We are so lucky

Flushed with the success of our BBQ, we kept the fingers crossed for good weather on our coach trip day out on the 25th August. We need not have worried as the 27 members who were looking forward to the outing gathered in the car park in sunshine fairly early on the Sunday morning awaiting our transport.
We had booked a 29 seater but was delighted when a 35 seater turned up, mainly because it gave us room to spread out and be really comfortable as we would be on and off the bus several times during the day.
The three venue trip continued in fine weather and after an hour we arrived at our first stop, the National dahlia collection trial grounds at Long Rock near Penzance. Around 3 acres of dahlias in numerous beds at their best for us to photograph, admire, smell and order if we liked any particular ones. Varfell farm is only open to the public on one day of the year and we took advantage of this, still in perfect weather, heaven!

After nearly 2 hours, we were ready for a bite to eat so on to the coach again and headed for Penzance town centre where our party were given 90 mins to grab a lunch wherever they fancied and get back to the coach again. Some just sat along the lovely promenade nibbling on sandwiches among the 'palm' trees, Codyline Australis really, Cornish palms, overlooking the busy sea traffic. This is where the Scilly Isles ferry comes in too. Others like me opted for an outdoor café lunch which was very nice thank you in the warm sun, the view from our chosen café below.

Off then to our final destination, N.T.'s fine walled garden, Trengwainton gardens just on the Western outskirts of Penzance. Still the sun shone and after walking around their excellent, impressive grounds, we were all on time at the rendez-vous tea rooms, comparing notes and photos at what we had just seen. The furthest point of the gardens actually overlooks the whole of Mounts Bay and what a sight , the sea sparkling in the sunshine from our high viewpoint was memorable.
All in all, a great day out which everyone as they wearily stepped off the coach commented on.
To my surprise, instead of getting in their adjacent parked cars, several strode off to visit their allotment before heading home, their stamina I admired, oh to be young again, or even young-ish.
We were lucky to get both important days in our allotment calendar to be sunny, happy, successful days. 
 

A good day for us all

The season is just right for our allotments to produce their best year for good fruit and veg with rain and sun alternating at the correct times UNTIL the day selected some time ago for our annual BBQ and prizegiving for the best allotments. Obviously a lot of planning, roll ordering, games, cups and rosettes, seating, shelter etc, etc, goes into the organising for such a lot of folk that were expected to attend and my wife Ruth wore her mouse clicking finger out checking the weather out on so  

 
many occasions before the day. Fortunately, we were warned that despite the previous 7 days being fine and dry, the Sunday was to be a horror so we had to cancel everything and hope the forecast was right as a lot of disappointment was being shown at our decision. It was a deluge, rain and wind all day so happy we had postponed for one week.
Luckily our volunteer cooks, Mike and Carol, were free on the new date, although a few folk that would have attended on the wash out day, couldn't on the rearranged day.
At the second attempt, all went well thoughout the day and 64 of our members and their families relaxed in the warm sunshine enjoying the superb spread, most donated on the day.
The prizegiving, raffle (top prize free rent for 2014), childrens games, tombola stall were all popular and folk were chattering away for hours it seemed. Brilliant! So glad we changed the date. The pictures show the gathering, Mike and Carol hard at work and top prizewinners accepting their trophy from our chair. They keep the Viv Brock memorial cup for a year and their engraved vase for good. Well done Mike and Anne, stiff competition considering 90 plots judged.
We'll do it all again next year. Coach trip next in 2 weeks.

The best season in years

Haven't posted a blog for a while as life is so busy on the site coping with the maintenance of not just my plot but the site in general. I have 2 tenants that really do more than their fair share of communal work but most are just happy to potter about on their own patch. Fair enough. We have a good response if anything specific is asked for so can't complain, too many cooks CAN spoil the site.

