Welcome to allotmenteers attempts at joining the blogosphere. We are based at Court Lane, Erdington, Birmingham and we hope to communicate with you all the joys (and pains) of growing your very own fruit and vegetables.
Court Lane Allotments has been asked by Erdington Town Centre Partnership to contribute to this year’s “Britain in Bloom” competition, which means there will need to be alot of tidying up the site and helping out in working parties to get all the community areas up to scratch. We need as many volunteers as we can rally. If you could help, speak to Julie, Ken or any of the Committee for further information. We should (hopefully) be handing out flyers in the shop, giving details of what help is needed as soon as we’ve worked it out.
We understand the judging day will be Friday 17th July, but as yet are not sure what time the judges will be coming. Watch this space!!!
Also, just a quick reminder that next week (22nd-28th June) is “Recycle Week”. So, if you’re not already doing it, time to get composting!
Radio 4’s “You and Yours” programme had an interesting article on last Friday (5th June). It featured an allotmenteer in Cheltenham who had received warning letters from his local council threatening eviction for not having enough of the land set aside for growing fruit and veg on his plots. I think this is an interesting topic for debate. I had understood, from reading a bit about the history of allotments, that the reason they were started up was to provide people with opportunities not only to grow produce, but also to enjoy leisure gardening. In fact the association, to give it its full title, is The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.
I, myself, have part of my plot dedicated to a wildlife pond. It is planted up with native species such as water mint, yellow flag, starwort and many others which oxygenate the water and keep it clear to encourage water-dwelling creatures. I have tadpoles, water boatmen, pond skaters and last summer I had visiting dragonflies. It is also a drinking resouce for the larger animals such as birds, hedgehogs and foxes, which are all predators to the slugs and grubs who might want to nibble our veg. To encourage beneficial insects, I have several flowers on my plot (most of them native wildflowers). I also currently have an expanse of grass on my plot, but the eventual intention is to dig over most of it for fruit and veg. The grass is mown weekly and is therefore “weed-control” rather than part of the overall design, until I can do more digging.
I would hate to think that those of us who like to balance our plots between growing fruit and veg and providing habitats for wildlife would be targetted in the same way as the man from Cheltenham. If the council wanted to make more allotments available, perhaps they could again open up the area of wasteland to the east of the site, which used to be allotments once upon a time.
Our Open Day on Sunday 17th May was in danger of being washed away in torrential rain but thanks to you folks who braved the weather and attended it managed to be a wonderful day. We were even blessed with sunshine for a couple of hours.
The stalls filled with homemade cakes, pickles, preserves and bread was very popular and of course so was the plant stall and thanks to the weather the plants didn’t require watering. People had the opportunity to visit a fortune teller who did predict there would be sunshine despite doubts.
Chickens were around to say hello and they kindly offered to be part of Chicken Pooloute, a game where could bet on the whereabouts of the next plop from a chicken. It proved to be a rather grand game and many prizes were won.
A big thank you to the Retired Greyhound Trust and Friends of the Earth who had stalls at the open day and of course a big thank you to all of you who helped by volunteering your time to help and to those who attended.
PLANT STALL, BOOK STALL, TOMBOLA, RAFFLE, MEET THE CHICKENS, GREYHOUND TRUST, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, BBQ, REFRESHMENTS, FORTUNE TELLER & LOTS OF CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES
We are having a meeting on Saturday 2nd May at 12 noon at the clubhouse by the community garden. This is to discuss plans for an allotment open day in May.
We are hoping to build on the success of last year’s open days so the more the merrier.
If you wish to volunteer to help or have ideas for the open day then please feel free to attend the meeting.
Blog, facebook, twittering and other rather odd sounding words seem to be pretty much on every one’s lips at present and the problem is that there is an assumption that everybody should know what it all means. But every seed needs nurturing and so does people’s knowledge.
There is now available a short guide on how to use this website as we have also been guilty of assuming that everyone knows how this blogging malarkey works. It’s a very brief and meant to be a taster on how communicating on the web works.
If anybody wishes to get more of a hands on guide then there will be afree social media surgery on Wednesday 22nd April in Digbeth, Birmingham. This is how the organisers describe the event:
Volunteers from the Birmingham bloggers group are offering to show voluntary and community groups in the city how you can make best use of social media. It doesn’t matter if you are the head of communications at a major charity or an active citizen in your neighbourhood, if you’re at all curious come along.
No boring speeches, no jargon.
Tools like blogs, podcasts, video and social networks can give a real boost to campaigning organisations, often for no or little cost. So these experts are offering you approachable one to one help and support because they believe it can help. You may just want to see what is possible and go away and think about it. You might be itching to set up a blog and start using it.
Perhaps you think video might help you tell your story but don’t know where to start? All is possible. There’ll be no lectures, just people with knowledge, ideas and a passion to help you make best use of the internet for your organisation.
For more information then go to this link and at least one of the Court Lane Allotmenteers will be there so there can be veg talk as well as blog talk.
It’s that time of year when we are busy not only on our plots but also organising open day events so that people can have a wander, a natter and some nosh.
We are planning to make plenty of preserves, pickles and jams but we do need something to put them in so if any Court Lane allotmenteer (or anyone who knows a Court Lane allotmenteer) has any empty jars then just put them in Julie’s shed, Plot 21.
The next planned open day event will be on Sunday 17th May and we shall post further details once we have definitive date.
“A project to harvest the seasonal glut of local fruit like apples, pear and plums. Each year hundreds of fruit trees go unpicked either because people don’t notice them, may not be physically able to harvest them or there are just too many fruits at one time. bundance is a team of volunteers who have been helping harvest city fruit and redistributing the surplus to the community on a non-profit basis – to community cafes, nurseries, Surestarts and individuals.”
“Eat Seasonably is here to help you enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables when they’re at their seasonal best. That means better taste, better value and a better deal for the planet. There’s something so good about eating food when it’s just been picked: a crisp salad when it’s hot and sunny, a fresh wholesome stew when it’s cold.”
“The Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens exists to support, represent and promote community-managed farms and gardens across the United Kingdom. ”
“The UK’s leading organic growing charity, has been at the forefront of the organic horticulture movement for 50 years and is dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food.”
The last two Sundays has been spent planting hawthorn and blackthorn hedges around the perimeter fence of the plots. Lots of people from the allotments volunteered their energy and sacrificed time away from their own plots to help with this and also helped with tidying up the community garden.
There was a real sense of cooperation and the good weather added to a real convivial and sharing atmosphere. This was helped by lovely prepared lunches and a few a beers!
There is a set of photos on our flick site and a few of them appear below. Here is the set as a slideshow.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has started a campaign where land can be shared so that people can grow their own fruit and vegetables. This has huge possibilities and it would be interesting to know how allotments like Court Lane could be part of this scheme.
The premise behind Landshare is best described by Monsieur Fearnley-Whittingstall himself in the video below.
It would be interesting to get opinions on this from allotmenteers and see how, if at all possible, it can be incorporated at the plots.
If you wish to get more information then visit the Landshare site.
We are having a meeting on Saturday 2nd May at 12 noon at the clubhouse by the community garden. This is to discuss plans for an allotment open day in May.
It’s that time of year when we are busy not only on our plots but also organising open day events so that people can have a wander, a natter and some nosh.
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