A member preparing his plot on1st March 2009

Locate the site of this quotation.A prize will be presented for the first correct answer to be

received at the Association’s stall at this year’s Midsummer Madness event on 21st June.

Page 1 of 6

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 – Summer 2009

Allotments – the global garden

Although still firmly rooted in its tradition of cultivation, the modern allotment is now more diverse and stimulating. Increasing numbers of women, families, young professionals and gardeners from several ethnic cultures are bringing both variety and vitality to plots that, until quite recently, were tended mainly by older men striving to make ends meet. On an allotment you have freedom; the freedom to enjoy the company of like-minded gardeners, or simply to relax in the fresh air, away from modern pressures. You are free to grow your own food by your own chosen methods, indulging whim, tradition and individuality to your own satisfaction, and to harvest it close to home in peak condition.

Adapted from ‘The Allotment Book’ by Andi Clevely- a useful book, with lots of advice; published by Collins

We have welcomed several new members this year and there is a ‘buzz’ about the place. It has been a pleasure to see how several formerly neglected plots at the Manor Road end have been transformed to well prepared plots, already showing signs of good vegetable growth. (Watch out the ‘Surrey End’ (nickname of the Westfield Road end) – they are catching you up!)

The high level of interest in allotment gardening continues. We have continued to make additional plots available by dividing some large plots into smaller, more manageable plots and by re-allocating those, which have not been cultivated for long periods. Other local allotment associations are applying strict rules by re-allocating uncultivated plots. The national press have recently reported a case of 883 people waiting for up to 40 years for one of the 195 plots in Camden, while nationally the average wait is three years and two months. In a recent report a plot holder for 20 years in Cheltenham was given an eviction notice in May because not enough of his plot was cultivated. While we try to encourage members to work their plots and have issued reminders, eventually a decision has to be made to be fair to those who are on the waiting list and to neighbouring plot holders who may be affected by seeds spreading from weeds. So the message is use it or lose it!

If you have a plot, which is surplus to your requirements, please contact Roger Dunn on Plot 9 or via the Town Council Offices. Roger will be delighted to find a good tenant.

document.doc

Visitors are served strawberries from the allotments with cream at Midsummer Madness

2008

Page 2 of 6

Midsummer Madness: Sunday 21st June

This popular event, sponsored by the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council, will be held again in Leon Recreation Ground from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm. We are intending having a stall, to publicise our allotments. Many new photographs will be displayed – see page 6 for a selection. Members are invited to sell their surplus produce from the stall and keep the proceeds! If you would like to help for part of the day or would like to display produce, please turn up between 11 am and 12 noon.

Allotments open day: Saturday 27th June

We will be opening the allotments for visitors from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on 27th June. Please do join us and help escort visitors by ensuring that only safe footpaths are used. Entry for visitors will be via Eaton Avenue. Any offers of drinks (home-made wine?) and refreshments would be welcome. Meet at the ‘Surrey end’ (central track towards Westfield Road).

This will be another opportunity to offer your surplus produce for sale. Also, there will be a SCARECROW COMPETITION – see below.

Plant sharing - creating a plant bank

With the Credit Crunch upon us, is anyone interested in plant sharing? Do you grow seeds and find that you have too many, say cabbages or lettuce plants? Or find that you don’t quite have enough leeks to finish that row? Or maybe the pigeons have decimated your brassicas (more of that later).

I find this happens to me sometimes and in the end, the extra plants are just thrown away. At certain times I have loads of strawberry plants or oregano and cuttings or say gooseberries that have grown. Half the excitement of growing is taking cuttings as well as sowing and growing.

Whether it’s to have some extra plants, or to share what you have too much of, give me a call on MK 643171 or e-mail me on yogini@supanet.com and I’ll try to put those who have ... in touch with those who want.

Carol Smith

The scarecrow competition

Remember my mentioning the pigeons maybe have eaten your brassicas? Well, what about entering into the spirit of summer by creating and making a scarecrow for your allotment?