After a dubious start to the season, cold spring, late frosts and the signs of another wet year, the high pressure bringing warm settled weather has been with us for several weeks now and all of us are agreeing it has been the best season for crops for at least 3 years. The fruit bushes, strawberries, raspberries have responded well to the strong sunshine this year, we can't pick fast enough. The dreaded potato blight, usually here by now in Cornwall has held off and our first earlies being dug now have a marvellous crop to offer, slug free for a change. Peas too are the best we've known so far on this site, often attacked by voles, wood pigeons, etc., have had a rest this year so the harvest is really good.

One minus point of the hot spell is that the water tanks haven't stood up to the demands and we are having to rely on mains which has to be paid for obviously. The real problem that I witness is to water correctly and I have sent an email to all spelling out correct practice or the rentals will have to go up next season to pay the bills. It was difficult to write to all as only a few are guilty of wasteful watering and I am certain some think sure, but we know this. When you see a tenant running off 5 x 10 litre containers in the hot sunshine at midday just to water the tops of blackcurrant bushes and EVERY crop on the plot the despair creeps in.

Our new car park opened this week is being warily tested by everyone. It is a tadge further and uphill on earth which will turn muddy when the wet returns but we'll do something to improve that soon, it seems ok and good to be separate from the visitors to the house. 

Most of the money from the Cornwall in bloom win in 2012 was spent on our weathervane which has proved useful when deciding whether to have a bonfire or not with regard to smoke direction and annoyance of others. However, with the small balance left have bought a bird bath for the community gardens which will provide a centre piece for a few years, pic here and of the formal garden (one of 4 different gardens) also the new car park with our own bays.

 

Busy organising our annual BBQ and prizegiving on 4th August to be followed by a coach trip later the same month. We have quite a good social life which is enjoyed by 50 - 60%, the others just want to potter as already mentioned, suits us.

Off to enjoy another sunny day in this beautiful county, we are lucky with 160 beaches to choose from or pretty moorland to walk on or even stroll around our lovely allotments.

Hosting tours of our site.

Every year we invite garden clubs to come along and enjoy a guided tour and talk around our pretty allotment site as we are proud of what we have created from nothing in 3 years. Last Sat, 1st June it was the turn of the St. Cleer club and I was looking forward to their visit as when I had given a talk in their memorial hall back in deep winter their members were very interested in what I had to say and couldn't wait to come to us. In fact, two of them came to see us 2 days after, they said they couldn't wait til June.
Although surrounding the site looks like a bombsite at the moment while work building car parks and other site work, our patch looked A1 after Billy had done his magic with the ride on  the previous day. The visitors really enjoyed the tour, talk and refreshments offered after and stayed for a long time chatting in the sunshine asking questions on various subjects. I like it, as it does our association a lot of good around the county to give a good impression, word of mouth goes a long way. The photo here shows some of their club relaxing after their hour long tour. My lovely wife Ruth emerging from the shed after her tea making duties, much appreciated by all.

There is a huge high pressure over the country and it's hot as I write which is unusual to clash with the Royal Cornwall show week and our water tanks have not stood up to their sternest test so far in that the blimin' things have run dry too quickly. We are going to have to look at adding a second one each end linked to the first one. A learning curve for us, thought 540 gallons each tank would be enough for a good while but not. They are not cheap unfortunately.
A late frost unusual for this part caught a few out including me with runner beans, potatoes, dahlias scorched but not killed. They don't look very healthy but will feed the beans up on seaweed extract to perk them up. It's midsummer's day in 3 weeks, had to get the runners and dahlias out surely by June? The joys of allotmenteering! Love it.

