Author: oldlanelottswp

Dear Plot Members,

Our website statistics are on the increase each month. Many of are members have signed up to the Old Lane Allotments website making communication that bit easier,  I have received positive feedback from members old & new. It kind of puts us on the map & people have signed up from other parts of the country to read the blogs & to look at the photographs. I have outlined are stats below to give you all an idea of how the site is doing.

 2018    We have had  1,020  Visitors To Our Site & Over 8,020 Views

 2017    We  had            416   Visitors To Our Site & Over  7,312 Views

We all contribute to Old Lane Allotments on keeping the site clean & tidy. We have no empty plots at the moment which is great going into this years growing season. Keep up the good work everyone we all deserve credit & should be proud of our site & what is being achieved.

Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

For & on behalf of Old Lane Allotments Association

• Pallets are easy to come by and are very useful for building your own compost bin.
• Old windows/frames can be great to make a small cold frame.
• Recycle old bricks & paving slabs to make paths on your allotment.
• Unwanted net curtains are really good for keeping birds off your crops
• Use small empty pop bottles to put on your canes as cane toppers to protect your eyes, they also rattle in the wind deterring  birds away from your crops.
• Old metal bed frames can be used as the picture indicates above to make an enclosure if you bring your pet to the allotment.
  

  Have a think when you are intending to throw away unwanted items at home – Would they come in useful on my allotment ?

                     Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Wishing All our Members a Happy Christmas & a Prosperous new year

From the Old Lane Allotments Committee 

Lets all look forward to next years growing season

Wheelbarrows

Can members please return the wheelbarrows after use to the storage area for the next person to use.

Horse manure storage area

As members are aware when horse manure is brought to site it is left in the storage area for members to use. Recently unwanted rubbish is appearing in this area, glass, broken plant pots, empty cartons, broken electrical items. We have made that storage area for everybody’s benefit to enable easy access to the manure. So whoever is putting items there can you refrain from doing it please. Rubbish & unwanted items should be taken home or left at home for disposal.

Thank you for your Co Operation

Old Lane Allotments Committee

We have collected a number of collars to put over young brassica plants to keep the wood pigeons away & protect plants from the elements. We have put them next to the main hut building entrance.  Please take some if you require them for your plot.

Allotment Committee

GOOD –  HOUSE/KEEPING – MAKING TIME

Allotment holders as a top tip should consider the equivalent of half an hours work each day on their plot as a minimum time to achieve reasonable results. People often have to multitask juggling work, family time & allotment gardening. |This makes plotting how much time you will have to dedicate to your allotment difficult to gauge.

A couple of hours a week may see you through the quiet season in the winter months, but by early Spring you will need to think about setting aside much more time for sowing seeds & planting. You need to put in an appearance at least once a week just to keep on top of the weeds & pests. The more complex the plot, the more time you will probably have to spend keeping it in line. Following a regular routine with your visits, set days & evenings every week – should make it easier to allocate ongoing tasks on the plot to plan start & finish dates. Taking a more scatter gun approach of squeezing in visits when you can, or not at all when time is tight, can see you falling behind on sowing planting & tidying up jobs. Then there lies disaster, for growing seasons are tight & a measure of good housekeeping on the plot is really important to hit all those deadlines. So basically its  all a balancing act. Nothing beats the excitement & anticipation of the simple act of pulling up a carrot or digging up your “spuds” that have been hidden for months underground, like buried treasure. The truth is once  people have started with the joy of allotment gardening, they find it hard to make time for anything else.

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Old Lane allotments on Friday 14th December very cold morning with frost. All of the water butts were all iced over, is this a sign of what’s to come. Its been fairly mild for this time of the year as we are now in the winter months.

Pictures & blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

A big thank you to our members that took part in this years Kings Seeds allotment scheme. We managed to raise some funds that go back into our Association for the running of the site.

THANK YOU

Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

For & on behalf of Old Lane Allotment Association

Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

The Allotment Diary

One of the most useful things for any gardener is a diary. Unless you are blessed with a photographic memory it will prove invaluable for the years ahead. In the diary you can keep a record of conditions, your actions, & of course your results. Make a record of what you sow, the date & the variety and also where you have sown on your plot. Make a note of what the weather is like , when the first & lasts frost occur which is useful recorded information. Its also worth recording quantities in your harvest & acceptability. When you come to order your seeds the following year you know what has grown well for you & whats not grown so good. It can be very confusing what you have grown & where recording your information will help you keep track. A diary is also useful to remind yourself of jobs that need completing writing a brief note over the growing season. Organisation & planning is key to a thriving allotment.

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

When your seeds arrive sort them out into sowing order (earliest date first) & store them in a cool dark place ready for the growing season. Remember if you already have packets of seeds stored these need to be sown first remember to check the sow by date on the packets. I personally don’t use out of date seeds if they don’t germinate it will put you back at the start of the busy growing season.

Don’t forget that growing instructions in a book are standardized so check on the seed packet , especially for those close-spaced varieties. I always read the instructions on seed packets as it gives you that reminder.  Check the weather as seed varieties can be planted in February at the start of the season,  but now the winter months seem to be longer as we learnt from early March last year, with the really bad weather conditions. The weather is always key to planting seeds.

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)