General News

The site has regrettably been the target of a further incidence of vandalism. The principal damage seems confined to the base of the site near the Highfield Road entrance on this occasion, with sheds overturned, broken into and in some cases severe damage.

The incident has once again been reported to the police and the City Council, and we would urge everyone who is affected to report the incident to both. The incident reference number is 42/1775/20.

We have supplied images to both the police and the council.

Regrettably, 2020 has started poorly with further unwanted incursions to the site. Various sheds have been broken into, equipment moved and abandoned. We have contacted all those who we believe have been affected, together with reporting to the City Council and the Police. The incident reference to quote is RCI 73923.

We would commend all those who are affected to report to the police and the council as this is the fifth incursion experienced over the last 2-3 weeks and the damage is getting worse. Pressure needs to be placed to make haste over repairing the external fences, and thought given to other potential preventative measures.

Finally, if you are missing tools or equipment, please come and find Karen or Ray as we now have a collection from the various break ins where we have collected up after.

Perhaps it is fitting the last day of 2019 witnessed the last delivery of vegetables for the year to Sanctus, Chelmsford. Two large trays of parsnips, carrots, celeriac and butternut squash were gratefully received by the Charity which the Association continues to support.

To round off the year completely, the last experiment has now been harvested. The New Zealand Yam tubers were originally chitted over last winter, then planted late April / early May when the risk of frost at its lowest. 20 tubers were originally sewn, and from these original tubers we have harvested 6lb and 4 oz of yams.



The Yam itself is pretty versatile, and a quick search via your favourite on line engine will produce an array of recipes or methods of cooking. For anyone who is interested in trying these, or in fact growing next season, we will leave some tubers at the trading hut when it re opens on Saturday. Please enquire with Tony.



The biggest disappointment this year was the fruit, especially raspberries. We inherited quite a number of summer and autumn canes, and last year we gave the stock one further year to see if they would produce following a couple of poor years fruiting. This year proved to be no different, and at the end of the fruiting season we took the radical decision to start again. Removing the entire existing stock, we have re planted ten new canes of Glenn Ample, and whilst this will require patience for a year, hope this will provide us a better return moving forward the following season.

At the same time we decided to experiment with a self fertile Issai, Kiwi Berry, and it will be interesting to see how this progresses over the course of the year.

This years experiment with Tromboncino proved to be a success, with quite significant sized fruit being tried by various plot holders, and also received well by Sanctus. We plan to continue with these as they produce in volume, the squashes last (we still have one which looks fresh as a daisy from August in the garage). Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Melon's, two of which turned out not to be melon's at all! The elephant garlic produced 10 huge bulbs (from 12 planted) and we have used these to plant up further over winter this year along with traditional garlic. The Padron Peppers were once again successful, and fruited right through to the beginning of November in the poly tunnel.



Over the last couple of months the project 63 site and poly tunnel has been cleared and crucially all the green waste has been cut up finely for composting. The annual manure delivery has taken place, and as we are experimenting with the Charles Dowding no dig method, have spread a thick layer of manure on one side of the plot, - the plan is to grow root vegetables on the other side of the plot which was heavily manured last year, with the balance of crops on the no dig portion.



Seed orders for 2020 were placed a couple of months ago, and once again the plan is to experiment with a few different types of fruit and vegetables. Aside of the Kiwi Berry Watch this space for further updates and progress.

All that remains is to thank everyone who donated crops to the charity deliveries during the year, and wish everyone a happy, healthy and above all a productive allotment growing year, 2020.

This morning, several people all got together to overcome a manure mishap from the recent deliveries. After all the effort Peter put in to ensure the trailer loads of manure reached the right plots we had a minor mishap with a mis delivery. Make way for the Melbourne Park 'Alotmenteers', a modern day twist on Alexander Dumas' famous four who, equipped with shovels and barrows picked up the misplaced delivery and ensured it was delivered to the right plot.

A positive shout out to all those involved, and a big thank you to all.

Image courtesy of the Marconi Belles

The Marconi Belles first joined the site and Association approximately a year ago, and in this time transformed the plot opposite the trading hut. Now a further group of Belles have taken a second plot, 111 and intend to follow a 'No Dig' set of principals for this area.

This specific method has been used and promoted by Charles Dowding, from significant market gardens to his own area of land and market garden at Homeacre, and has been featured by Monty Don amongst others.

