Carol shows off her potatoes

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c/o Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council74-76 Queensway, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK2 2SA

Tel: (01908) 649469 Fax: (01908) 649473e-mail: townclerk@bfstc.co.uk

Members’ News Sheet – Autumn 2010

Allotments – the great way to keep fit and productive

It’s been quite a year for allotment association members, with cold winter frosts followed by long dry then wet weather spells. We welcome newcomers and appreciate the hard work some have done to prepare their plots. The ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’ and judging by some of the crops this year, hard work has certainly paid off.

There has been a continual trickle of enquiries for plots throughout the year and a waiting list for most of the time. If you already have more than one plot and wish to relinquish one, we can always find someone who is waiting for a plot to become available or if you wish to give up altogether and not renew your membership on 8th October, please contact our lettings officer, Carol Smith, on 01908 643171. This will enable us to set up the new membership before the rent collection and AGM.

Date for your diary – 8th October: Rent collection, AGM and awards

Rent collection from 6:30pm to 7:15pm; AGM, awards and prize-giving from 7:30pm, at St Thomas Aquinas Church Hall, Sycamore Avenue. See details in the accompanying document.

Old Carol’s potato blog!

Many of you will remember my fertiliser trial (Summer News 2008), when, according to my results, the best fertilisers were blood, fish and bone (BF&B), organic chicken manure and horse manure. Since then, I have based my growing on those three to give me the best overall results from my mainly organic allotments (with the exception of slug pellets, but they are organic ones).

So I thought that you might be interested to see what happened with my potatoes last year. I used horse manure and BF&B in the Autumn, and, when I planted my Picasso Main crop into each potato hole, I added a small handful of organic chicken pellets.

The crop was so large, that I decided to weigh just one row of 12 potatoes just for interest. (I think that weighing your crops is mainly a man thing, but I could be wrong!) The result is in my photo.

From those 12 potatoes, I got 40kg / 88lb weight of potatoes and more than 2/3rds were BIG ones for baking.

If your potatoes let you down this year, then you may like to try it and see if you get a similar result to mine.

Also, for those who are new at growing, remember that if you want baking size pototoes, just remove all but one or two shoots on the potato before you plant it.

Happy gardening!

Carol

Respect and dignity

The management committee have received more than one complaint about foul language being used loudly with children around and insults against other members. As an association, anything other than good behaviour, trust and acceptance of each other will not be tolerated. Any racist remarks will be reported to the Police.

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Roger relaxes on Plot 9

Mark Cain winds up after a water session with his

petrol powered water pump

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A View from Plot 9

There is a Garden Centre between Aylesbury and Wendover that has land beside it and has divided it up into 90 square metre plots for use as allotments. The rent for such a plot is £10 a week and includes water, a butt, a shed and a greenhouse .There is also a rabbit proof fence round the site and I presume some sort of security. The scheme was started this year and the majority of the plots have been taken up. All plots are dug over and manured before being taken on.

When I was told about this I thought this is fifty times more expensive than ours - who ever would want to pay that sort of money for a plot which is only a third of the standard size we have?

Okay, so it’s not practical to go to Aylesbury everytime you want to pick some Brussels or plant some peas but if such a place was in Bletchley or MK would we be interested? The advantage of having a latte or picking up a birthday card at the same time as you tend your plot has some appeal. Being able to use the loos attached to the shop so you can clean up before going home and being able to ask the garden centre staff for tips and advice would be a great advance on what we have.

The Garden Centre also suggests that if 90m2 is too large then you could let one or two friends share it with you. They also suggest that a year’s tenancy could be given to someone as a birthday or retirement present.

Well is it so crazy? How much do our allotments really cost us? Is it only the well heeled Wendover gardeners who can afford such luxuries?

Roger Dunn

Water supply

Water is essential for any garden and various methods have been used to obtain water, mostly by the use of butts catching rain water from shed roofs. Some neighbouring members have the additional facility of an extension hose pipe to top up their butts when they run dry. Many collect water from the brook in buckets or watering cans. A method becoming more common is using a petrol driven pump with a hose pipe. This need not be as expensive as it might seem – one member bought a cheap petrol pump off e-Bay.

An interesting observation – a member was observed taking brook water home in watering cans to avoid the use of treated tap water for his plants.

Autumn task day: Saturday 9th October

Many thanks to those who helped in the clean-up and the loading of the skip in May. The effort was well worth it. Let’s keep the allotments tidy – remember that no household rubbish is allowed on the allotments. Please bring your spade, wheelbarrow, chainsaw and other useful tools, if you have them, and join us for specific tasks on the morning of Saturday, 9th October (the day following the AGM). If you can’t make this date, an hour or two helping, at a time to suit you would be much appreciated.

Bonfires

The management committee have tried to encourage reasonable behaviour with consideration for our neighbours, without imposing formal rules. We must remind members that allotments must not be used for burning household items and it is illegal to cause toxic fumes. We remind you of your responsibilities to avoid causing a nuisance, by limiting bonfires to socially acceptable times (preferably evenings) and when the prevailing wind is not in the direction of neighbouring houses . Do not burn wet material. Do not allow bonfires to continue unattended. Please compost your waste vegetation as much as possible, to save the need to burn it.

The following demands have been made by our insurers relating to bonfires and must be obeyed at all times:

a) Fires are to be in a cleared area at a distance of at least 10 metres from any property.b) Fires are not to be left unattended at any time.c) A suitable fire-extinguishing appliance to be kept available for immediate use.d) Fires are to be extinguished at least one hour prior to leaving the site.

Please be courteous and provide your full co-operation by not spoiling the comfort and well-being of our neighbours.

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Tony Natale puts the finishing touch to the new gates in Eaton Avenue

The new gates in Manor Road

Digging out the spoil Finishing the ramp Sandy cuts the tape

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New gates

During the year, we have replaced both gates with more secure ones. Our thanks go to Tony Natale for dealing with both suppliers and to Geoff Bennett who filled in lots of forms and progressed the successful grant of £1,000 towards the replacement of the Manor Road gate. Now we have to find ways of repairing or replacing the fence along the public alley way.

In the case of the Manor Road gates, this work was assisted by Grassroots Grants funding administered by the Milton Keynes Community Foundation, for which we are very grateful.

Sandy’s ramp

The month of May saw a team of volunteers build a ramp to enable Sandy Rowles to access her plot by wheelchair. Sandy sent a message to the volunteers, “Thank you so much for the ramp - it is brilliant - I am overwhelmed - you are all stars! How about a Grand opening around 3 pm or so tomorrow afternoon”. We were happy to oblige. Photos below …

Management Committee - if you have any concerns or items to raise, management committee members can also be contacted on the allotments or through the Town Council offices at 74-76 Queensway or on 01908 649469.

Management committee members

Geoff Bennett Mark Cain (Treasurer)Mark James Tony NataleRobin Rowles (Chairman) Douglas Sellers (Secretary)Carol Smith (Vice Chairman & Lettings) Lena Zeolla (Ella parla bene inglese e italiano)

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