OUR SURROUNDINGS CHANGING

We've just celebrated our 3rd birthday on this pretty, sheltered, hidden 3 acre site but this year will see a lot of changes for us as to our surroundings.
As part of a £1.6m grant to create 16 cycle trails around us there are to be new car parks, a new cafe, cycle hire facilities and a toilets too, the latter being very welcome as it's a 10 minute walk to the present loo and back. This involves removal of the existing ancient Cornish hedge between us and the adjacent road and realigning which is quite a big job as the hedge had several mature trees growing out of it. The realigning is to allow coaches and our allotmenteers to see properly when emerging from our new car park under construction this week.
The site is now very exposed to the heavy traffic as the hedge has been totally removed this week but will be rebuilt speedily on a different line.
My poor dear wife who solely handles new applications for a plot with us has been inundated over the last 10 days with emails and texts requesting details of how to apply simply because we are so exposed, no-one could see us in the past which was fine by all the existing members. We have no vacant plots to offer regrettably.

We are supportive of the new project as it will be really good once all finished with something like 5,500 more trees being planted as part of the scheme and of course being NT, everything will be landscaped and planted up soon, in fact within the next 7 months as the grant expires in December this year and all work has to be completed by then. A tough task given the scale of work.

Crops on the plots are looking healthier than last year even if about 3 weeks behind thanks to such a cold spring which is still here even if it is mid summer's day in a month. Despite requests, there is nothing I or our committee can do about it, blame the jet stream being too far South. It's forecast to only reach 12/13 degrees by day for the next week when it should be 18/20 now.
I'm pleased to say every fruit tree in our new orchard planted last month has sprung to life and will look as if it's always been there next year.

Two more visits by garden clubs in the next 3 weeks, St.Cleer and St.Teath, hope the weather is kind on both days, helps with a good impression so much.

Here at Lanhydrock there is a very efficiently run plant nursery and the 2 regular staff (both have an allotment with us too) agreed to stay behind after work one evening this week to give our members a glimpse of their working environment. Fortunately, the event was well supported by around 50 of us taking advantage of the fine evening to spend a couple of hours milling around the many polytunnels questioning the patient staff. We ended up drinking tea and coffee while watching the £12,000 potting machine in action. Thanks again Kenny and Veronica for giving us an evening to remember and to all those who came along.
 
The photos show the wall being rebuilt, our car park being made and a couple from the nursery tour.
More soon.
 

All is well.

Since my last blog, the cold wind which had been blowing since February has at last relented allowing our normal warmer South Westerlies to come in which does bring in rain but we do need it after the ground had been subjected to drying sub zero conditions. The soil was cold to quite a depth.

Our allotmenteers are a hardy breed and most had been on site at some point during the cold snap to prepare their patch for the season ahead and I include  a couple of pics showing the site a week after the milder weather returned, i.e. the second week of April and looking around I felt satisfied we had a good team on board now, the iffy, maybe, sometime, never tenants had gone and been replaced with keen, knowledgable ,true gardeners. Credit to them all for the hard work put in, let us hope the season ahead rewards.

The mini orchard has now been planted. This is situated on an area in the far corner which was a problem to know what to do with as too wet for a plot here, we tried it. Strange as the patch faces S.W., gets plenty of sun but perhaps the giant trees behind the area prevent enough air circulation, who knows, just hope the 15 fruit trees take off and flourish.

We are more exposed to the passing world now with the removal of boundary trees and the imminent realignment of the Cornish hedge that hides us from the road. This is to allow better vision for us and the coaches visiting Lanhydrock to  exit the new car park, all part of big changes in the area (not allowed to say the E word, but rhymes with great). Some tenants feel uncomfortable with the high visibility of our site but we have been assured that we will be ok with a new screen shortly.

Our social life has us attending an event every month but had a disappointment this month as the day before we were due to visit the St. Austell brewery to tour the works, we were asked to cancel as there was emergency maintenance to be carried out the same w/e and the water was turned off so machines all off too. How inconsiderate! Fortunately, I was able to contact all those going in time as we had arranged to meet there. Oh well, another time, can't be helped.

Must say we are sorry to lose Kevin and Charlotte Chapman who had been with us since day one but found life's other commitments to much to justify keeping their plot. We will miss them in particular Charlotte's lovely smile whenever you saw her. :)

Right, it's good growing weather so I'm off the computer now to get planting, I have a lot of competition this year with all the plots looking good. Glad. Billy no- mates has even risked planting out his runner beans, mine are just considering germinating in the greenhouse. I must be old fashioned thinking the second week in May was early enough. Have always had a gardening calendar in my head, maybe I need to have an update soon.  

