Look at this beautiful image of a sunset at Clothall Road taken by a North Road tenant’s (Melody) daughter.
BHS Autumn Show 2023
Baldock Horticultural Society is again holding its members’ Autumn Show on Wednesday 20th September at Brandles School in Weston Way. As last year, BALGA members are invited to exhibit entries with schedules listing various classes of veg, fruit and flowers available in our Members’ Shop, on the Baldock Horticultural Society website. It is all a bit of fun and an opportunity to take pride in what you have grown. Let’s again, see some BALGA members entering and perhaps winning!
Mick (Chairman)
Best Kept Competition 2023 – The Results
Third time lucky, and the final round of judging for this year’s Best Kept Allotment competition took place at the beginning of August. We had to postpone it twice due to the poor weather. Two independent judges scored the 21 shortlisted plots for Best Plot Overall and the shortlisted 6 plots for Best Newcomer 2024. The judges had a difficult task this year as it was a closely fought contest.
Adam H (CR47B) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Plot at Clothall Road. Stephen D (NR39) scored the most points at North Road and is the best plot at North Road. Congratulations to Adam H, who scored the most points overall and will be awarded the Basil Byrant Cup. Winners will receive a £25 voucher to use at the Members’ Shop. Presentations will be made at the 2023 AGM.
Here are the results for the newcomers. Lesley F (CR37A) scored the most points at Clothall Road and is the Best Newcomer at Clothall Road. Terry and Melody M (NR24) scored the most points at North Road and both are the Best Newcomer at North Road. Lesley will be awarded the Frank Conway Cup and Terry and Melody will be awarded the John Gray Cup at the 2024 AGM. In addition, the best Newcomers will receive a £10 gift.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. The pictures of the winning plots can be found in this article, and bigger versions on the website. Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for next year!
Raised Beds
The Baldock Rotary Club needed some space to start some trees for the new woodland in Baldock. We didn’t have any plots available to help them, but we did have some raised beds that needed repair. Once they had removed all of their trees, they repaired all of the raised beds, so we can now let them to prospective tenants.
The raised beds are ideal for those with mobility challenges or a disability. They are elevated, making it easier to reach and tend to plants.
If you are interested in a raised bed, please fill out this form here.
Best Kept Competition 2023
The first stage of judging is now complete and the plots at Clothall Road and North Road which have been shortlisted are as follows:
The final round of judging will take place at the end of July.
If you’d like to see more information about the Best Kept Competition, please click her.e.
Good luck everyone!
Water usage
Watering helps to keep our plants alive but not necessarily to thrive as they would with decent rains. Water use on both sites has obviously increased considerably but I remind you of some steps that can help ‘stem the flow’.
- Ideally water early morning or late evening
- Concentrate on crops that really need water – those newly sown or planted and top up when needed.
- Mulch around plants to help prevent evaporation
- Dig a hole a spade’s width and depth, fill it with manure or other organic matter, place a little soil on top, and water well before planting out tomatoes, courgettes etc., similarly, a trench for beans etc., leaving a shallow depression around plants to keep the water where it is needed.
- Overwatering can be counterproductive. Plants can become lazy spreading their roots near the surface where watering supplies them rather down to find moisture to make a stronger root system and plant.
- When watering is necessary, better to give a soaking once a week rather than a dribble each day.
Affinity Water recently sent an email to inform us that they’re seeing above-average water use. They pleading customers to use less water to reduce the demand to make sure there’s enough water for essential use throughout the summer period. They advised customers to use a watering can to water plants instead of a hose saving 80 litres of water at a time.
Best Kept Competition 2023
Yes, it’s that time of year again! The annual judging for Best Kept Competition will be taking place in June. A small panel of committee members from each site will judge all plots and select the best 10 plots from each site. These selected plots will then be put forward for final judging by independent judges in mid-July who will determine the best plot on each site. Each site winner will receive a prize of £25 voucher to be spent at the Members’ Shop. Of these two, the plot gaining the most points will be declared the overall winner and the tenant awarded the Basil Byrant Cup.
In addition, a separate independently judged competition will select two Best Newcomers. One from North Road and one from Clothall Road. These awards are for new tenants that started from 1 May 2022 – 30 April 2023. Each Best Newcomer will receive a prize of £25 voucher to be spent at the Members’ Shop. The winner of the Clothall Road site will be awarded the Frank Conway cup and the winner of the North Road site will be awarded the John Gray cup.
Take some inspiration from the previous plot winners in the pictures below.
Price List 2023
The price list has been removed from the website and will be re-published soon to make sure you have access to the latest prices. Thank you for your patience with this and apologies for any inconvenience.
BALGA Quiz
We will host a quiz night on Friday 14 April at 7.30 pm at the Baldock Community Centre with popular local quizmaster, Pete Dilley. Tickets can be bought from the Community Centre or BALGA Members’ Shop. Tickets are £5 per person and teams of up to 6 are invited.
BALGA AGM 2023
We hosted our Annual General Meeting on 23 January 2023 at the Community Centre in Baldock. Along with formal business, we heard reports from various committee members about the work we have completed last year.
The winners of the Best Kept Allotment Competition were awarded their certificate and trophy by Counsellor Muir and Counsellor Willoughby. Please see the pictures below of the tenants receiving their certificate, trophy, and gift voucher for the Members’ Shop
David (above), was awarded the Basil Byrant Cup and £25 voucher. Stephen and Ray were joint Best Kept Winners at North Road. Unfortunately, Stephen was unable to attend the AGM, so Ray, pictured above left was presented with a certificate and £12.50 gift voucher. For Best Newcomers, John was presented with the Frank Conway cup. Cesar (pictured above right) received the John Gray Cup. Both newcomers received £10 gift voucher for the Members’ Shop.