Tag: BALGA

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BALGA Click and Collect Service May 2020

On Monday, the government announced that as of Wednesday 13 May, garden centres would be permitted to open.  To keep our members as safe as possible, we have decided to operate a click and collect service. Once you have made an order, you will be given an allocated time slot to collect your items from the shop between 10am-12pm on Sundays. Note you need to be a BALGA member to take advantage of the service.

If you would like to purchase items, please follow this process:

  1. Select the products you wish to purchase

Or click here for our price list on the shop page

  1. Email tradesec@balga-online.co.uk with the items and quantity you wish to purchase together with your name and telephone number.
  2. We will confirm your order with the total amount due, a collection time and our bank account details so you can pay for your items online. Alternatively, you can pay with the exact money using cash or cheque when you arrive at the shop.
  3. When you arrive at your designated time slot, your order will be ready for you to collect.

To keep everyone safe, please observe a social distance. If your potatoes have been affected by the frost and you wish to purchase more then we have some varieties available. Click here to see the available potatoes and onion sets.

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Successful Delivery Service April 2020

As members will be aware we trialled a delivery service in April after having to close the members’ shop as a result of government advice during the coronavirus pandemic. We are very pleased with how successful it has been. Over the last two weeks, we have had more than 60 orders worth over £1300! This astounding amount of money will benefit our association.

Members who took advantage of the delivery service were very appreciative because they were finding it difficult to source particular items at the start of this year’s growing season. We would like to thank all of the members who made an order and supported us and complied with social distancing guidance.

It’s not too late to order items from the BALGA members’ shop, but you need to be a member. Click here to read how to place an order. Please note we have sold out of the following items:

  • ALL compost except Humax and Levington M3
  • Fish blood and bone
  • 20kg bags Coarse horticultural grit

We would like to thank Stewart (Trading Secretary) for processing and delivering all the items and Janet (Treasurer) for managing the payments.

If you have any feedback or comments about the delivery service, please email tradesec@balga-online.co.uk.

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Delivery Service

Following on from the Prime Minister’s announcement on 23 March and continued government advice, the members’ shop has been temporarily closed. However as there have been several requests from members about how they may obtain items from the shop while it is closed during the current lockdown, we are now offering a delivery service to members. Note you need to be a BALGA member to take advantage of the service.

If you’re a member and would like to purchase items, please follow this process:

  1. Select the products you wish to purchase
  2. Click here to Email tradesec@balga-online.co.uk with the items and quantity you wish to purchase together with your name, address and telephone number. Make sure you order by 8pm Friday for a Sunday delivery.
  3. We will confirm your order with the total amount due and give you our bank account details so you can pay for your items
  4. Once your payment has been received, we will give you an approximate delivery time. Note we will only be delivering on Sunday mornings for now.

Deliveries can only be made to addresses in Baldock.  For members living outside Baldock, arrangements should be made with Stewart (the Trading Secretary) for convenient delivery to the member’s allotment plot or to one of our allotment site gates for Associate Members (non plot holders).

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Daffodils at North Road Allotment Site

In December, we told you that we took the few remaining daffodils bulbs left unsold at the members’ shop and planted them around the notice board and in the raised beds at our North Road Site.

They have flowered and they have certainly brightened the site up.  Have a look at some of the pictures below.

If you have daffodils on your allotment or garden, please allow them to grow until they die back. This is allows them to store energy and nutrients back into the bulb for next year’s flower. Once they have finished flowering, you can remove the flowering stem from the base to avoid diseases.

 

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Peat Free Compost

We all know that global warming is widely reported to be a growing threat to our planted, with several contributing causes identified. Amongst these is our continued use of peat as a growing medium in our horticulture, with the result that we are all being urged to use less of it or indeed eliminate its use altogether, with some institutions already doing so from next year.

BALGA now stocks two recommended types of peat free compost, the quality of which has improved considerably. Typically peat free is made from a combination of constituents in varying proportions-primarily composted green material, composted bark and wood chips and coir (the latter a bi product from coir) and loam, to which appropriate nutrients and PH control are added. Some use other alternative materials.

Of the two we stock, one is out suppliers Gro-well’s own brand, produced for them by Levingtons, and contains just bark, wood chips and coir composted and graded to a fine tilth that can be used for seed sowing. It has received good reports and costs £6.00 for a 60l bag. The other, under well known Clover brand, also contains some green material making it a little courser, but still popular and costs £4.00 for 40l. At 10p per litre for either, the cost is 20% to 25% more than peat based equivalents. So you have the choice peat based or peat free.

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Compost Sunday 2020

Our traditional shop opener of the year, Compost Sunday will be held this Sunday, 2 February, at the members’ shop in Football Close.
Come along from 10am – 12pm to get your compost for the season at considerably lower prices than garden centres.

Below is a full list of what is available.

Following on from the AGM and as a result of more demand for peat-free compost, we will be stocking new two varieties of peat-free compost this year.  One from Clover which contains green compost (40l for £4.00) and the other from Gro-well which contains bark, wood, fibre & coir (60l for £6.30). We also have a few bags left of Growise peat-free multipurpose compost which is  on sale for just £2.50.

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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.

 

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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.

Planting daffodils at North Road

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

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BALGA Christmas Tree 2019

BALGA decorated and exhibited a Christmas Tree at the annual Christmas Tree Festival in St Mary’s Church, Baldock.

Every year local schools and community organisations fill the church with festive trees and Nativity scenes. We called our Christmas tree ‘The Growing Tree’. It was decorated with fruit and vegetables, some of which had been grown on our allotments in Baldock.

The church committee wrote a card that said “our Christmas tree was inspirational and it was admired by many.” We left some leaflets out for the public to take and were pleased a fair number was taken.

Thank you to the members that donated vegetables and fruit for us to use and to St Mary’s Church for allowing us to exhibit our tree.

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