This cold wind is taking its toll.

The cold wind which has been blowing from the East since February 20th is taking its toll in several ways, the worst of which is that the morale on the plots is pretty low and may leave its mark.

As we all know, everything is WAY behind, crops that are begging to be released from their cramped greenhouse and cold frame homes cannot be planted in such cold soil as we have at present. We have a good proportion of new allotmenteer tenants who were told at the end of last season not to despair as rarely did 2 consecutive bad seasons occur but unless there is a sudden change in the very near future of the weather pattern this will be the case. I do not want those young families to give up yet but who wants to spend their spare time with children for company on a cold,windy, cloudy allotment site ?
Just for interest, I have put two photos on of my garden at the same time of year, two years apart, the first in April 2011 and the other of the same view 2 days ago (6.4.2013).
Notice the cherry leaves, out full in 2011, now not even budding. Clematis over the arch in full flower in 2011, just thinking about showing buds now. The temp has been around 12 degrees different daily on average. This will knock on for the whole season as far as vegetables are concerned unless we get a lengthy Indian summer. Jet stream, please shift yourself northwards SOON!

 

 

2011
2013

Another talk given to a county garden club, this time the village of St Teath heard the tale of how, why,etc and listened to the journey of the long path to setting up this successful allotment community. The garden club had invited the local allotment group along too so I expected the varied and numerous questions at the end of my talk. I was heartily thanked by the club's secretary and exchanged emails with the allotment group for furtherdiscussions after mutually agreeing to swop visits in the near future. The constant frosty, icy evenings seem to relent a little for me to get home without any problem even tho frost set in later that night.

                              A pic of St. Teath village centre here.

We have one area undeveloped on site, one corner that is quite damp and haven't really known what to do with but after several similar suggestions, we are to plant an orchard  consisting of 3 pear, 5 apple, 3 cherry, 2 plum,
2 crab apple (for the blossom). These have arrived now bare rooted from Fothergills and must be planted as soon as I can, They were substantial trees, arrived well packed and represented good value at under £100 for the lot (exc. the crab apple).

I'll brave the cold wind this week coming, plant them with stakes and ties and if the weather doesn't change, it'll stay as it is. Makes sense.

 

St. Cleer garden club

The interest around the county about our project pleasantly surprises me as several village and town garden clubs have approached me to come along to their friendly meetings and give a presentation of our association. I do enjoy spreading the story of how we came to be formed, what obsticles had to be overcome before we could even start, how we go about everything, etc.

St.Cleer garden club were the latest to ask and as I drove out on what was officially the coldest March night for 30 years, I wondered (a) what sort of audience I would have and (b) would I be there for the night if the snow forecast descended?

I needn't have worried, the secretary Jean and her husband were very welcoming and the members, around 23-26 in number were keenly interested in what I had to say, the questions at the end were confirmation of their enthusiasm for our successful project.

I don't have a projector but take along 15 large A4 laminated photos and hand these around as I talk about that particular aspect.

The talk was cut down a little from my usual 90 minute speel as all needed to get home in good time in view of the weather but I was thanked and the club donated £25 towards plants for our community gardens which will be used to good effect.

I ended by displaying the shield we won for Cornwall in bloom, (grow your own category winner), telling this story, before inviting them back for a tour of our site when everything was actively growing and was pleased at the positive response. Glad I managed to wet their appetite.

This talk was the 6th I have carried out since we started and with St. Teath due to be visited next month, folk now know who we are and why we are quite unique in what we are trying to achieve.

The friendships that are formed on these evenings between the clubs go on far beyond one night and is a worthwhile exercise.

Thank you St. Cleer for a nice evening.