You could get the kids or your grandchildren or your neighbour’s kids interested. It will create interest for those who walk by on the brook side and allow your creativity to flourish. Maybe you’re a “Trecky” enthusiast or have an historical, traditional 19th Century interest, or even a Bletchley Park scarecrow.

We have people from all different cultures on our allotments, so make your own type. Get your brain cells working and create. There will be a prize given for the best,

most interesting one given on our Open Day on Saturday 27th June so you only have a short time!!

You’ll even feature in the local newspaper. Fame at last. Coming from Aus., I think I’ll make one in a bikini to celebrate the sunshine.

Carol Smith

Best allotment and best newcomer competitions 2009

Well done to Richard Price for winning the 2008 best allotment competition – his third win in succession. Now to give others a sporting chance, Richard is ineligible this year, so it could be you! As last year, awards will be made for the runner-up and best newcomer, kindly sponsored by Dobbies Garden Centre. So whether you have been a member for several years or if you have joined the Association during the last year, you could win an award for your efforts. The best allotment will judged again by including general use of the plot, layout, crops, fruit, flowers, surrounding footpaths and, if applicable the state of the boundary with the brook. A non-member judge will visit the allotments anonymously, twice between mid- June and the end of September. Prizes will be awarded at the AGM on 2nd October 2009.

document.doc

Carol Smith

Page 3 of 6

Spring clean-up weekend

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. Watch out for notices for the next clean-up weekend.

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. Plot 65A, near the middle of the main track, has been allocated for compostable items. This provision is to reduce the need to burn old stalks, etcetera. Please use this facility and as the front is full, throw compostable items on the REAR of the heap.

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.

The first five years are the hardest - Old Carol’s Ramblings

Hello all you who are new to our allotments and/or allotmenteering. Here you are faced with a plot of land, which may look as though it hasn’t seen any action since 1926, the year our allotment association began. Rest assured that it has been dug since then, as 30 years or so ago, some people waited 4 years for a plot.

When I got my first allotment in August 1998, a third of all the allotments were overgrown and covered with weeds and brambles. How this has changed! As a matter of fact, I could stand in the middle of my plot then and not be seen and I’m not vertically challenged.

Where was I going to start? Firstly, I cut down all the grass and weeds, piled them up in large heaps and burnt the stubble and the heaps. I was immediately accosted by a gentleman who rushed across and told me off because his mother had the washing out. (We have learned to be more sensitive to our neighbours these days.) When I bought a bunch of flowers for his mother and turned up at the house number he had given me, I found that they didn’t know him or his mother, so I gave them the flowers anyway.

I remember that it was a cold autumn and winter when I started with my Marigolds on and my fingers freezing. I just dug a bit at a time and weeded it by hand. It seemed to take forever! You may be tempted to rotavate straight away to look as though something is happening. Don’t be fooled. Twitch grass can re-grow vigorously from just 2 cms of root and, let’s face it, it’s very satisfying to see those spaghetti-like roots piling up on the footpath, to be wheel-barrowed to the “Composting Facility”.

Of course, you could just cover it up with black plastic, leave it for a year and wait for everything to die. But, that’s not satisfying is it?

You have this vision of rows of everything growing neatly, the fruits of the earth all waiting for your guiding hand and lining up all ready to pick. You want to get your hands in the soil. See those tender young seedlings poking their heads through. You feel a surge of maternal care course through your veins as you water and tend them. And the pride of picking your first beans or lettuce, despite a few slug holes or nibblings, or of digging those new potatoes, or eating those strawberries. Who needs Sainsbury’s!

