Welcome to the Spring Growing Season!
If you haven’t been on your plot recently, do go and clear some weeds away to make room for the good stuff!
The Council’s new Allotment Rules recommend that you have third-party liability insurance for your plot. Your FLAG membership already includes this. If you haven’t already joined, this is another reason!
Mulching Material. On site we have obtained several piles of Autumn leaves and various Wood Chippings (we are still getting new deliveries at both ends of the site). Please use these on your plot, we may well have another hot Summer and the more mulching you do, the better! And it saves watering.
We hope to source some manure again this Spring. Does anybody have any good contacts?
Rubbish. Council contractors have removed the six bags of non-compostable rubbish, after we reminded them again. Please DON’T dump non-compostable rubbish on site, take it away. Please DO put your burnable debris on the bonfire – rotten wood, raspberry canes, dead fruit bushes, tree prunings etc. They would take forever to rot down, but bonfire ash is useful fertiliser (and quick and free!). Your real soft green compostable stuff needs to be thrown as far back on the heap as you can, to let it settle peacefully there.
Saturday 30th March 10am: Working party - Clubhouse roofing repair - Nigel is in charge. Please let him know at gale.nigel@gmail.com if you will be there; it needs about four people to make it easy.
Saturday 27th April 10am: Working Party and Bonfire. Jobs will be: first, shift woody debris from around the site, move burnable material from the top of the Green waste pile, plus other small tasks as we identify them. Then burn it.
Ken Kenward of plot 45 has asked FLAG to keep an eye on his plot as he is ill at the moment. We will clear some weeds and put cardboard down on his plot – the full end plot by the garage end driveway. Meanwhile, if you find any big cardboard pieces please put them on the end of plot 45 in advance.
BBQ will be Sunday July 14th, 12 – 3 as usual. Put it in your diaries! Thanks to Brian for organising it again.
Petrol Tool use. FLAG has several petrol-powered tools available for members to use. Brian Songhurst is our tool monitor who looks after the steel shed contents. If you want to use a petrol mower or strimmer or rotavator, please contact Brian directly. He will make sure you understand how to use the tool properly.
Vandalism. We have had one recent visit where some butts were overturned. If you see any vandalism DO report it to the police (101) and tell us as well, Anne Macdonald or Brian Songhurst particularly.
St Albans Events https://sustainablestalbans.org/ has the full programme. Sustain19 is three weeks of interesting and relevant events around town starting May 11th . The printed listing will be available from a market stall or the City Hall. In particular Cottonmill and Redbourn allotments both have Open days on May 12th starting at 11am. Go and see what other people’s sites look like and how they do it!
This will also extend to the St Albans Open Food Garden, their programme will run through to October – people open their house’s gardens to show how they grow vegetables and fruit etc. All are fine examples of what you can do, often in small spaces.
Offers.
There is a spare shed frame sitting on plot 31E (next to the club house). If you are interested in taking it away please talk to Richard Cloutman on plot 32.
Does your shed need painting? Bob Grover on plot 57 has a spare half tin of brown colour (left over from his own shed) that would do several coats.
Wickes is selling off all its seed packets at 10p each. It might be worth dropping in if you drive past.