Allotment plots in Baldock
Baldock honey will also be on sale.
Compost Sunday and Potato Weekend 2022 were very successful events. We received nearly £170 on both days on Potato Weekend. Thank you to the members who supported us by buying compost or potatoes.
We had over 30 members take advantage of our pre-order service. We hoped that it saved you time because you didn’t need to wait for your potatoes to be packed. Thank you to all those members who made an order through the pre-ordering system. If you’d like to make an order, please click here. The potatoes are selling out fast, and it’s better to get your favourite varieties sooner rather than later because we have already sold out of Charlotte. A good alternative salad crop would be Nadine, which is currently in stock.
Just to let you know, the red onion sets have now arrived, but the white onion sets should be delivered in a couple of weeks. So we will keep you updated.
Compost Sunday will be on 30 January 2022 from 10 am to 12 pm at the BALGA Members’ Shop. You will see below, we have a selection of different types of compost including peat-free compost. 
If you need any large bags (20-25kg) of fertiliser (particularly chicken manure), please can you contact Stuart (tradesec@balga-online.co.uk). This will allow us to order in plenty of time.
We would usually start the season with Compost Sunday at the BALGA Members’ Shop. However, due to COVID-19, we are offering a delivery service for BALGA members on our latest compost that has just arrived (please see below).
We are in a limited supply of Humax Multipurpose 60l because they are reformulating it to create a peat-free compost. If this is one of your favourite types of compost to use, then we recommend you make an order as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. However, Gro-well Multipurpose 60l at £5.00 makes a good alternative because it’s similar in quality.
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).
We are now offering a delivery service to members for the following available types of compost:
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).
Since starting the delivery service and then the click and collect service, we have had many orders and it has been a successful couple of months trading. Last week, our shop was starting to look quite empty with most products selling out.
Fortunately, as you can see from the pictures above, we have had a delivery from our supplier and our shop is now fully stocked! This is great news as compost is selling out of shops quite fast and our products are considerably cheaper than garden centre prices!
Click here if you are a member and you’d like to make an order.
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.
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.
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.