working party | Baldock Allotment Association

April 9, 2019February 22, 2020

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!

April 1, 2018April 16, 2020

Spring Working Party

We were finally able to hold the spring working party at Clothall Road on Good Friday, having previously had to postpone the work from St Patrick’s Day, when it snowed all day!

It was good to see such a good turnout of BALGA members and the saying ‘Many hands make light work’ ran true as we had cleared rubbish off the various plots that we were working on within an hour.

We recently had a delivery of wood chip delivered to both sites and this was also used to repair some of the paths

We can now arrange for these vacant plots to be let to people on the waiting list and the site will be fully let again.

A big thank you to all the members who came alone and helped.

December 11, 2017December 21, 2020

Autumn Working Parties – Part Two

The second working party this autumn was held at the Clare Crescent site in Baldock where we had planted seed potatoes on the last cultivated plot at this site in the spring. This site is still managed by North Herts District Council.

A very loose experiment was run to see which half of it would produce the more tubers with half the plot being ridged up in the traditional way and the second half just dropping the seed potatoes in holes.

Although hardly scientific, the ridged half of the plot produced the best yield by a long way with very little being harvested from the non-ridged part. In fact it was more like trying to find where the rows of potatoes were on this half! Underground tree roots may have had something to do with it too though…

Surplus potatoes from the plot are being donated to Baldock’s Community Centre to help feed those in need this Christmas.

We’d love to have more volunteers help on working parties. They are a great way of building camaraderie and giving something back to the allotment association. The more we can do by members volunteering, the more money we can save from having to call experts in to do work which we could have done ourselves. ‘Banked’ volunteer hours are also used when applying for grants for future improvement work to our sites.

So keep an eye out for the next working parties and come and join in!

December 11, 2017April 16, 2020

Autumn Working Parties – Part One

Autumn is always a good time for BALGA to organise working parties to help clear vacant plots. Tenant members have less to do on their plots and as the plots themselves wind down for the winter, it is easier to work on any that are overgrown.

The first working party this autumn was at our North Road site where a dedicated band of volunteers worked on three vacant plots that needed rubbish removing from them as well as a lot of elder, bramble and other tree branches which needing cutting down and removing. It was a bitterly cold day but it didn’t take long to warm up.

The first plot in particular had a couple of large elder trees growing in one corner.

The second plot had branches from an ash tree blocking one end. Unfortunately there is only so much that can be done with loppers and saws without needing to get professional tree surgeons in here.

The final plot that was worked on had a massive bramble covering the back of the plot. This was cut back gradually to leave a clear space.

All in all a good lot of work done by a dedicated few in a matter of hours and hopefully three more plots looking more appealing to prospective tenants.