If you haven’t had a chance to see the notice boards, here are the shortlisted plots for Best Kept Allotment Competition 2019.
Best Kept Allotment 2019
Yes, it’s that time of year again! The annual judging for the Best Kept Allotment Competition will be taking place towards the end of this month. A small panel of committee members from each site will judge all the plots and select the best 10 plots from each site.
Plots are judged and scored as follows:
Overall condition of plot – 20 points
Good workmanship – 20 points
Quality and variety of crops grown – 30 points
Ingenuity used to improve growing conditions – 15 points
Originality of layout and planting arrangements – 15 points
The shortlisted plots will then be put forward for final judging by an independent judge in mid July and they will determine the best plot on each site.
Each site winner will receive a prize of a £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 Bryant Cup.
In addition a separate independently judged competition will select the Best Newcomer for a new tenant in their first year of cultivation. All those tenants taking on their plot after 1 May 2018 are eligible for this competition. The winner will receive the Frank Conway Cup.
Have a look at the winner of Basil Bryant Cup last year and his plot. I’m sure this will give you some inspiration.
Half Price Seed Potatoes and Onions
Seed potatoes now 50p per kilo!
After a successful start to the trading year, we only have a limited amount of seed potatoes left in stock now with many varieties having already sold out. In order to clear the remaining stock we have halved the price of the seed potatoes in the members’ shop down to 50p per Kg.
There’s still time (just) to get your seed potatoes, onions and shallots planted out so why not come to the members’ shop this Sunday (10am-12pm) to take advantage of the half price seed potatoes?
We’ve also reduced the price of the remaining onion sets by 50%, down to 20p per 200g.
If you’ve just taken on an allotment, now is a good time to prepare an area and plant some seed potatoes. It’s a good way to break up the soil AND enjoy a harvest this summer.
The members’ shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm. Click here [Link removed] to see a full list of potatoes as well as more information about each variety.
Allotments Open Day 2019
Thank you to everyone that came along to our Open Day on Saturday. Despite the initial downpour just before we were about to open, we had a successful day with two new tenancies agreed at Clothall Road and several visitors wanting to look around both sites.
We’ve had a few enquiries about getting an allotment over the last week and we are pleased to announce that we are now fully tenanted at our North Road site and have a waiting list in operation on that site.
If you’ve been thinking about getting an allotment, we still have 1 full plot and 2 half plots at Clothall Road (14/05/19).
Now that our sites are almost full we have imposed a notional boundary of approx. a 5 mile radius around Baldock for accepting new allotment tenants so that we can give priority to Baldock residents.
Click here for more information about getting an allotment.
Working Party April 2019
On Saturday 6 April, we had a working party at our North Road allotment site. It was great to see such a good turnout of members giving up their spare time. Some of the volunteers were responsible for clearing up the site by strimming the grass paths and removing weeds to make the site look tidier. We also cleared up the front of the allotment site by removing rotted wood and weeds from the raised beds.
A ramshackle old shed was taken down and another team of volunteers cleared the resulting area of bramble and other rubbish. A well-rotted-down compost area in one corner was then taken apart and spread over the ground to create a new fertile area for the tenant to grow on. The tenant was very pleased and grateful to the working party for giving her extra growing space.
Another old shed was taken down and removed from another part of the site. A lot of rubbish was removed and the contents either burnt, recycled or disposed of.
A third team worked on a plot where there was a large elder tree trunk that needed removing. It took the whole team to carry it to the bonfire! It was a job well done though and will make this plot more attractive to potential new tenants.
A big thank you to everyone that helped with the working party. These working parties are essential to keep maintenance costs for our sites as low as possible. The more work we can do ourselves, the better!
Availability of potatoes, onions and shallots 2019
After a successful few weeks of trading, we have sold out of even more varieties and have limited stock of some of our first earlies, salad potatoes and shallots. It’s not too late to buy your potatoes, onions or shallots, but as we are selling out of certain varieties, you may want to buy your favourite variety as soon as possible at the members’ shop to avoid disappointment.
