Ashford Allotments
  • WELCOME
    • About this website
  • NEWS and What's On
  • SEASONAL STUFF for this part of Kent
  • HOW DO I GET AN ALLOTMENT?
  • YOUR NEW ALLOTMENT
  • TRADING STORE and the bulk buying scheme
  • TOUR OF THE ALLOTMENT SITES
  • ADVICE AND INFORMATION
  • FRUIT & VEG A - Z gardener's notebook
  • SWAP SHOP: free stuff, stuff wanted etc
  • GROWERS CLINIC - your problems.
  • USEFUL LINKS & ADDRESSES
  • ALLOTMENT ORGANISATIONS
  • Ashford Borough Council
  • CONTACT
  • SUMMER SHOW 2015
    • Tips for showing
  • SUMMER SHOW REPORT 2014
    • SUMMER SHOW 2014
    • PRIZES FOR THE 2014 SHOW
    • "Best Plots" competition 2014
  • Other local allotments

No room for raspberries? Marshalls offer an answer.

29/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Marshalls Seeds are advertising a variety of raspberry which is grown as a clump-shaped bush with no prickles. "Glen Coe", which was new in 2011, fruits from mid-June to the end of August and has wine-purple fruits. Marshalls claim a high yield from a single bush and say the flavour is intense.

Click here to go to their page.
It ain't cheap, mind!

If this new variety lives up to the hype, it is attractive to those who have the new breed of micro-allotment currently being dished out by Ashford Borough Council. In an ideal world, ABC would assign more land to tackle the 280-odd people on the waiting list for plots, rather than subdividing plots till they are too small to be of much use. On the other hand, some people only want  small plot and would welcome a few raspberries even if they couldn't justify a whole row.

Read More
0 Comments

Christmas Arts Fair at Godinton

26/11/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureClick on the pic to go to their website.
Your last chance to see the garden, including the very lovely walled kitchen garden with its allotments, before they close everything down for the season. The Art Fair is held in the ground floor of the house so you get a sneak preview of the interior too.
29th November - 1st December, 11am - 4pm, entry free.


0 Comments

Seed varieties to look out for

25/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Even if you think you've already ordered your seeds, there's still time to add some or try a new supplier. Here's a few that might interest you . . .
D T Brown has a new courgette "Alfresco", with an improved flavour (they claim) and pale green fruits - easier to spot amongst the foliage and less likely to surprise you with an unsuspected giant marrow. Not cheap at £2.29 for 10 seeds, but it is an F1 hybrid variety, and they're always dearer. I shall be growing "Tromba" from Franchi Seeds (also available in garden centres), which is a trailer and takes up a bit more room but really did me proud this year. £1.99 for lots of seeds.
Picture
Crop from Tromba in mid September - this is what I had left after giving them away to 3 different people. And that is a giant colander, folks. I'll be growing it again, as the flavour is very good.
Asparagus after only a year? That's what Suttons are promising with new variety 'Ariane'. Well, ish. They say sow in March 2014 and harvest the first spears in August 2015, which I make 17 months. How much you get, and whether it decreases the crop you'll get the following year, is something they don't say. Good news for impatient gardeners though! Again, at £2.99 for 10 seeds, it's not cheap.
PictureNot black just very dark green
Last year Plants of distinction were offering an improved form of the 'Cavolo Nero' or "Black Kale" (it's a very dark green), specially bred for the British climate. I note it isn't on their website this year, so it looks like they've dropped it. I've always had very good results here in Kent with the ordinary "Nero di Toscana" from Tuckers, which is £1.60 for 1000 seeds, as opposed to £1.75 for 50 seeds from Plants of Distinction! This is our family's favourite kale, which tender sweet leaves and much less of that sulphurous twang which kids find so difficult to warm to. Search online and you'll find some Italian recipes using it with pasta.

Tomato Blight is always a problem in a mild, damp year. "Losetto" is a very blight-tolerant variety; it may still get blight, but will carry on cropping. A bush variety, it's available from Mr Fothergills, Nicky's Nursery, and Thompson & Morgan
0 Comments

Godinton open this weekend for charity

22/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Click on the pic to go to Godinton's 'events' page
Godinton House and Garden is having an extra opening today and tomorrow (Saturday) in aid of the typhoon appeal. Tea and cakes will be on offer in the tea room, and all money raised will go to the appeal. Support them, and get a look at the garden in its autumn colours.
0 Comments

Flooding update

22/11/2013

0 Comments

 
From Gilda.

The William Road flooding problem is now being dealt with by Helen Wilson at Streetscene (the same contact details as for the allotments.) She takes the matter very seriously and is actively pursuing a solution.
0 Comments

Your chance for 15 minutes of FAME

19/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Ashford wellbeing and mental health hub, the LiveItWell centre, are looking for someone to appear on a brief video for their website, talking about the benefits and delights of having an allotment. Their campaign is called Six Ways Of Wellbeing. Miranda will be filming and the campaign is running for a year, so there's no especial need to do it when the weather is really parky! Their website is www.liveitwell.org.uk, and they have a facebook page at http://ow.ly/qXzJu

0 Comments

Seed shed opening

18/11/2013

0 Comments

 
There is one last opening of the Seed Shed in 2013, on December 14th, 10am - 2pm.

