Latest News

Good afternoon fellow allotmenteers,

I’m not sure that the weather quite knows what to do with itself today. First it’s bright sunshine, then a heavy shower, all accompanied by a sneaky north wind. At least, as far as I can tell, we didn’t get a frost last night which is a blessing for those of us who’d dared to plant out some tender specimens!

Right, grab a cup of tea and on to business…

Firstly,

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who braved the rain and supported our Plant Sale last Saturday.

The total raised so far is £255.02, with a couple more donations still to be handed over. Thank you to everyone who came and bought plants and to all those who donated plants to sell. 

What an amazing amount!

There were a few plants left over which are being looked after until we do it all again on Sunday 14th of June from 11 until 1. By then we should have all got to grips with our plots and can see the gaps that need filling and what plants we have spare. There may be more tomatoes and some brassicas and other bits and pieces.

So come along and join us then!

Keith’s Legacy

Many of you will remember our long standing plot holder Keith Warwick. He had worked his plot for over 40 years and was quite a character. After his death last year his family removed what they wanted but when we went to clear the shed we discovered that there were a lot of beautifully cared for tools, with handles that have been smoothed by years of experience.

We think it would be a fitting legacy for Keith if we keep those tools in the communal shed for plot holders to borrow and use if they find they need, for example, a rake or a hoe and haven’t got one on the day. 

We’re going to mark them with red tape so that we know what is part of Keith’s collection and keep them there for people to borrow (and return!).

Manure Mining

Keith also left a wheelbarrow and we have decided that this will become the communal manure barrow. Not every plot holder has a barrow, but everyone needs manure, so if you need to excavate some manure and cart it back to your plot, please use the barrow and return it when you’ve finished with it. Manure is £5 a barrow load, please pay by bacs and use your plot number and ‘manure’ as a reference. 

(We’ll hopefully get the grass cleared from the top of the heap shortly which will make life easier)

Window Frames

The pile of window frames by the communal plot are free to anyone who can use them for cold frames etc. If they haven’t gone by the end of the month we’ll dispose of them to the tip.

Swap and Share

The system seems to be working well. The free seeds box is being well used. A gentle reminder that if anything else that you leave is still there after a fortnight then please remove and dispose of it. 

Big Blue Barrels

We have been offered a number of the large blue barrels similar to the ones located by each water tap. They make very good waterbutts and are excellent for growing carrots. They would be available for £8 each (we need to cover the transport to get them here and raise a little more for the shed).

If you are interested in one(or more) please let me know asap so I can arrange delivery.

Rubbish

A plot holder has let us know that unfortunately someone had left a load of rubbish in a container on their plot. Please remove your own rubbish to keep the site tidy.

Grass Cutting

The grass is growing apace after this bit of rain. Thank you to Mick for keeping the main paths and lawn area cut. Each plot holder is responsible for cutting the grass to the east of their plot, that is, on your right as you stand and face the sewage works.

There are lawn mowers available for you to borrow, at your own risk, in the garage. There is a list of garage keyholders on the noticeboard.

Finally…

We are nearly half way into the growing season and nearly everyone is busy on their plot. 

However, there are one or two plots which don’t seem to have had any work done on them at all yet. There are a lot of weed seeds blowing around from these plots and it isn’t helpful to your neighbours.

If one of the neglected plots is yours and there’s a good reason why you can’t keep up with things, please let us know, we may be able to help.

If you really can’t manage your plot anymore then please consider giving it up so that we can give it to someone on the waiting list.

Thank you.

Happy Gardening!

Get yourself a cup of tea and sit down comfortably, it’s going to be a long read…

It feels, some days at least, as if spring has finally arrived after a long wet winter.

It’s great to see so many plot holders down at the site, busy preparing for the upcoming season.

Preparing your plot

Now is the time to get on top of those annual weeds and turn over the soil ready for all those lovely new plants just waiting in the wings!

If you haven’t had chance to get some extra goodness on to your plot there is plenty of manure left in a big heap next to the new communal shed. It’s really good stuff, well rotted, full of worms, an excellent addition to your soil. It’s a very reasonable £5 a barrow, compared to £7 at B and Q for a smallish bag. If you do decide to get some then please pay via bacs and the NOAA bank account using your plot number as a reference and mentioning manure. All the money raised through manure sales is going towards the completion of the shed.

