RSPB Lochwinnoch Nature Reserve
Saturday 13th March - 11am – 4pm
Mothers Day Craft Making
Show Mum how much you love her by making her an
extra special wildlife themed gift just in time for
Mothers Day. Cost: £2, half price for RSPB members
Thursday 18th March - 7.30pm – 9pm
Twilight talk
Birdwatching in Lesvos - Frances Gatens will share with us her experiences
over the years in the birdwatching hotspots on the Greek island of
Lesvos. Booking essential £2 RSPB Members, £4 non – members
Thursday 25th March - 11am – 1pm
Coffee morning
Come along to our monthly winter coffee mornings and help give nature
a voice by raising funds for our vital conservation work. Join RSPB staff
Annual Plant Sale
RSPB
and volunteers for a hot drink and a chat, in the comfort of the visitor
centre, whilst enjoying the wonderful view and wildlife of the reserve.
All of our coffee & tea is Fairtrade. Cost: £2 to cover tea/coffee and
& Family Day
Meeting
Our next meeting
biscuits/cakes. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the reserve.
Renfrewshire Local RSPB are will be held in Sat 27th & Sun 28th March - 10am – 4pm
holding their annual plant sale on the McMaster
Optics Weekend
Saturday 24th April from 10am - Centre, Robertson Park, Renfrew
2pm at Lochwinnoch RSPB Reserve. (enter from Donaldson Drive)
An opportunity to choose from a wide range of competitively priced
Please do come along and support on Friday 5th March at 7.30pm.
binoculars and telescopes, including RSPB Optics, with the added bonus
this event, all will be made most The Speaker will be Mandy Cook
that 100% of the profi ts go directly to helping conservation. FREE expert
welcome. Telephone 01505 (British Trust for Ornithology)
advice available all weekend.
613139 for further information. Scotland who will be talking about
Booking, prices and enquiries:- It is often necessary to book onto our
the Garden Birdwatch Survey.
events in advance as certain events may have limited space. If this is the
All our meetings are open to the
case, the phrase ‘booking essential’ will appear in the event information.
public and free of charge.
To book a place or to fi nd out more information, phone 01505842663,
email Lochwinnoch@rspb.org.uk or visit us at the centre.
BoW Horticultural Society
The meeting for February with the greatly reduced
was addressing the issue of prices being offered
“Composting”. Our original to encourage us to buy
speaker has moved on from her and use them. Getting a
post, but was ably replaced by Ian balance of green garden
Parker from Zero Waste Scotland waste and roughage
(previously of WRAP). (cardboard from egg
Ian started the talk with a
boxes) allows the
question, why is the Scottish
compost to stay open
Government keen on promoting
and let all the bacteria
composting? He then gave us
and fungus to start
background information on how
their work. After they
a landfi ll site is constructed and the processes
begin their work the creepy crawlies and worms
which are gone through to get all of the non-
get interested and help prepare an excellent
recyclable material “out of sight and out of mind”.
material for top dressing, mulching and general
The liquid produced from the sites still has to be
soil improvement. To keep the critters doing all
collected and processed through sewage systems,
the work happy the bin should be in semi-shade.
too toxic to allow back into the water table. The
Too dry and they die: too cold and wet and, like
gases produced, carbon dioxide and methane, are
us, they stop working. Uses for the compost were
greenhouse gases, damaging to the atmosphere. If
discussed - general mulch is fi ne but putting the
less organic material is put into landfi ll, less liquid
material round your roses now will stop blackspot
and gas are produced. Ian stated that Arran has
spores from being splashed up onto the plants by
already run out of suitable landfi ll sites and within
rain. Ian also uses it for helping his runner beans
15 years, at the current rate, Scotland will too.
grow - paper in the bottom of a trench, compost
With that background it was obvious why Scotland
above and then a layer of soil with the beans set
should reuse and recycle rather than putting into
in. He didn’t guarantee success but it sounded
a hole in the
worth a try. Time then for questions from the fl oor
ground.
and a number of points were raised and dealt with
by Ian. Many thanks to Ian for an educational and
The second
entertaining evening.
section of
the talk
With the talk over, tea/coffee and biscuits were
addressed
available. The next evening meeting will take
how to make
place on March 11th in the Royal British Legion
composting
Social Club. The topic for the evening is Pyrenean
easy. Suitable
Perambulations by Paul Matthews of the Botanic
compost bins
Gardens in Glasgow, always an entertaining
were shown,
and insightful speaker. We would be pleased to
welcome non-members.
42 MARCH 2010 | send your GARDEN ARTICLES & PHOTOS to info@advertizer.co.uk www.advertizer.co.uk| 01505 874385 | www.theadvertizer.co.uk
186_MAR10_40-43 GARDEN.ind.indd 42 19/02/2010 12:47:03
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