General News

(1) Before filling your seed trays with multi purpose compost, line the bottom of them with a double layer of newspaper. This will help keep the moisture in, and when empty remove the paper and the trays will be quite easy to wash for re use.

(2) To stop the birds from pulling out your onion sets when first planted, fill a seed tray with multi purpose compost (do not forget the newspaper in the bottom). Push the sets into the compost keeping them very close together. Do this at least one week before planting them out. They will then have made good roots. Plant out using a hand trowel to make a small hole to allow the roots to spread out. Good roots means good Onions.

(3) It is a waste of good seeds to sow them into cold soil. So in the spring watch for the annual weeds, everyone has some, to start growing. This will tell you it is safe to start sowing.

(4) When sowing Lettuce, beetroot or radishes etc, never sow a row right across the allotment. Some will be old before they can be used, far better to sow half a row one day, and sow the other half a week or ten days later.

If anyone else has some useful tips, words of wisdom, or general guidance, please do not hesitate to use the contact page to send your thoughts to the Allotment Association.

Following the success of various events during 2010, the diary dates have been announced for 2011. These include a summer barbeque, a coach outing for which full details are yet to be confirmed, and the popular christmas coffee morning (mince pies and mulled wine). Please ensure that you etch these dates into your diaries and memories and your support for these events greatly appreciated.

Saturday 18th June - Summer Barbeque on site

Saturday 16th July - Coach Outing - for full details watch this space

Saturday 30th July - Allotment Competition

Saturday 3rd December - Christmas Coffee Morning - 10.30 am.

For all the latest news and views please bookmark this page or alternatively sign up for RSS feed which will send you an e mail alert for any news published to this site.

Please note that the Seed Orders placed are now available from the Trading Hut, Saturday or Sunday Morning. Potato and Onion orders are not available yet and news regarding availability will be posted shortly.

Amongst the galleries, one in particular has been created where various species, bugs, and in some cases alien looking creatures have been photographed, but their actual names or identities remain unknown. If anyone can identify the species in question, then please either contact us through the web site (quoting the image reference), or leave details at the trading hut for Ray Lawrence.

In addition to this, if more scientific or accurate naming of the wildlife can be provided rather than my rather clumsy identification, then please also feel free to let me know.

The Chelmsford Bee Keeping Society has kindly identified a couple of the bees pictured and these have now been labelled accordingly.

The Melbourne Park Allotment Association is proud to announce that it's website is now up and running, and can be viewed by visiting www.melbpark.com. Any ideas to improve the content or layout of the site would be welcome. Equally, if you have a worthy news story, any handy growing tips, recipes or other items that would appeal to all, please contact Karen Lawrence or Tony Holbrook, or alternatively you can use the contact page on this site.

Despite the adverse weather conditions, the annual pre christmas Mince Pie and Mulled Wine morning proved very popular with over 30 hardy allotmenteers braving the elements. The Mulled Wine flowed easily and thanks to the generosity of the members a bumper raffle drawn. A few images of the event can be viewed using the following link: http://melbpark.photium.com/portfolio142708.html