Of course, the truth will be that it’s hard work. There’s no rain, so you have to get in and out of the brook; you didn’t know water was so heavy! You forgot to put down the slug pellets along your newly emerging lettuce and the next day, there’s just a row of stalks. Or, it pours with rain and all your tomatoes die of blight. Oh, the disappointment, after all that back-breaking work! And yes, your back really aches. (See me on plot 57B for some tips on how to look after your back. Maybe in the next newsletter we can have some tips… Editor please note)

So your will want to give up. One word…… Don’t.

document.doc

Roger Dunn

Chairman Robin Rowles extracts water from the brook

Page 4 of 6

When I started, there weren’t many women with allotments and the general consensus from the “Old Boys” was “She’ll never last!” and when I offered to help on the committee even though they were desperate for help, it was “We don’t want a woman on the committee do we!” But one day, you’ll get on top of the weeds and the slugs and the pigeons; you’ll look down on your plot and indeed see those rows of veggies, bursting with goodness AND taste, and you’ll feel pride in what you have achieved and who knows, if you are a woman, maybe they will let you on the committee.

Carol Smith

A view from plot 9 … by Roger Dunn

Why is it that we all want good weather? We gardeners like a bit of sun like most other people but without a good deal of rain our crops just will not prosper. The weathermen and ladies apologise that we are going to be in for a bit of rain with the promise that it will clear up soon and announce a weather warning as if a catastrophe is just round the corner. They feel the need to make the weather ‘sexy’ and important. All I do know is that in the middle of May the brook should be higher than the 6 inches it was and we need a few good downpours to put things right.

But what if there was not such a thing as a weather forecast and we had to rely on our senses to foresee what it was going to be like later in the day. I agree that a 7-day forecast is handy especially if snow is on the way but before modern times, people who cultivated the land, yes that includes you, used to look for other signs to predict the weather - not just red sky at night, shepherds delight, but looking at cloud formations, activities of wild animals - the early call of a cuckoo and the heavy harvest of reddened holly berries. The good thing about our allotment field however is that you can certainly see bad weather coming and dive for cover when it starts raining!

If you feel like me that we are over pampered by the TV weather experts or if you think we should have a precise prediction about the what it will be like in an hour’s time it is certain that we can’t change what is coming our way – unless, of course, you know differently.

Security, safety, privacy and children – a message from our Chairman, Robin Rowles

If you enter the allotments through the gate off Eaton Avenue and look across the field, you may very well think that there is no security and very little safety and privacy. The view in front of you is open as far as the houses of Willow Way and Chestnut Crescent, with not even a thorn hedge or low fencing protecting the allotments alongside the brook. So why does your Committee get concerned about security and especially about keeping the gates closed, and preferably locked, except when you are passing through them?

Well, perhaps you will be surprised to know that people don't actually like getting their feet and shoes wet and muddy, even in the few centimetres of water currently flowing in the brook. We have seen people come onto the allotments through the open gate, get as far as the bank of the brook and then retrace their steps. When challenged and told that the allotments are private property they have mumbled an apology and disappeared. Now we know that the determined thief can easily get across the brook and raid the sheds, it has happened a number of times, but the casual thief can be deterred just by keeping the gates closed.

But this isn't just about security issue; it is about safety one as well. You may very well be an athletic youngster who works out regularly and feel you are a match for anyone. But many of our allotment users are not so tough. Someone working by themselves on the allotments can be very vulnerable, so when you arrive or leave, look around to see who else is there, and if there is just you, or only one other person, lock the gate as well as closing it. Locking the gate doesn't cause anyone any problems; no one should be working on the allotments unless they know the gate padlock codes. Even if you do not lock the gate, please remember to close the padlock and scramble the code if you have had to unlock the gate. This might seem pointless, but the locks we use are quite expensive, and if you leave it set on the unlocking code, someone could come along and change the code making the lock useless to us and meaning we have to purchase a new lock and pay for someone to weld it to the chain. At the very least it means other people would come to know the lock code.

