As well as the newsletter this blog will be used to keep you up to date with what's happening on the plots. You can use the RSS feed button or just visit this page regularly for updates.
Let us know if you have anything you want to put on the blog.
The very belated (sorry folks John's fault!) can be downloaded here...
& don't forget the surplus sale this Saturday.
A date for your diary!
On Saturday 28 August 2010, the Fairfield Allotments are having a sale of surplus garden
produce. The sale would be between 11am and 2pm and, like last year, would take
place just inside the allotment gates near the white farmhouse.
Nearer the time, there will be posters advertising the event but,
in the meantime, please put the date in your diary.
To make the sale a success, donations of the following items would
be particularly welcome:
·
Fruit and
vegetables
·
Cut
flowers
·
Herbs and
other potted plants
·
Jams and
chutneys (get making!)
·
Home-made
cakes (to be sold whole, or in slices with cups of tea or coffee)
·
Home-made
biscuits
·
A giant vegetable
(for example, a marrow, pumpkin or cabbage) for a “Guess the Weight” competition
·
Folding
tables
·
Gazebos
·
And, of
course, your time. We will need
volunteers to pick, price and sell on the day.
Last year’s sale raised about £350, and we are hoping to do even
better this year. The proceeds will build on the success of the Fairfield Allotments’
stall at the Fun Day on 3 July which raised a very useful £355 for allotment funds.
Contact details are on the notice board at the allotments or email
John.
Fairfield Fun Day -
Produce & Volunteers Needed!!
“Fairfield Fun Day” is on the 3rd of July.
This is a great opportunity to help the allotment association raise funds. Last year we made a profit of around £300! This year we are aiming to do even better.
There are all sorts of ways you can help:
If you want to know more or want to help, please contact me on 12B
Jean Laurie
If you've been looking at the website you'll know we've posted a couple of things about problems with weedkiller/ herbicide contaminated manure on allotments across the country.
Unfortunately it seems that the problem has arrived at Fairfield.
At least one manure delivery seems to be contaminated. We are in the process of contacting the supplier to make sure they stop offering manure to allotments and veg growers. (At the moment we do not think the free bagged stuff is the problem.)
The best advice we can find is available through the following links. If you believe either your manure is contaminated after testing, or your crops are showing symptoms, please let us know & take some photos please. (There is a simple way to test your manure outlined below). We won't be able to do any more than the websites we've mentioned say to do, but we will alert the NSALG, chemical company and government about how we've been affected.
Here are a few links about the problem:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=477
http://glallotments.co.uk/default.aspx
http://www.growyourown.info/page164.html
http://www.manurematters.co.uk/gardening.htm
It is essential that you test any standing manure you have on your plot before using it. Here is the recommended method:
Testing manure:
(We will test some of the free manure, but please do it yourself as it can only help us be more confident about it.)
Let's hope it's just an isolated incident and with care we can avoid further issues.
How many times have you been at the allotment and thought...
"if only there were a really informative app for my iPhone which would tell me all the basics I need to know about growing veg and fruit"
...well now there is!
Follow this link:
It seems spring is officially here and everyone is creeping out of hibernation to clear their plots for the season ahead.
For some this means bonfires.
If you are going to have a bonfire can you please be respectful of our neighbours and make sure the wind is blowing away from the houses.
I've already received one complaint from a normally very tolerant neighbour and would not want this to escalate.
·
Keep fires small if possible and do not leave to burn
unattended.
·
Make sure the wind in blowing away from houses.
·
Try not to light fires when people are likely to have
washing out, or windows open.
·
If other people have fires lit, don't join in!
Have a look at these links on the left to thebookpeople.co.uk
If you're looking for a good quality, informative allotment guide...these are well worth having in your shed!
...& a bargain as well.
Hi Everyone,
One of our members has lost a 1/2 inch chisel between the gate at the white cottage on Sunnyside and plot 27b last Saturday 20th Feb.
If anyone has seen it/ found it/ picked it up please let me know and I'll get it back to it's owner.
Many Thanks
John
URGENT!!!
Fairfield Allotment Holders’ Association
Our venue for the AGM 2010 has just been unfortunately (and accidentally) double booked!!
As they have 100 paying customers, we lost out.
At such short notice we have no choice but reschedule.
NEW AGM DATE
THURSDAY 11th FEBRUARY 7.30
The Borough, Upstairs, Dalton Square.
Hope to see you there. John & your committee.
PS: If you have got this through your letter box it means we don’t have your email recorded. It may mean we are slightly fitter for delivering it - but if you use email - please, please, please let us have it. It really helps out with newsletters and very occasional notices like this.
We’re very sorry for such late notice but the Borough have only just let us know. However, they let us meet at the venue free for all our committee meetings so we have to be flexible.
70th
Annual General Meeting
of
The Fairfield Allotment Holders’ Association
will be held at The Borough, Dalton Square
On Thursday 04th February 2010
At 7.30 pm
All are welcome
Agenda & Papers will be available from the secretary in advance by request or at the meeting.
Further details will be published with the rent request.
If you haven’t received your rent request by the end of January please contact John on 01524 849371
The council are asking for consultation on their next budget follow the link to get your chance to have your say. The document specifically mentions allotments...please support this by returning the form in favour of allotments!!
A while ago we posted a notice about a petition to Number 10 about contaminated manure...
If you signed up you will have received the following a while back.
For those that didn't, but are still interested, here is a link to what happened.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21280
Hmmmm......
Some of you may have read about the council's decision to change allotment leases in the Lancaster Guardian, but the following email from the chair of ALMA (The Association of Lancaster & Morecambe Allotments) reports some significant changes in our relationship with the council in the future...and for once we think this is good news!
