gardeners. He has also shared his knowledge on radio shows.

His presentation showed the audience how different species of shrubs can be mixed with not only other shrubs but with herbaceous plants and bulbs to give the garden different moods, interest and colour, not only in Spring and Summer but all year.

He talked about the many variegated plants and how when planted together with plain shrubs or flowers can give a garden direction and interest. 

For the rest of the evening, Geoff talked about the different shrubs – giving tips on the best time to plant them and prune them, which ones were the best for flowers in the Spring or Summer and berries in the Winter.

The evening concluded with Geoff answering audience questions.