I need not have worried about the snow either, it thankfully didn't materialise but I could have done without the 10 mile detour around narrow, bendy, frozen country lanes to get home thanks to Cornwall Highways closing the A38 for roadworks overnight, nice one!

The pic is of the talk to St. Breward garden club in 2012.

Weathervane installed

As a continuation of the blog in November of last year, I'm pleased to say that our weathervane is now proudly erected on our main shed. It looks superb and has had many a positive comment already. It was so difficult to decide on what to do with the prize money won for the best in category 'grow your own' awarded that would benefit everyone on site, all of them had contributed in us winning this fine accolade.

Included here are two photos of the 'vane, comes from an old English word 'fane' meaning flag. Naughty aren't we after last year's ban on flags? But we are not 'old English', well only Jim is.

The record breaking wet season last year has meant the sheds are looking in need of TLC and the work has already started on this as weather permits, as they will be the focus of attention during the year when we show off our new asset. It will be important that the site incl the back of the sheds used at present for storing things away we'd rather not have on show, looks good from the adjacent rough field as within a few weeks will be transformed into a coach park and our car parking area too.

It's not known at the time of writing where our entrance gate will be once the work as above is finished, so it is possible Hilda the boat and our community entrance gardens may need to shift. If the gate is too far from our dedicated car park when transporting heavy items or for disabled members, we'll have to alter the location. Hoping we can leave all as it is.

I am delighted at the look of the weathervane, it will remind us over the years
why we won it.  

Good use of the 'quiet' time

The primary use of the membership of the allotment association is of course to grow your own veg and fruit while getting healthy exercise but a 'spin off' of that is to encourage the friendships made on site through the common
interest of gardening, we have a really good community spirit here.

A way of doing that is to have a good programme of social events outside the boundaries of our field and with that in mind, Ruth and I have arranged for there to be something on every month this year that those interested can take advantage of. It's noticed that around 50% of our group enjoy these events, the other half prefer just to stick to their gardening, which is fine as if all took part, the numbers would be difficult to manage, coach hire, venues to book, etc.

We use this quiet time to arrange with organisations for our visits but the response to emails and phone calls is hit and miss, some very good but others you need a lot of patience to wait for replies, hence the final date cannot always be given as early as we'd like. We'll get there soon because if too long is taken, a visit is made to speak to staff face to face, they can't get out of that!

Our problem is that the venue want numbers and we can't give that until we know a date so we book a provisional number, then nag folk nearer the time to make that figure a reality.

The events on the allotment diary will happen and would ask our members to look at the diary page and decide what interests them so that when dates are finalised a commitment can be given to come along and also suggest what else they'd like to see and do. The response to the Rosemoor garden trip last year was surprisingly poor which is unusual, normally we are oversubscribed. We had to cancel the coach booking and specially discounted admission price negotiated.  Perhaps the wet, cold season dampened enthusiasm.

Added a couple of pictures of events last year, a coach trip to Suttons seed trial grounds and our first seed swop day both of which were well attended.


Some work on our plot being done when weather permits, the manure pile, a delicious mix of horse and calf which promises to reward us with extra large crops from it's nutricious, delightfully well rotted structure is benefitting from being turned to allow frost to break down even further. Beautiful. 

Frosty Morning on the Allotment

Decided it was time to clean the tools and clear out my locker in the communal shed today, well can't get on the plot to dig or prepare beds cause it's frozen solid!   Made the fatal mistake too of wearing my wellie boots and no thermal socks.....memo to self not to make that stupid mistake again.   Done all the jobs I can at home sat beside the warm fire, planned the beds planted them out in my mind umpteen times.   Trawled the multitude of seed catalogues dropping on my hallway floor, watched the Victorian Kitchen Garden DVD with Harry Dobson and my hero  Geoff Hamilton's DVD.   I think he should be compulsory watching for all budding allotment holders, his helpful no nonsense approach has come to my rescue many times.  Anyway as I said I had no option now  but to head for the plot itself and collect the tools for their spring clean and any running repairs needed.  Can you love a spade? I do...it fits perfectly in my hands with the wood feeling so smooth and oozing the tender loving care lavished on it by  past gardeners.  The business end is pitted with age but slices through the soil easily and is just the right weight for me to be able to throw the lovely manure, now protecting my soil, around with gusto..........yes I know I should get a hobby....I do....gardening.    While I was up the plot however I was amazed just how much frost was around.   The poor pond was frozen and the pink ducks looked like they could have done with hats & scarves.  