If you are like me, then you have ambitious planting plans for your plot, which then get lost somewhere along the way! I try to bear in mind the list that we are given by the Harrogate District Allotment Federation of the criteria that they look for when they come to look around the site prior to the allotment show in August. We’ll let you know the date nearer the time. Meanwhile it might be helpful to share some of them with you…

They look for the general tidiness of the site rather than individual plots (apart from those which are nominated in the best plot on site category), paths and hedges kept cut, accessibility to plots, diversity of crops grown – a good variety of vegetables, fruit, flowers, tidy communal areas, sustainability (eg does every plot have a waterbutt and/or a compost heap), engagement with the local community, good communication with and between plot holders, events etc etc. There are more criteria and I’ll try to find the complete list and share it well in advance of the site visit so that we can be prepared.

Seed Swap Update

Thank you to those who supported the Seed Swap earlier this year. We had planned to make it a twice yearly event but the left over seeds were put in the Swap and Share area in a weatherproof box and it is good to see that they have almost all gone. If you have spare seeds left over after planting this year please feel free to add them to the box for other people to use. There’s no obligation to add seeds to the box, it just seems like a good idea to put them to good use before they go out of date. Someone commented that they were trying something new because they’d found some ‘new to me’ seeds. Excellent!

Plant sale

We are planning to have a plant sale on Saturday the 9th of May to raise funds towards the shed completion. I have been busy sowing seeds and currently have literally hundreds of tomato plants (15 varieties and counting!) that will hopefully be ready for the sale. I will also have some vegetable and flower plants and some perennials which I have been splitting and repotting. If you will have spare plants which you are happy to donate for sale then they will be most welcome. On this occasion we are going to charge for plants to help with fundraising but generally we encourage plot holders to put spare plants in the Swap and Share area, on which note…

Swap and Share

By the garage at the main gate there is a large trolley with some plastic crates on it and round the side there are some large yellow bags. This is the Swap and Share area, where we encourage plot holders to put spare and surplus plants, seeds, produce, tools, pots etc etc for others to use. It can be really useful, my two most treasured and useful tools came from there when I first started on the site.

It is not somewhere to dump rubbish or things that are broken or don’t work in the hope that someone else will get rid of them!

In the last few weeks there have been several items left there which were really just rubbish: a broken strimmer, a propane gas canister. Items such as these are your responsibility to take to the tip. We have had a tidy up and would ask that if you put anything on the Swap and Share then you keep checking and if it is still there a fortnight after you put it there then you dispose of it, as it is unlikely to be of any use to anyone.

We are investigating the possibility of getting a shared skip for the whole site so that people can dispose of items sensibly. We’ll keep you informed when and if we manage to organise something. Thank you for your help with this.

Grass Cutting and paths

Please can we remind plot holders that they are responsible for cutting the grass path to the east of their plot (ie to the right when looking towards the sewage works).

Thank you to Mick Townsend who has been cutting the grass along the main paths and on the lawn area. He and Richard Lee have also trimmed back the hedge along the top path.

Committee Updates

Recently Gary Sibson let us know that he was giving up the job of being Membership Secretary due to the pressure of work commitments. Gary has done this job for a long time as well as having served the NOAA as Chairman. We thank him for all he has done in the past and wish him well.

I am going to hold the fort as the Membership Secretary for the time being. I can usually be found on my plot (6B, Grey shed on the top path) if needed.

Waiting List and Vacant Plots

Just to let you know that we currently have a small number of vacant quarter plots that will be offered to those on the waiting list as soon as I get the keys and associated paperwork, so that new tenants can get started this season. Rest assured they wont be left empty for long.

Contact Details and Information updates

We are trying to ensure that we have the correct, up to date contact details for each plot holder. We realise that people change their email addresses and phone numbers sometimes so please let us know if you think we might have the incorrect details.

We like to include everyone on our Google Groups email list. If you aren’t getting emails from us via the NOAA google group it might be that the invitation to join has gone into your junk/spam folder as we invite everyone who has an active email address to join. When you receive the invitation, you have to accept it. Please let us know if the system isn’t working and we’ll try to resend the invitation.

Joining the group is optional. If you’d rather not join then please say. We try not to bombard you with too many emails.

Social Media

We have both an Instagram and Facebook page – NorthOutfallHarrogate. Please check them out for updates.