We have sold out of Casablanca, but Swift is a good alternative because it produces large tubers and it’s one of the fastest maturing first early potatoes.
Setanta is a good main crop potato which you might not have tried before. It is blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and is ideal for roasting and mashing. Why not try this as your main crop potato?
We trialled pre-packed potatoes in 2.5kg bags this year and they have proved to be very successful with nearly all the bags sold. We still have Cara, Kestrel and Setanta available in pre-packed 2.5kg bags, although the Cara and Kestrel pre-packs are nearly gone.
With all the poor weather we’ve been having, it’s a great time to buy potatoes and let them chit until you’re ready to plant them out. The members’ shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm or click here to take advantage of our pre-order form to save time as your order will be ready for you on collection. Click here to see a full list of potatoes still available as well as more information about each variety.
Potatoes, Onions and Shallots Availability 2019
After a successful few weeks of trading, we have sold out of some varieties and we have limited stock with some of our first early potatoes. It’s not too late to buy your potatoes, onions or shallots. Order your potatoes as soon as you can to avoid disappointment, as some varieties are nearly sold out.
We have sold out of Golden Gourmet shallots, but we still have plenty of Red Sun shallots. Why don’t you try Red Sun shallots instead because they have a tasty distinctive flavour with red skin and will store for months.
We have sold out of Desiree and Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing.
It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm or click here to take advantage of our pre-order form. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.
Shop Update February 2019
Come and visit our development of the shop! We have installed extra shelving to improve the display of stock and to make purchasing more efficient.
To make shopping more efficient, we have pre-weighed bags of Vermiculite Fine, Vermiculite Medium, Perlite, Growmore, Fish Blood and Bone and Pelleted Chicken Manure. We have the following volumes available pre-weighed:
- Vermiculite Medium (£1.20 for 4 litres) helps retain moisture and nutrients, improve aeration and it is used to cover seeds.
- Vermiculite Fine (£1.20 for 4 litres) helps retain moisture and nutrients and aids water management of a peat-based growing media.
- Perlite (£0.80 for 4 litres) helps aeration and drainage for healthy root growth.
- Growmore (£3.00 for 3kg or £1 for 1kg) is a good fertiliser that promotes heavy crops of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
- Fish Blood and Bone (£2.10 for 3kg or £1 bag) is a traditional organic-based fertiliser. Fish Blood and Bone is good for strong growth and healthy root development. You can apply this throughout the season.
- Pelleted Chicken Manure (£1.80 for 3kg or £1 bag) is organic plant food that releases nutrients slowly.
You can get your pre-weighed bags from the shop, which is open every Sunday (during the growing season) 10am-12pm. If the volume you’re looking for is not available pre-weighed, we can weigh out your chosen amount. To see a full list of our products in the shop, please click here.
Potato Weekend 2019
Potato Weekend has proved very successful, with some varieties already sold out. We had an increase of members using the pre-order/click and collect service this year and this has been very successful because members’ orders were ready on arrival! Thank you to all of our members who took advantage of this and supported us on Potato Weekend.
Potato Weekend 2019
After successful trading over Potato Weekend, we have sold out of Abbot, Desiree, Charlotte, Rocket and Foremost. Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing. We still have the following varieties available loose at £1 per kg:
First Early Potatoes
- Arran Pilot
- Casablanca
- Colleen
- Foremost
- Lady Christl
- Swift
Second Early Potatoes
- Kestrel (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
- Wilja
Main Crop Potatoes
- Cara (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
- Maris Piper (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
- Nicola
- Picasso (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
- Setanta (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
- Vales Sovereign
It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.
Compost Sunday 2019
The traditional curtain raiser to our trading season is Compost Sunday when our members’ shop is open for members to stock up on composts and kick start their growing year.
This year we have several new composts for you, including a fully peat-free compost in response to requests from members.
The full list of what is available below.
Members will note we have two types of seed compost for this year. Kings Seeds recommend growers use seed compost in their seed trays because the fertiliser in multi-purpose compost can kill seeds.
We also have a small number of Jack’s Magic left over from last year’s stock.
The shop will be open from 10am to 12 noon.