The basic principal is by not digging or avoiding digging you will not be disrupting the soil life, nor exposing the soil to weed seeds. For a weed covered plot, covering the area with thick cardboard and then a heavy mulch of compost or well rotted manure, the weeds will remain in darkness, weakening them and eventually allowing them to die off, or at least prove minimal concern to the plot. (The other added benefit is slightly less effort and back ache!!). If you are fortunate enough to inherit a well cultivated plot, then a covering of compost or well rotted manure should prove sufficient.



The Belles pictured here have weighted the cardboard layer over the plot, and with the delivery of well rotted manure have now laid out the first four beds with temporary boards, then mulched, all of which forms the starting point for their project.

The Belles have kindly agreed to allow us to follow their progress, and we'll check in during the year in terms of update.

The annual delivery of manure started this morning, with more than 12 plot holders taking advantage of the local farmers offering. A Huge thank you to Peter Hunnable who organised and In spite of the blustery conditions co ordinated the deliveries which continue tomorrow.

Please do not forget if the delivery is on a pathway or roadway as the plot is inaccessible, the manure must be moved within 7 days.

The annual mulled wine and mince pie event (masquerading as a coffee morning) was held at the trading hut earlier today. A massive thank you to all those who helped clear the trading hut and put back together again after, for the donation of food, and also the raffle prizes. Steve our chief raffle ticket seller was in top form as usual, and special mention for Alex's mum Sue for two amazing floral bouquets. A big thumbs up to all involved - we are very grateful for all the efforts.



The morning was reasonably well attended, with Tony's legendary brew consumed at pace, and it was great to see some of our newer plot holders and longer association members trading tales.



We hope everyone had a good morning, which leaves us with nothing more to do than wish everyone a merry christmas, and a happy, healthy 2020.

It doesn't seem possible 2019 will soon tick over to 2020 and we are posting a reminder about the XMAS mulled wine event, Saturday 7th December together with opening and closing dates for the Trading Hut over the festive period.

As we close out the year we can advise the sign at the top of the site - reminding us all to close the gate has been re - furbished, - a big thank you to Karen and Tony, and an equal measure of thanks to Kevin (plot 77 and 78) for keeping the community orchard in trim. Peter Hunnable is organising to prune the orchard trees early next year, and if you would be interested in learning a little more about the art of pruning, catch up with Peter at the Mulled Wine morning.

The manure orders are being delivered to the site on Monday and Tuesday 9th and 10th October, and we are expecting the seed potato order early February.

Several members attended a talk given by Charles Dowding in relation to his 'no dig' methods, and this is already being attempted on project 63 (to a degree), and on plots 24,45 and 79, but some new members from the Marconi Belles are taking this route on plot 111 and with their blessing we are hoping to follow the progress made.



Ian, Kevin and Alex, the three Allotmenteers, have kindly agreed to provide some information for the web site in 2020 and we are looking forward to these updates. We are hoping further members may take part and hope these snippets have proved to be interesting.



We continue to deliver vegetables to our chosen charity, Sanctus into December, although the car boot full of produce is now down to a couple of mushroom trays, and consists of celeriac, leeks, parsnips, carrots, a final splurge of green peppers from the poly tunnel and some fennel which has proved to be really hardy. I believe we have managed to deliver (with the exception of an odd week) for almost 8 months this year, together with donations from other association members.



Project 63 continued to experiment this year, and a number of the outcomes have been tried by various plot holders. A separate post will follow soon, as we have one last experiment we are waiting to harvest.

We have seen quite a number of new members take plots and join the association and in many cases plenty of positive progress made and we would like to welcome everyone.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the Mulled Wine Morning.

Please be aware the trading hut will close over the Christmas period. The last weekend the trading hut will be open is the 14th and 15th December, and will re open for business on Saturday 4th January.

A selection of photographs taken on the site during the course of 2019 has now been added to the gallery section of the website. Many of the images have previously featured in various news articles during the year.

The image featured here is a garden spider carefully, very carefully wrapping up his catch, a wasp. The photograph was taken on the plot next to project 63. Having flown into the spiders quite significant web, the wasp fought for ages before succumbing. I took quite a few photographs of the struggle, and ultimately failed to complete a host of other jobs I set out to accomplish on the day!!

We regret to advise we had a few unwelcome visitors on the site over the weekend, and we understand this may not be the first instance in recent weeks. It would seem damage has been caused to various huts, poly tunnels, and we are unsure of the extent. The latter incident took place between 1330 and 1430 hours Sunday. If you have been affected, suffered damage, or find you have anything missing, the matter has been reported to the police. The incident reference is 651011219.