Finally, can we make a plea for privacy? Each allotment plot is like your garden at home, as long as you pay rent and follow the rules, it is yours. I don't suppose that you would wander onto the back garden of the house three doors down from yours unless you were invited in by the owner, so please don't do it on the

document.doc

Contrasting bird scarers –plastic milk bottles above vs

plastic bags below

Geoff Bennett pleas for grass paths

Page 5 of 6allotments either. It doesn't matter whether a plot is obviously well cultivated or appears to be abandoned, do not go onto it. We have had a number of instances of plants and fruit trees being taken from plots as well as vegetables being harvested by someone other than the plot holder. I don't suppose you would like anyone to come into your house or garden and steal your plants. Taking from someone else's allotment plot is stealing too. Your Committee will decide if plots are not being cultivated and what is to be done. By-Law (viii) allows the Committee to cultivate an unused plot for the benefit of the Association, so if you come onto what you think is an uncultivated plot and take anything growing there, you are stealing from the Association.

And on the subject of privacy, your Committee is delighted when plot holders bring their children onto the allotments to teach them about gardening and growing things. But remember that the allotments are not a playing field and in particular other people's plots are not a playing field. Children do not necessarily realize what are plants and what are weeds, so whenever your children are with you, make sure that they are on your plot and only on your plot, all of the time. We have had instances of children playing fairly violent games and being a danger to other plot holders. If this happens again and this time the plot holder makes a formal complaint, you could lose your plot. So remember other people's privacy and keep your children strictly on your plot. By-Law (v) requires plot holders not to be a nuisance to other plot holders or those who live around the allotments.

In ecology, an Association is a group of animals and plants that live together as a community. So as an Allotment Association, let's also live together as a community and do everything we can to ensure the security, safety and privacy of our allotments and all who work on them.

Bird scarers

The bird scarers we featured last year, by Dave Thorne, have become popular all over the allotments. Using plastic milk bottles, with flaps cut into their sides and suspended on canes. In a gentle breeze, they produce an effective visual and noisy method of scaring birds away. Another popular and effective method is to use old CDs suspended on string.

Contrast the modified plastic milk bottles with the collection of plastic bags in full view at the Surrey end!

Time for sharing … notice board

Too many seedlings, want to swap plants, need a rotavator, want tools sharpened or want to sell anything, etc. etc? Try putting up a notice on the notice board adjacent to the main path.

Dates for your diary

21st June – Midsummer Madness 1:30pm – 5:00pm in Leon Recreation Ground.

27th June - Allotment open day 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

2nd October – Rent collection from 6:30pm to 7:15pm; AGM, awards and prize-giving from 7:30pm, at St Thomas Aquinas Church Hall,

Sycamore Avenue.

A plea for grass allotment paths

You’ve spent the last couple of seasons on your plot eradicating the major weeds, such as couch grass and convolvulus (bind weed), by driving them back to reside under the surrounding allotment paths.

You’ve seen which vegetables, flowers, herbs, etc. thrive in your particular soil, and you are thinking about experimenting with different seed varieties. So now your allotment plot, like mine, is as pretty as a picture, but still something’s missing……….

A good oil painting or photograph is enhanced by the frame surrounding it and, similarly, an allotment plot is enhanced by the type of path surrounding it.

In my opinion, the path surface should be of grass, and not black plastic sheeting, carpeting or ‘weedol’ed grass to eliminate the need for mowing. A grass path requires a little extra effort to mow or strim, and when path weeds are removed, this can doubly benefit your neighbouring plot holders.

Remember your allotment can be viewed via the internet from anywhere in the world, albeit with several months delay, and that the use of that perfect frame of a grass path not only enhances its appearance but also increases the chance of you winning the best-kept allotment competition!

Geoff Bennett

document.doc

Page 6 of 6

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)Roger Dunn (Lettings) Tony NataleRobin Rowles (Chairman) Douglas Sellers (Secretary)Carol Smith (Vice Chairman) Lena Zeolla (Ella parla bene inglese e italiano)

Allotment photo gallery - contrasts

– for more photos, visit our stall at Midsummer Madness on 21st June!

- o O o -

document.doc

Jim Clarkson with his home-made rake

Plot 82 on 31st May 2009

Jim’s Plot 82 on 8th February 2009Teresa’s Plot 65A on 8th February 2009

Plot 65A on 25th May 2009

Teresa Bishop tending her flower beds