General News

The Allotment Association trip to the gardens at RHS Wisley is sold out. Thank you to everyone who has purchased tickets to support this event, and the Association hopes that an excellent day is enjoyed by all.

On friday Tony Holbrook and Peter Hunnable spent the day renovating the chairs and tables outside of the Allotment Association trading hut. All the wooden slats have been replaced, and during the course of saturday Karen Lawrence liberally applied a couple of undercoats of protection.

It would be greatly appreciated if any members could donate a couple of hours to finish the job by applying topcoat to the table and chairs so that we can all enjoy their use for time to come. Anyone who would be willing to assist, please let Tony or Karen know, so that the brushes and top coats can be made available.

The allotment association is very grateful to Tony, Peter and Karen for their efforts and would appreciate any offer of assistance.

On Bank Holiday Monday, 30th May, Chris, Olive Hale and family presented a bench to the allotment association in memory of Cyril, with the inscription (read to all on the day) to follow. The bench is situated prominently outside the trading hut. On a day blessed with fine weather, over 30 friends and family attended the informal proceedings, after which light refreshments were provided. All photographs kindly provided by Laurie Jeffs. The family offered their thanks to all those who attended.

Over the course of the bank holiday weekend, the allotment snapper was busy snooping in the various crops, flowers and borders. Several new images have been added to the site, and again any assistance identifying some of the subjects would be appreciated.

Richard kindly identified 'love in the mist' flowers that have been moved to the floral gallery. Some rather beautiful poppies can be found specifically on one allotment, and if anyone can identify the specific name we can attribute properly.

Additionally a rather wary spider needs to be identified, and the three images of bees have additionally been forwarded to the bee keeping association to label on our behalf.

Four further images have been added to the home page slideshow of the web site. In addition to this, the Cornflower in the Floral Gallery has now been correctly attributed.

A couple of images in the identity parade have now been recognised thanks to Tony Holbrook, who discovered an article in October 2000 issue of Garden, authored by the RHS Entomologist Andrew Halstead. Image numbers 2473, 2606 and 5022 are all Dock Bugs commonly found in the South East of England. These little critters, from the description may not be considered true pests and therefore these images have been moved to the allotment wildlife gallery rather than the rogues line up. Further information regarding these and other creatures will be posted shortly.

A few new images have been added to the site over the weekend, for which some assistance is required to identify the subject. I have to admit that the two images of the frogs were taken in my pond and not the allotment, and are quite clearly different species and would appreciate any information that assists their identity.

Equally have added two floral images of a plant taken near to Peter and Richards chicken ranch, which again would appreciate any information as to its identity.

Finally, the author is specifically fond of asparagus, and a sharp eyed allotment holder pointed out the asparagus beetles. An image has been added to the rogues gallery - and whilst am unsure as to whether they are pests - anything that appears to be enjoying the produce before it gets to my plate can only be assumed to be a rogue!!!

Would all members please note that due to conflicting activities, and a lack of current committee members, it will not be possible to run the Barbeque event as advertised. Please take note accordingly.

The Allotment Association is in need of support, particularly with respect to all those activities and events that take place and are organised and managed by willing volunteers. If you believe that you have something to offer or would be willing to participate, please contact Tony Holbrook for further information.

Following the sad passing of Cyril Hale, his family have donated a bench to the Melbourne Park Allotment Association dedicated in his memory. The official donation will take place on Monday 31st May, at 11am, and all friends and members are welcome.

GARDEN FLEECE. Garden fleece is something that I would really miss. It can be used to help warm the soil before seed growing. It will protect seeds from pests and birds and give better germination. Carrots for example can remain covered from sowing to cropping and will be protected from the dreaded carrot fly. However, the fleece must be in close contact with the soil so tuck it in well, or use something like bricks or lengths of timber to hold it down.

Slug pellets also seem to last longer under fleece and are no danger to pets or wildlife.

Fleece will help to protect many plants and shrubs that are not quite so hardy. All allotments seem to have their fair share of pests, so I wonder why fleece is not used more often. It really is very cheap to buy, so why not call in to the trading hut and try some.

Article supplied by Arthur Cornell.

