DIG THIS!
Newcastle Allotments Newsletter

Welcome everyone and a Happy New Gardening Year to you all.

The weather has been more wintery of late so let’s hope that the frosts we have had get rid of some of the slugs/snails and whitefly that have plagued us during the last growing season. Those of you who leave dug ground uncovered should find it nicely broken down for this years seed sowing. I cover the ground but checking recently found that the frost had penetrated despite the covers and the soil was well frosted.

AWG News

The team, including Michael Cranston, have made several visits over the last few weeks to inspect sites and give help and advice where needed. To illustrate the point have a look at the before and after photographs of the work that has been done on the Benwell site .

In an effort to overcome a flooding problem at Whinneyfield Rd a pond has been dug into which it is hoped the excess water will drain. 

Problems of vandalism and theft are an ever present and sites need to keep in touch with their local police crime prevention and community support officers. Please remember that if you have problems on your site then raise the issues with your representative. That is what they are there for and is why you elected them. The AWG has a wealth of experience and contacts and are more than willing to help wherever they can.

New Leases

Just a reminder that the new leases will be out from April this year and a major change is a 15% increase in rents. I would emphasise RENT which means the sum paid to the Council and does not include additions for water rates, NAALG membership, insurance etc. Other changes include the bonfire exclusion dates included in the leases conditions as well as a requirement to have £2m liability insurance. You never know when the high winds we are experiencing over the winter will cause some personal injury. Sad, I know, but in the present compensation climate better to be safe than sorry. Please ensure that you are aware of the rules which apply on your site. These will be a combination of the rules laid down in the lease (copies are held on each site in the form of a small booklet) and those added on your site. Because the rules are, in part,  designed to improve safety  on sites, particularly now that families with young children are becoming a feature, extra efforts are likely to follow soon to ensure that these rules are being complied with. Those who default will be evicted.

EAT Newcastle/Gateshead

We are also involved in the Eat Gateshead/Newcastle exercise when the region will present its wide range of local foods for the delectation of you all. Details of actual events will follow in due course but the AWG will do their best to provide a representation of the returns in both food and plants that we get from our plots. However, we cannot do this ourselves and we hope that we can rely on all of you to help with raw and cooked food and towards a display of plants. Come on all you budding Gordon Ramsays/Rosemary Shragers lets see what you can do. The deadline will be about the end of April because we expect to have a stall etc. during the weekend 10th/11th May. Any money made will go into the funds for the benefit of all sites.

Jobs for the Season

Waiting for the time to sow and plant can be a bit of a drag but an ideal opportunity to tidy up the plot. After all where are the slugs and snails likely to hide but in piles of rubbish. But one of the most important things is to ensure that your plot is in the best possible state ready for the rush of planting in a few weeks. Talking about that....

Growing on the Bed System

As promised in the last issue I will continue with advice I hope you find useful on growing in deep beds. If you have prepared the beds and covered the soil, as I do during the winter months, then now is the time to start adding fertilizer. This will hopefully be from an organic source such as well rotted manure, compost or sterilised chicken manure. Where you spread the fertilizer depends on what you intend to grow and it pays at this stage to draw out a rough guide of what crop is going where. Potatoes, for example, need plenty of food as do peas and beans and you can use the bulk fertilizers, like well rotted manure, on those crops. Onions benefit from an application of good, home-made, compost. According to recent research from Warwick HRI (see www2.warwick.ac.uk) this has the added benefit of providing a degree of control over onion white rot This plant disease is widespread and extremely difficult to eradicate. Plots which are to grow root vegetables can have a light covering of chicken manure but well in advance of planting as anything fresh will encourage the roots to fork. Nice to amuse the kids or show as the ugliest/strangest veg but the devil to prepare for eating.

The good bit now is that the only work you have to do is cultivate the fertilizer into the top 3 or 4 inches of soil with one of those excellent three prong cultivator tools. There are several different available and a visit to your local garden centre will give you the chance to pick one that suits you. Once that has been done, and it takes me about 15 mins to do a 4ft by 18ft bed, you replace the cover. This serves 3 purposes, to protect the bed from having the fertilizer washed out, to aid early warming of the soil and to encourage the soil bacteria in the warmed bed to convert the fertilizer into easily assimilated plant food. Steve Emsleys excellent articles on plant foods in previous issues of Dig This will give you additional information.

You can now concentrate on producing plants to put into their appropriate spots in the knowledge that the only additional work you will have to do is use a rake to produce the fine soil surface needed for seed sowing. One thing that is worth remembering is that with this system you can plant more closely than in conventional growing and get a better return. You will also find that close planting tends to suppress weed growth but remember that you will still need room to hoe between the plants. Still, more on that next time.

CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME

Contributions to this newsletter are welcome, whether they are news items about site activities or personalities, ideas, opinions or criticisms.
Contact me on 0191 2665910 email; michaelarmstrong07 'at' btinternet.com
Or Michael Cranston on 0191 2116217

The Allotments Working Group is made up of elected representatives from allotments across Newcastle and operates under the auspices of the City Council.

Webmaster, Jim Lowery: 07799 406975 for messages, or via the website email link