Watering your Plot

Who would have thought after such a wet winter that we would now be so desperate for rain? 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 of you on 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 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.

Mick (Chairman)

January 9, 2020December 17, 2020

Kings Seeds’ Orders

The Kings Seeds orders arrived in late December. All individual member orders are collated by some of the committee into one big order which is placed with Kings Seeds under their allotment association seed scheme. When the seed packets arrive they need laying out and checking to make sure the order is correct; no mean feat as the images show!

The seed packets are then sorted so that each individual member’s order is filled. Members can then collect their orders from the chairman.

Being able to take advantage of the Kings Seeds scheme is one of the benefits of being a member of BALGA; the prices of the seeds are considerably less than you would find in a garden centre and are also lower than Kings Seeds regular seed catalogue. Members can easily save the cost of their annual membership through their seed orders alone.

Membership to BALGA is open to all; you don’t have to have an allotment to be a member of the association. We usually place a second bulk order after our AGM each year so any new or existing members who haven’t placed an order yet can still do so. Catalogues will be available for collection at the AGM on 20 January.

January 7, 2020August 16, 2020

Daffodils at North Road 2020

The last few remaining daffodils bulbs left unsold from the members’ shop were planted around the notice board and in the raised beds at our North Road Site in December. Hopefully they will make a lovely display of colour in the spring!

We planted the daffodils about 4 inches deep, or double the size of the bulb, and about 4 inches apart. Daffodils can stand some crowding, but it’s best to keep them at least 3 inches apart. Planting daffodils too shallow will cause floppy stems that will break in the wind and too deep will cause the bulb to not flower or surface.

We will show you the flowering bulbs in Spring and I’m sure they will brighten the allotment site up.

October 22, 2019

Organic Growing

I started to garden organically when I had my first plot in 1972. I was inspired by buying a copy of the book ‘Grow your Own Fruit and Vegetables’ by Laurence D Hills. Laurence was the founder of The Henry Doubleday Research Institute, which is now known as Garden Organic.

The great advantage of organic growing to me is that I know there are no herbicide or pesticide residues in the food I grow. I do, of course get bug and fungus attacks, but by and large nature sorts these out with a little help. I grow comfrey and use this to make a liquid feed. This is the only fertiliser I use for tomatoes etc. I do use chicken manure pellets, as well as horse manure and homemade compost. If I have serious bug infestation, I use garlic spray, click here to find out more.

Generally, I do not use fungicide. I used to use Bordeaux Mixture, but that is no longer accepted as organic, except by French wine growers! My only exception is when potting up and planting out courgette and squash plants, as they are susceptible to damping off, a fungus issue. However, my solution is just to water well with fresh tap water, which has just enough chlorine in it to kill the fungus.

There is plenty more information as well as tips and advice on organic gardening on the Garden Organic website.

I also belong to the Heritage Seed Library, part of Garden Organic, and have been saving seeds for many years. Some seeds, like peas and tomatoes are easy to save because they do not cross. Others, like squashes cross readily, so you are never sure what will grow from saved seed. I always have surplus tomato seeds, so if any BALGA member wants to try a heritage variety, click here to send me an email.

Phil Charsley (General Secretary)

September 13, 2019March 31, 2020

BALGA Open Day 2019

Thank you to everyone who came to our Open Day at Tapps Garden Centre on 17 August. It was good to see so many members coming along again.

A good number of seed catalogues were handed out to members. Taking advantage of buying seeds in the Kings Seeds’ catalogue is a great way for members to save money on their seed purchases for next year. If you haven’t got your catalogue yet, you can pick one up every Sunday morning during September and October at the members’ shop in Football Close.
Click here for more information on national seed scheme from King Seeds.

We also had a couple of people seeking plots and their names have been added to the waiting list. We had a number of displays showing our work this year and a possible expansion on North Road allotment site. With the increasing demand for allotments and waiting list, we will be exploring this possible expansion.

Once again, thank you to everyone that came to our Open Day. If you have any ideas for next year, please email publicity@balga-online.co.uk

August 8, 2019December 17, 2020

Best Kept Allotment 2019 Winners

The final round of judging for this year’s Best Kept Allotment competition took place in mid July; a difficult task for this year’s independent judges, especially for the Best Newcomer award which was a closely fought contest. We’ve had some new tenants on both sites in the last year who have made supreme efforts, not only in clearing their plots but also in the planting they have done.

The winner of this year’s Best Newcomer is Andy Cawley at Clothall Road and he will be awarded the Frank Conway Cup at the AGM in January together with a voucher for the members’ shop of £10.

The standard of plots being judged for the Best Kept Allotment was high as usual with Pete Thompson aka Tommo being judged the best plot at North Road and John Johnson the best plot at Clothall Road. As he scored the most points, John was judged to be the best plot overall and he will be awarded the Basil Bryant Cup at the AGM. Both site winners will each receive a £25 voucher for the members’ shop

Congratulations to the winners and all those shortlisted in what has been a bit of a stop/start year.

Joanna

July 1, 2019February 22, 2020

Plant Christmas Potatoes

If you fancy serving new potatoes up with your Christmas dinner, now is a good time to plant seed potatoes, and even more so as our remaining seed potato stock is now half price at only 50p per kilo!

There is no need to chit the seed potatoes because they will grow rapidly in the warm soil. They will be ready from September/October but you can leave them in the ground until Christmas Day. Make sure you earth up in October after the first frosts to protect them from any further hard frosts. I tried it last year with great success and I know Mick (Chairman) does it each year. It’s a great way to enjoy fresh potatoes on Christmas day!

Why not try a blight resistant variety such as Setanta. It is blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and is ideal for roasting and mashing. The table below shows our available varieties.

Seed potatoes are currently half price at £0.50 per kg. You may have pulled up onions and garlic and this a great way to fill the empty space.

June 28, 2019June 28, 2019

Blightwatch

Did you know you can register with a website called Blightwatch and it will send you alerts when weather conditions increase the chance of blight on your crops? You can choose up to ten postcode areas to cover the surrounding areas and registration is free.

BALGA received an email alert this morning advising that a Hutton Period Alert was affecting a nearby postcode. Visit the Blightwatch website for more information.

June 23, 2019April 16, 2020

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.

The 2018 Best Kept Allotment winner receiving his prize from Chairman, Mick Camp (left)

Wonderful display on the Best Kept Allotment 2018

May 25, 2019April 1, 2020

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.