"Dear All
Lancaster City Council’s Cabinet met at Lancaster Town Hall on Tuesday 6th October 2009, Item 6 on the agenda was the future arrangements for all Lancaster City Council allotment sites.
Councillor Emily Heath put forward the proposal of the Allotment Task Group that sites should pay a peppercorn rent and retain the difference in rent for running costs/maintenance and improvements to the allotment sites. Also that a sum of £20,000 per annum, over 5 years, be spent on bringing allotment infrastructure up to a better standard.
I am very pleased to tell you that this proposal was passed unanimously by the Cabinet and various members praised the past work of Allotment Committees and plotholders.
Further to this, it was agreed that, in addition a new lease, each site would be asked to enter into a Service Level Agreement with Lancaster City Council. Details will be provided later.
Although the Cabinet’s decision has to be ratified by the full Council at their next meeting (March 2010 budget meeting), I am assured that this will happen and I was informed that the new leases have already been drawn up.
This means that we have obtained all that we asked for.
May I take this opportunity to thank the Allotment Task Group for all their efforts over the past 5 years. Special thanks to Emily Heath, Richard Tulej, Jill Wesolowski and John Lambert.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Tom Jones
Chair
ALMA"
A big thank you to all who organised, volunteered, donated and bought stuff at our first surplus sale. It raised a massive £360! Which when added to the profit from the stall at Funday means we have raised just over £600 pounds from those 2 events alone.
A photo of the opening got into the Lancaster Guardian with a small article which helped to provide some publicity for organisations that gave us the funds to complete the extension. However, somehow from my notes to the press release to the final article two of our funders got left out...both the Galbraith Trust and The Lancaster City Council Allotment fund also contributed significantly as well as those mentioned in the article.
The surplus sale was so successful we think it may become an annual event, we'd welcome suggestions for improvements and additions.
As you all know we're holding a fundraising day on Saturday 29 August 2009, we hope you'll all join in with this by donating and turning up on the day.
The day is also going to be the official press opening of the new allotment extension and we would like to invite as many of you as can to come and join in the photo shoot. This will generate some press coverage for the generosity of our funders.
All members and families are welcome.
We're planning to 'cut the ribbon' or 'dig the first sod' at around 11.30 so please get there for that time. Down at the Sunnyside gate end.
One of our members has passed the following on to me. The links take you to an article about the problem and to the Downing Street petition that you may be interested in adding your names to.
Dear Fellow Allotment Holders
You are probably aware of the withdrawal of the herbicide aminopyralid in July last year after a national outcry about the damage caused by manure contaminated with it.
Dow Agrochemicals have quietly applied for it to be reinstated and this seems likely to be granted by Govt unless protests from influential groups and individuals can prevent it. I have put a petition on the No 10 website http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/aminopyralidban/
and ask as many as possible of your members and their contacts to sign it. For those who are unfamiliar with the problem, full details of the story which started in early 2008 can be found at http://glallotments.co.uk/default.aspx
Thank you in advance
John Shobbrook
Chair, Black Horse Allotments Association, Wednesbury,
How can I use green manures?
Is this a virus?
Where do I get free........?
I need a shed!
Where can I find seed for lemon flavoured carrots?
All these questions and more could be asked and sometimes answered, if we had a Fairfield Allotment Forum...
So...
Since the launch, and re-launch, of the allotment website we have been asked on a number of occasions if it would be possible to have a section where members can ask questions, have discussions, share materials / equipment / seeds, ask for help, recommend varieties / suppliers / books / websites etc.
A (private) forum has been added to the website for members, the waiting list and guests. Although the forum has been set up as private anyone that joins should still be conscious of their own & others web privacy when choosing user names and posting comments.
To join - go to the forum page ( http://www.fairfield-allotments.co.uk/forum.html ) and register. You’ll need an email address (which remains invisible to other users) and to choose a user name which others will see. Most users of discussion forums use a ‘nickname’ rather than real names, but that’s up to you. As this is a private forum your ‘application’ to join will need to be approved, so the email you want to use must be the one we already have. If we don’t recognise your email address then we can't approve your application. If we don't have your email address then get in touch using the contact sections of this website.
You should be able when you have registered to add new posts of your own, respond to other’s posts as part of an open discussion or send responses directly to individuals messages.
Over two thirds of the association receive the newsletter by email so that means we have around 70 members who may join the discussion group; far more than you bump into on an average day at the allotment!
Don’t worry if you’re not used to this sort of discussion forum, it’s probably new to most of us. Add new topics, reply to topics, ask questions...we’ll see what works, and what doesn’t and change what we can can to suit demand.
For those that are used to using this kind of forum, your help would be great in getting it started. Add and respond to topics, offer suggestions to get us novices contributing.
We look forward to receiving your registration requests and please, please, please... if it’s not working...or you want something changing...or you have suggestions...they are always welcome...
Lancaster City Council have asked us to advertise the following...
THE BIG HEAP
Head to the Williamson Park car park on Wednesday 12 August from 10am onwards and help yourself to two FREE bags of compost made from Lancashire’s garden waste. Just bring some bags and a spade and get digging. You’ll have to be there quick though, because once it’s gone, it’s gone!
Why not bring along the kids and let them have a chance at planting their own mini wild garden or vegetable patch in our potting tent?
Click here for the full poster...please display it where you can
We've asked the council how allotment associations can get access to compost like this in bulk. Should we get a discount? Should we get it free?
What do you think...register for the forum and we can pass the message on!
