Talking heads | 19 December 2009

The days are short, there is no light for gardening after work, and local horticultural societies are halfway through their winter programme of illustrated talks. All over the country, gardeners are gathering, in spartan village halls and echoing church rooms, on every first Tuesday in the month to listen to a ‘speaker’. These talks are designed to entertain, enlighten and generally see gardeners through until the spring, when allotments beckon, and garden visits and flower shows can once more be organised. All towns and most large villages have a horticultural society, which is impressive in an age when people increasingly refuse to join things. But then members of gardening societies are also stalwarts of Inner Wheel and the Women’s Institute, they sit on church councils and serve in charity shops. For them, the word ‘community’ has an older meaning than mere sectional interest.

For speakers like me, the winter is thus a busy time.