 

Frosty Greens for tea...

           Mind you it did look quite pretty the way some of the veg had been frosted

 

but the poor wheelbarrow looked a bit sad..... 

Waiting for spring......



 

 

...but spring is just around the corner, walking around Lanhydrock last week I saw snowdrops, primroses and daffodils out in flower.  In my own garden my welsh poppy has not stopped flowering, my tulips are about an inch (2.4cms for those of you of metric bent) above the soil and my broad beans are up and doing well in the greenhouse.  

Trying a new variety for us this year - Mr. Jones - anyone grown it before?  Okay feet have now thawed out so need to go and have cup of coffee and feed the chickens.







New Season

2013 has to be better hasn't it?   As Mike has said we've had the wettest season in years.....but we are allotment holders and we are forever optimistic and 2013 will be a bumper year for us!  My new found enthusiasm knows no bounds and I even made the under gardener come up to the plot with me to do some weeding in the rain today! I sat at the table last night and looked at all the seeds I plan to grow and realised my 'eyes' are bigger than my plot, some serious pruning out needs to be done, problem is there are so many plants I want to grow!   I foresee many hours of agonising over which variety of carrot to grow, reading and re-reading their 'form' and discussions with the under gardener on how we can maximise the beds.......no doubt over a few glasses of our homemade gooseberry wine.  When I ask for another plot Mike please just keep saying NO...

 Well I have made start - sort of - I've washed the first of thousands of pots, a slight exaggeration maybe but it certainly feels like it - as the mountain remaining in our pot box isn't getting any smaller.  Remember the programme about a hoarder called Mr. Trebus?  Well I think I'm the female version!  

May have to recycle some pots up to the allotment as freebies later this month.....

Waiting list reduction

The tenancies are renewed annually every January and the fees are coming in slowly now Christmas is over but unlike the previous two seasons, the pattern is suprising us here at HQ. Since opening in 2010 and the initial take up of the virgin plots, it has proved quite hard for any new applicant to take advantage of any vacancy, they have been few and far between. The only plotters to depart have been those that have been requested to do so or anyone moving out of the locality.
This coming year there have been several terminations by members for various reasons but one has been that the 2012 growing season was so poor and the toil for another year was too much to take on for so little reward. This disappoints as in my experience in life not often can I recall a poor season has been followed by another although I can understand someone with limited time would be frustrated by their yield last year. Being the wettest year since records began in 1910 really proved to be the last straw for a few, tired of constant weeding and seeing their crops rot or not even have their seed rows germinate at all.
It has not been a problem to fill the vacant plots as the patient waiting list now has the door open to join our community at last and we are to hold a 'newbie' induction day next Saturday, 5th Jan. This entails listening to me for 10 mins about our dos and donts on site, issuing them with a 16 page information pack of all that they can enjoy from the area, a tenancy agreement, the rules and a gate entrance key. They are then shown their plot and once the fee is paid for the year, can get going whenever they want. The previous week, the vacating plots had been cleared of any debris left and a new plot No.sign made to give a good start to making a success of their new pastime.
Talking to other allotment site committee members, this seems to be the norm on other sites that those who are less committed (apart from other good reasons, poor health, etc) have decided enough is enough which is a shame considering the pleasure obtained from growing your own is so pleasing.
The pictures I will put on here asap, two are of soggy times on site this year and the third just a photo of a sunny day, a rare sight in 2012 but hopefully a common occurence in 2013. Optimism is important.