New product - the HotBin
Click here to go to their website
New product - the HotBin The HotBin is a new product which aims to retain the heat caused by bacterial action, running the heap at 40-60degC even during winter. This will, we're told, turn out the kind of compost you'd wait years for in 3 months or less. If you have a small allotment, or want to have a discreet compost heap in your garden, the HotBin would be worth considering. It can take food waste as well as garden stuff, and is equipped with a biofilter and an airtight lid, so no nasty niffs to give away what it's up to. Unlike traditional composters, it can go on a paved surface. But . . . cheap it ain't!
Click here to go to their website
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Don't forget to check out the recipes section, with seasonal recipes added regularly to make the most of what you grow. Why not send in your favourite recipe and we'll put it in for you?
Click here to go to recipes, or scroll down the lost of contents on the left. Make a note on your calendar for August 23rd, the date of the Summer Show. Super prizes have already started rolling in from our carefully chosen garden companies - and more are promised.
Make this the year YOU enter - the prizes will be enough to tempt even the most diffident. There is now a new page for the Summer Show (look on the menu on the lefthand side) and deatils of the prizes will be going on there soon. Every family which has an allotment is equal when it comes to the show; it doesn't matter whether you've had an allotment for 30 years or 3 months, your chance of winning is the same. Even the most expert gardeners meet with frustrations from the weather, while absolute beginners sometimes have the most marvelous quality stuff. This is Kent, folks - we don't go in for fanaticism, just jolly good fun. So for a show with a friendly village atmosphere and lots to win, make that date in your diary - August 23rd. Click here to go to the "Summer Show" page with more details of the classes and prizes. Still available from the Trading Store The next opening of the Trading Store is April 19th, Easter Saturday. It is bound to be busy and if you can spare two hours from 10 to 12 to volunteer please come along - it's great fun and you'll be helping everyone.
There are still some SEED POTATOES left - a modest choice of varieties, so if you're all behindhand, you still have a chance to catch up. A few onion sets - red - are available and there is still time to plant. If you have a small allotment, buy just a few! Shallots can go in till the end of April and there are still some golden shallots at the Trading Store to buy by weight - as few or as many as you like. This is the ideal time of year to tackle the weeds on a neglected corner of your plot; you can use a glyphosate weedkiller now, as soon as the weeds turn yellow you can strip them off or dig them in, knowing the roots are killed and the soil ready to plant with no harmful after-effects. You can fork over or rotovate the soil and it will be ready to sow runner beans, french beans, late peas, or plant out courgettes or tomatoes. No need to sweat and strain, let glyphosate do the hard work for you. A bottle of concentrate which, diluted down, is enough to clear a whole plot, is just £4.95 from the Trading Store! For more about using weedkiller, click here! Allotments snuggled under Wells cathedral at the back of the Bishop's Palace; water source, natural springs! Between the allotments you see here, and the cathedral behind, are the 'wells' which give the town its name. Natural springs surge from the ground, filling clear pools and spilling over to flow into the moat. The amount of water is about the same as in the Stour; enough for them to run a hydro-electric generator off it powering all the needs of the precinct. The water also flows into a 'dipping pool' from which the plotholders can fill their watering cans.
The allotments are about the same size as the plots being allocated in Ashford these days, and most are immaculate. The soil is an enviable silty loam. Fruit trees are clearly allowed and some of them are quite old and gnarled. Close-trimmed grass paths criss-cross the site, which is bounded by a post-and-rail fence on two sides, opening onto the Palalce grounds - on the other two sides, by the medieval stone wall of the precinct. Jealous, me??? |
This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
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