If you have some top tips, or advice to pass on or share with the rest of your allotment colleagues, please do not hesitate to contact us via the website, or leave information with Karen, Tony or appropriate message or articles for consideration at the trading hut.

To coincide with the arrival of spring, and a plethora of activity at the allotments, a few images have been added to the site home page.

The Trading Hut at the Allotments were spilling to capacity on 30th March, and not with excess stock ordered for all those growing requirements of the coming months. The Association held what could be considered an inaugural evening, and invited Peter Webb to present his story of sustainability, which was inspired by the TV series entitled 'The Good Life'. The trading hut, converted for the evening into a mini 'theatre' complete with projection kit welcomed a full house to the event. A serious take on 18 years of living off the land, with a humorous slant is how Peter described he and his wifes 18 years of endeavours, encompassing the move from city dwellers to country folk, and the change from viewing the wildlife as 'cute' to a method of income generation. The evening finished with a question and answer session, followed by light refreshments and raffle.

The summer Allotment Association trip to RHS Wisley, 16th July, was formally announced this evening at the Trading Hut. Priced at £14 each, the trip visits what the RHS considers to be it's premier gardens. There are 5 restaurants, Cafes, picnic areas and shops on site. Pick up point at the corner of Pines Road and Melbourne Avenue, and subject to the level of demand a further pick up point may be organised. Tickets can be purchased from the trading hut, or members of the committee. Don't be disappointed and book early.

Demand for the Good Life talk to be held at the allotment association hut is high, with just three tickets remaining. If you are interested in snapping up the last remaining tickets for next Wednesday 30th March, please rush to contact Karen Lawrence or Tony Holbrook.

Here are some further tasty top tips.
(1) Marinate cooked and sliced courgettes in a mustard vinaigrette - if you leave them to marinate for a couple of days in the fridge the flavour will be delicious
(2) Courgettes are great with cheese. Soften an Onion, steam the courgettes, place in an oven dish and cover with a mixture of eggs, cheese, salt and pepper. Bake in a medium oven for around 20 minutes or until the topping has risen and set.
(3) crunchy sticks of courgette are ideal to use as dipping sticks, as an alternative or as an addition to carrots

FINALLY - DID YOU KNOW - if you leave a courgette growing on the vine, it will grow to the same size as a marrow.

Worried about the weather? Not sure if you're going to get drenched, frozen or baked whilst tending those beloved plots? Melbourne Park Allotment website to the rescue. The home page now includes a weather widget which takes a direct feed from the UK Met Office.

The Allotment Association will be hosting an interesting and humorous talk ' The Good Life ',presented by Peter Webb, at the Allotment Association Hut, Melbourne Park, on Wednesday 30th March at 7.30pm. The talk describes a couples trials and tribulations relative to self sufficiency. 29 of the 42 tickets have already been sold, and to snap up and secure your place please contact Karen Lawrence or Tony Holbrook. Alternatively tickets can be purchased from the trading hut at £2 each which includes a raffle ticket. Light refreshments and further raffle tickets will be available during the evening.

The web site has had it's latest feature added - a new Recipe page. Whilst there is a degree of limitation regarding space, we are hoping to split the section into Spring / Summer / Autumn and Winter elements, with pdf or word document attachments detailing the recipe collections. If you have any suggestions for improvement, or your own personal favourite recipe that you would like to see featured on the site, please send an e mail with preferably a pdf attachment, or alternatively the original word document that you have created, and we will endeavour to upload to the page.

(1) Hopefully this rather long winter will soon be coming to an end and hedgehogs and gardeners will appear from hibernation. This is a good time to check over your gardening or allotment tools, clean sharp tools are a real help.

Every year thousands of pounds worth of garden tools are stolen so why not spend a few moments and paint or etch your post code on them. This could stop them from being 'borrowed'. As the well known advertisement suggests 'every little helps!'

(2) Onion Sets and Shallots will be available for planting now. If you cut back the dead stalks to about half inch this will stop the worms and birds pulling them out of the ground.

If you have any winter carrots or parsnips left in the ground, it is best to dig them up. Both are bi-annuals and will be starting to run to seed now.

Catch up with more tips on the rest of the web site, or recipes and other news on the news / views pages.