We would ask all members to remain vigilant.

Please be guided the delivery of manure is scheduled to take place on Monday the 9th and Tuesday 10th December. As with previous years if there is not access to the plot and delivery is made to a road or walkway, it needs to be lifted and put on the plot within 7 days to avoid any inconvenience.

During the year we published viewpoints from two of our newer plot holders, Kevin Baskill and Alex Horne , together with a more established plot holder Ian Moore in relation to how they had tackled their plots, and all three agreed to allow us to check in and enquire about their progress.

It doesn’t seem possible, but the winter months are upon us, which gave us an opportunity to catch up with all three in terms of their growing season.

Ian Moore: This year was a little mixed, much of which a direct consequence of other commitments including seven trips away to various haunts. This affected watering early up to August, and also the ability to pick regularly the runner and French climbing beans. Despite this, I can’t figure out what happened to the Apples – I managed just 13 fruit from two trees!

Alex Horne: Similar to Ian, quite a mixed year, full of learning, of which the biggest lesson is life sometimes gets in the way of the best laid plans. After a really solid start, I missed the heart of the summer and the potatoes, sweet corn and lettuce all suffered, and whilst the sweet peas cropped well, they finished early and due to other commitments couldn’t keep up with them.

Kevin Baskill: I had a bumper season, with runner beans, tomatoes an courgettes all performing really well.

Ian: I believe my potatoes suffered as I didn’t rotate them. They definitely suffered with skin issues. My tomatoes were non - existent.

Alex: I lost a lot of tomatoes, probably because they need constant attention and pricking out and picking out the side shoots, later in the season the leaves need cutting back so the focus is on the fruit. Despite this, I had 8 different varieties of tomato, and still produced quite a significant crop.



Kevin: one of the biggest lessons from the year is to try and succession plant the crops. The tendency was to plant everything up, only to be overwhelmed at the point of harvest with a surfeit of the same crop, and the good lady then suggesting I grow a little less!

Ian: Unfortunately my non - existent tomatoes were replaced with copious volumes of weeds which seemed to thrive on limited watering, and then heavy rain later in the season. How does that work?

Kevin: Yes, the other important point this year was to space crops out a little to assist with the weeding and hoeing. Have tried and intend to continue scatter planting, where the various plants are not all grown in the same area.

Alex: It’s weird – the garlic bulbs which I planted seem to be mixed – one half of the area seems to have taken really well, and the other nothing.

Ray: I have the same at the moment. Am a little concerned as planted 16-20 elephant garlic and almost 3 dozen other garlic, and at the moment have what seems to be only 2 which seem to have made it…..It’s a little early, so we’ll see.

Kevin: my neighbour had beetroot which were virtually across the footway from my own, and the results were a complete contrast.

Ian: Fruit produced a bumper harvest. Gooseberries, blackberry an blackcurrant bushes all cropped heavily and I believe the results were definitely improved as I caged and netted them for the first time this year. I also gave the bushes a harsh prune the year before last, and view this may also have had an impact.

Alex: I had little or no fruit, but this is principally as this year was my first real growing season and the bushes were immature. I am hoping for much better next year

Ray: we were really disappointed with the raspberries on project 63. We inherited a reasonable area of early and late raspberries, and promised to give ourselves one more year this year to see how they cropped. Despite a huge verdant swathe of canes, very little produced, so we have taken the rather radical step of digging them all up and starting again.



Kevin: Blue berries were the best cropper – I placed the bushes in the skeleton of a former poly tunnel, and then netted the area to protect from the birds which worked really well.

Ian: am planning to extend my planting next year to include brassicas and more root crops, also a little tidy up over the coming months as looking across at my two new neighbours, they seem to be very well organised and quite precise!

Kevin: succession sowing as mentioned before is the key for me next year so I can spread out the harvest, and to continue to spread the planting so I have for example potatoes or other in multiple areas across the plot not all in the same area.


Alex: I also grew flowers on the plot, and enjoyed picking the dahlias and tulips which were the best of the bunch (pun intended), and have also built and introduced 6 chickens to the plot which is providing more than enough small eggs for our household. It’s a great feeling to be able to provide the freshest eggs to friends and family.



Kevin: The eggs you gave me were great. There is a real difference and I compared them with my usual Tesco eggs (other brands are available).

Alex: I feel the plot is now back under control and am overwintering garlic, beans and onions together with some hardy lettuce, and looking forward to planning for next year.

