LITTLE MOOR ALLOTMENTS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER SPRING 2012

This letter should also be regarded as the invoice for your rents which are now due following the AGM of the Association which was held on January 11th.  IF YOU HAVE GIVEN UP, OR INTEND GIVING UP, PLEASE LET THE SECRETARY KNOW TO AVOID UNNECESSARY PAPERWORK AND RENT CHASING!  Rents are the same as last year, and we’re still the cheapest rents in the area by far.

Rent charges have been removed in this public version

Rents should be sent to Mrs A Tavroges, 2 Little Dene, Lodore Road, High West Jesmond, NE2  3NZ, or given to any committee member. Please note, Mrs Tavroges does NOT live at 2 Lodore Road -  Little Dene is the block of flats OPPOSITE that address! Cheques payable to Little Moor Allotments Association
AND PLEASE WRITE YOUR PLOT NUMBER AND NAME ON THE REVERSE  The name is necessary because not all cheques we receive come from the named plot holder’s account!
Note also the extremely generous discounts for prompt payment which would be greatly appreciated.

If you’re a new starter in the last two/three months, ignore this demand, but DO reply so I can check your e-mail details are correct. Our message to all new starters is, ’Get the plot dug over before the end of March, you’ll be doing yourself and the plot a big favour!

DIARY DATES 2012

March 24/25th
Kick-Start Weekend.  A chance for everyone to get involved in clearing rubbish from their own plots, picking up litter, helping to tidy the site generally, painting sheds  etc – and getting to know each other

August 25/26th      
Sunflower and Marrow Competition  , free entry.

The committee hold monthly site inspections from February, weather permitting. There are still a few plots on this site where cultivation is either spasmodic or non existent. Our lease is only held on condition that the plots are kept in good order and used productively. This can include flowers as well as vegetables, but large amounts of grass are not desirable. Sheds and greenhouses need to be in good order. Rubbish needs to be removed, the quantities of broken glass and old window frames on some plots needs to be seen to be believed. Take it home or put it in bags in the tip areas.

Please support the organisation once again this year by buying your supplies from the trading hut, and using the seed scheme in the autumn. We still think you can’t beat our prices virtually anywhere else in the area. As a service to those who didn’t get their finger out in time and buy seeds from the catalogue in the Autumn, the shop will stock from February a fair selection of seeds from the same supplier, but be quick, they may not last long! The shop is open on a regular basis on Saturdays between 10.00 and 11.00am during March to June, and on Sundays between 10am and noon from February to October, and between 10.30 and 11.30am during November, December and January. What we would like to see is a regular stream of volunteers to help in the shop on a Saturday and Sunday morning. The intention is to have a highly trained committee member on with a volunteer each week. If you think you could spare two hours once a year (or more often) get in touch with Jim Lowery (tel 245 1542  - Plot 65 ) or turn up at the trading hut on a Sunday and put your name down.. If you have any surplus carrier bags, please bring them along to the hut on Sundays. If you have any surplus produce or plants, please leave outside the trading hut. Try and grow an extra tray or so of plants for the hut when you grow your own. Leave outside the hut or put in the polytunnel and they’ll be well cared for.

The more stringent restrictions on the dates when fires are allowed imposed by the Council still apply, no burning will be allowed after March 31st or before November 1st on pain of losing the plot. Members on the East side are requested not to dump garden rubbish under the hedgerows along the fence beside Moorfield.

We have no empty plots and a waiting list of forty at the moment so if you have any friends or neighbours who may want an allotment, it would pay them to get their name on the waiting list sooner rather than later. There is also plenty of room to grow a few flowers to brighten up our lives, and at least one of our gardeners grows absolutely nothing else.  The grass cutters are incredibly quick and easy to use, and cost only £3 per go! You can get the machines during shop opening hours. 

Once again I also re-iterate the committee’s request for members to take easily portable rubbish home and put it in their wheelie bins which have enormous capacity. We have a ‘voluntary’ arrangement with the local Rapid Response Team who look in to the site during the year and remove any rubbish they find in the tips. This is a goodwill agreement so don’t take the mick by dumping all your rubbish on site, take it home! AND DON’T BRING IT FROM HOME TO THE ALLOTMENTS AS SOME DO!

The Committee have decided to continue to fund the manure supplies from the profits from the shop.. If manure appears at a gate near you, help yourself. Don’t be greedy and take as much as you can, spare a thought for those who might want some but can’t get there on the day it arrives. Let ‘Little and Often’ be your watchword!