Site map

To encourage us all to get to know each other we are planning to produce a plot map showing plot numbers and tenants first names only. It would only be on display inside the site to plot holders, not to the general public. Obviously this is completely optional. If you would rather not have your name included please let me know.

Communal Shed

Watch this space. We’ll keep you updated as to the next steps as soon as we finalise the plans.

First harvest of the year

We’ve already had our first harvest of rhubarb, for crumble, of course but there are so many other things that you can do with it. I’ll pop some links to other recipes below.

Rhubarb and Ginger Brulee https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/rhubarb/rhubarb-and-ginger-brulee

Rhubarb Crumble ice Cream https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/meals-and-courses/desserts/rhubarb-crumble-ice-cream

Rhubarb and orange Muffins https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/rhubarb/rhubarb-and-orange-muffins

Hairy Bikers rhubarb Chutney https://britishrecipesbook.co.uk/recipe/hairy-bikers-rhubarb-chutney-recipe/

Thank you for reading.

Happy gardening!

Judi

Come along to our Seed Swap and Share on Saturday 28th February at 10:30 on the site and find yourself some new varieties for this year.
If you have spare seeds that you’d like to share, bring them along. If they’re not in the original packet then please put them in a clearly marked envelope with growing instructions and expiry date if possible.
See you there!

I start this newsletter with some sad news to share, namely the death of Keith Warwick, who possibly was the plot holder who had been on the site for longest. I understand that he had followed his father and grandfather onto the site.

I met him when I first got my plot, nine years ago, and he told me he had been gardening on the site for the past forty years. He commented that my newly erected greenhouse was ‘the wrong way round’ and that he had the worst plot on the site, ‘Nothing ever grows’ he told me. I did wonder why he kept growing but I later discovered that this was just his very dry sense of humour.

He always said hello as he walked round the site and once told me my plot was ‘very tidy’ – I felt as if I’d won a gold medal at the Chelsea flower show!

Peter Sanderson shared another story about Keith…

When his wife was alive he used to go to allotment for a smoke. If his wife commented on the smell he used to tell her that he had been talking to Bill Lodge in his shed and Bill had been smoking.

One day Keith’s milkman called for his money and Keith happened to mention he had an allotment at the bottom of Bachelor Gardens.

The milkman said ‘So you will know Bill Lodge’ and Keith’s wife said ‘Don’t talk to me about Bill Lodge. Keith comes back from allotment stinking of his smoke.’ The milkman said ‘That’s funny, I’ve known Bill for 50 years and I never knew he smoked.’

We’re going to send farewell flowers from the allotment which will hopefully include some of the produce from his plot.

RIP Keith, you’ll be missed.

Plot planning

It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to seed orders and planning for next year. Beds are turned over, manure is spread, tools are cleaned and greenhouses and sheds are tidied.

As you may know our site is judged each year by the Harrogate District Allotment Federation (HDAF). For several years historically, we won the trophy for the best kept site in the district but we haven’t had that accolade recently. This year we were commended on several areas but we have still got some things that we can improve upon.

I thought it might be of interest to share the judging criteria so that anyone planning to have a move around, re organise or re think could possibly bear some simple things in mind to help us regain our crown!

As you can see, there are various different areas that we can all address. I’m certainly going to take a look at my plot with the criteria in mind and see what I can do to address any ‘areas for improvement’! I hope that this information might be useful.

Maintenance update

The gate at the bottom of Bachelor Road has been mended and the posts replaced as they were rotten. The main gate on the central path has been repaired and rehung so that it no longer drags along the ground.

The council have been approached to trim the hedge along the top path- watch this space!

It’s almost the time of year when we can stop mowing the grass. Many thanks to those of you who have taken a turn at mowing the communal paths, it’s much appreciated.

Communal shed

As you will have seen, great progress has been made on the construction of the communal shed which, when finished, will be a welcome space for all plot holders to use. Gary and James have done a terrific job so far.

The committee are hoping to finalise the anticipated costings to complete the work very soon, which will allow us to have a final push to raise the necessary funds needed.

Useful bits and bobs

Jobs for November

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/allotment-jobs-for-november/

https://hub.suttons.co.uk/allotment-advice/what-to-do-in-your-allotment-in-november

https://www.allotmentonline.co.uk/november

Happy gardening!