Kevin: The other thing is to garner the views of your experienced neighbours. Very often they have little gems or jewels of information which is all positive and there are plenty of experienced growers on the site to tap into.

Thanks for the feedback, and if it’s AOK with everyone can we check in early next year to see how the planning and initial activity has progressed?

A mixed set of outcomes from our intrepid contributors and a big thank you to all three for taking time out to offer up their thoughts. Don’t forget you can follow Alex on you tube and Instagram, and as it turns out Kevin too, so may be worth tuning in and following their activities.

Following our commitment to reduce single use plastics, Alex Horne kindly gave up his Saturday Morning on 26th October to collect our waste on behalf of the site. At the time of organising, little did we know it would clash with the England v All Blacks, Rugby World Cup Semi Final. Still, undaunted, quite a collection was gathered and disposed of.

A big thank you to Alex for organising (and missing out on much of the Rugby). Watch this space for any further activity in relation to plastic waste and potential future collections.

Image courtesy of Alex Horne

We are sad to advise long time plot holder and Association member Tony Bohannan has recently passed away. On behalf of the Association, friends and fellow plot holders we send our sincere condolences and offer Steve, friends and family our deepest sympathy.

Several members of the Allotment Association could be spied in the audience at Keen Hall on Thursday 24th October, attending a talk given by Charles Dowding on the subject of No Dig. The evening put on by Galleywood Horticultural Society attracted considerable interest as Charles presented his methods.

Charles Dowding has consistently deployed his no dig technique, from commercial market gardens to domestic. A recognised expert on the subject he has featured on Gardeners World and BBC Scotland's Beach Grove, and published various books with his ideas.

It occurred to us his technique of no dig may be most appealing to new plot holders, faced with a strip of land covered over with grass and potentially weeds. His method removes on the whole the need to dig over and remove all of this before any other activity undertaken, and demonstrates how to overcome with a series of steps using cardboard, manure and compost to suppress.

There are also a series of on line You Tube video's of his activities and it may be worth taking a view, not just for new plot holders, but for existing plot holders keen perhaps to take some manual effort out of their activities.

If any further information required, don't hesitate to catch up with Karen or Ray on site.

The headlong rush to Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier in the year (witness the huge amount of chocolate and toffee tins in the stores over a month ago). So why not press the pause button on and stride down to the trading hut for 10.30 AM on Saturday 7th December for the Melbourne Park Allotment Association annual mulled wine and mince pie morning.



The event is completely free of charge, and is a great opportunity for a chat and put that seasonal thrash on hold for a couple of hours. A raffle is held on the morning, and Tony's legendary secret brew will once again be bubbling away for all to sample.



We look forward to seeing everyone on the morning.

The Association held it's 15th Annual General Meeting on Saturday 5th October. A good turn out from members received information in terms of activity on site for the year, latest developments in relation to the St Peter's College Site, together with an overview of the financial position of the Association. After the meeting closed, the awards and certificates were presented to the winners of the Annual Site Allotment competition.

A big thank you to the team who cleared the trading hut on friday to allow the meeting to take place, and then cleared up and moved everything back in again after.

The Allotment Association is arranging for the disposal of single use plastics on 26th October 2019. The collection is being made between 10.00 hrs and 12.00 hrs and Alex Horne has kindly organised to dispose of everything we collect on the day.

Items which can be disposed of or re cycled include plastic plant pots, plastic bags, wrap, bottles etc. We cannot accept any hard plastics, for example guttering, drink crates, tubing or similar.

You must bring the items to the collection point on the morning and importantly please do not leave anywhere on site. If there is any doubt, Alex will be on site during this time to offer assistance in terms of disposable or not as case may be.

Our good friends at the Wilderness Foundation are operating an open day at the Allotments on 28th September between 1pm and 3pm. For those who may wish to know more about the Wilderness Foundation, a host of details are available on their website and if you search for Down to Earth, an item dedicated to Jonathon's team and the project on this site. We understand there may also be some Apple pressing taking place during the afternoon.

A brief view of what the Foundation does is taken directly from their site as under


'Our Down to Earth Allotment programme is based in inner city Chelmsford where we run six plots, opening them up to a range of community groups and schools.

Most of our young adult volunteers are living with mental or physical disability, and we also use the allotment to engage recovery clients from Open Road (Drugs & Alcohol charity), MENCAP, New Hall School and Columbus School & College, catering for young people with complex and severe learning difficulties.

Currently the food grown at the allotment is shared amongst those growing it as the best way to learn where our food comes from and engage people with the subjects of nutrition and cooking.[/]