There is still time to get, and plant, autumn onion sets "Shakespeare" and garlic "Early Purple Wight", at bargain prices.

This is also your last chance this year to stock up on fertilisers, weed-proof membrane (the stuff you can't get in the shops, but ridiculously cheap with it) and all the other goodies the seed shed has to offer.

First opening in 2014 will be January 18th. Go to the Seed Shed page (click here) for the full opening times.
0 Comments

Allotment Forum Meeting

12/11/2013

0 Comments

 
The next meeting of the Ashford Allotment Forum will be on 25th January. Items for the agenda need to be received by the Secretary by 4 weeks before the meeting, so if there is something you need to raise, think about it now and get going. You may put items forward for discussion to go on the agenda. You should initially put these forward through your allotment rep. If there is a problem with this (some sites don't have a rep), I can forward messages to the Secretary Carol Ridings through this website. Click here go to CONTACT US

Allotmentholders may attend the meeting as observers but any questions or points can only be made through your rep.

I will be asking Carole Ridings what happens in cases where there is no rep or the rep does not attend.


0 Comments

More on that flooding

12/11/2013

2 Comments

 
The water just keeps coming. Southern Water are being sadly unorganised and dismissive. Today 2 contractors came out and told our local correspondent Gilda Puckett
  • All the water filling the allotments and flooding the back gardens of 8 properties in William Road is the rain water running off from 2 back gardens on Musgrove
  • The drain under these 2 back gardens isn't blocked, and if it is it is the responsibility of the council, and anyway there is no drain under these gardens, all the water goes into drains on Musgrove.
  • The maps Southern Water have, and which they were discussing with your correspondent, are all wrong
  • The only reason the water is backing up into the back gardens is that the ditch is too silted up, so the water which is flowing out of the pipe from another drain (I wonder if that one exists?) is backing up and coming up 2-3ft higher up in those gardens. Out of a drain which is, of course, neither blocked nor collapsed.
Picture
Bring me my rifle and canoe, I'm going shooting crocodiles!
I may have got some of the details wrong but that was the gist. The good news is that two willing and resolute chaps from Landscape Services are out there right now with a mini-digger, clearing the ditch, so we'll see . . . .
Meanwhile, the
allotments still look
like this.
2 Comments

Flooding at William Road allotments

6/11/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
FROM Gilda Puckett
Today, Weds 6th, Steve Parish from the council's drainage department came to William Road allotments to assess the cause of the catastrophic flooding which has inundated plots here.
Picture
The water is running across the plots like a stream, and flowing from there into the back gardens of houses on William Road, which are badly flooded. The water finally empties into the drains at No 24, on the lady's patio!!!
The problem appears to be caused by a blocked or collapsed culvert in gardens on Musgrove, backing onto the plots.
Picture
This culvert is designed to take the rainwater runoff from the whole of Musgrove and perhaps streets beyond, via an open land drain at the back of the Co-op field, to a 2ft6in diameter storm drain under William Road. Instead, almost all this water is running across the allotments, causing considerable damage.

Steve Parish is taking the matter seriously and pursuing it with Southern Water, and is also looking into getting the surface drain on the Co-op field cleaned out. Within a short period of his visit he has confirmed Southern Water have listed the job and should have someone investigating within the next few days. I will post progress reports on this page as I receive them.

It is very disappointing that, due to staff sickness and leave, the department which deals with allotments has not been able to send anyone out to actually see the scale of the problem.

1 Comment
<<Previous

    This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
    All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.

    Use the CONTACT box or click on the envelope at the top of the page to send us an item you'd like to see on our news page. Use "Add Comment" to comment on a news item.
    Or email the compiler at ashfordallotments@
    yahoo.co.uk

    Categories

    All
    Allotment Tourism
    Ashford Borough Council
    Beans
    Charities
    Competitions
    Composting
    Courses
    Crime Prevention
    Crop Protection
    Derelict Allotment Sites
    Diseases
    Flooding
    French Beans
    Fruit Bushes
    Garlic
    GROWING TIPS
    Health And Safety
    Leeks
    Machinery
    Men In Sheds
    New Fruit Varieties
    Onions
    Peas
    Pest Control
    Potatoes
    Produce Shows
    Propagating
    Recycling
    Requests For Help
    Rubbish
    Seed Orders
    Seed Potatoes
    Seeds And Plants
    Shallots
    Silly Season
    Site Problems
    Special Events
    Special Offers
    Summer Show
    Tools
    Trading Store
    Volunteering
    Water Problems
    Weather Report
    Weed Problems

    Archives

    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.