Potato Competition Results (in Kg)

2021 Seed Potato & Onion Order Form

 

Still here!

Good grief!  It has been quite a year hasn’t it?  One minute we were trundling along moaning about the odd shower of rain, and then... well, we all know that things haven’t quite gone to plan for any of us.

 

Back in January/February many of you were eagerly collecting your potato orders and  some of you were signing up, cheerfully, for our annual bucket load of potatoes competition.  One or two of you might even have fallen for the persuasive charms of Kevin and his “last bucket” trick.  So, September already and this is your call to weigh in your booty.  (I have a vague sense that that might be interpreted in more than one way, but I am, of course, referring to your harvest of potatoes.)

From Sunday, we will commence the weigh in.  Unharvested buckets should be brought to the hut, and we will work with you to social distance and register your total weight.  As usual, you get to keep the potatoes, bucket and compost, and we will arrange a carefully spaced out audience to oooh and aaah, or to point and laugh.  We still don’t get out much.  10am til 12 noon, and the same again next week.  If you can’t make it, and want to,  let us know.

 

Moving on, we have now taken delivery of our autumn planting items.  Radar onions (yellow), thermidrome garlic and golden gourmet shallots.  Please note.  We have reduced the quantities that we have ordered, owing to falling sales over the past few years, so, in order to avoid disappointment, we strongly advise that you come to make any purchases as soon as possible, from 10am on Sunday.  We will not be taking any online orders, and sales will be first come, first served. 

The delivery also came with a consignment of compost: Clover and Growell  multipurpose, Growell potting and Clover peat free.

We would appreciate it if you could wear a face covering when visiting the hut, if possible.

 

And with spring just around the distant corner, we are pleased to announce that we are going to trial the Kings Seeds Kings Allotment scheme for the next season.  We will be obtaining 20 seed catalogues from the company, which members can take away and peruse.  By a given date, not yet decided, we will collate any orders and proceed from there.  If you want a preview, the Kings website is informative.  We will only be doing seeds (vegetables, flowers and herbs).  We obviously hope that this will be useful to members, and, in the absence of plant sales, we hope that this may be a bit of a fund raiser also.

 

At this time of year I inevitably recall the harvest festival hymns of my school days and have to say that, recently, we have been more than usually blessed with “the breezes and the sunshine (really?) and soft refreshing rain”...  On leaving the allotment this afternoon, a passing motorist kindly blasted me in the face with some of that soft, refreshing rain, and my runner beans and sunflowers have not entirely appreciated the breezes.  But, we have enjoyed mostly good harvests, and good health.  We cant complain!

 

Warmest wishes to you and your families, and hope to see you some time soon.

 

Debbie , on behalf of Eric, Steve and Kevin, and the wider volunteer team

Clover Multi Purpose 60L

From Sunday 14th June we now have 72 bags of 60L Clover Multi Purpose Peat Compost back in stock

£4.50 per bag or x3 for £12.00

Growbags and peat based compost

Apologies but we have a large number of pallets of the above on back order, with a shortage across the industry, with delivery not expected until next week at the EARLIEST.

Groworganic back in stock and available 10am to 12noon on Sunday 31st May @ £7.50 per bag

Sun 24th

Once again, all being well, we are planning to open the society hut on Sunday May 24th, between 10am and 12 noon.  Last week’s queuing arrangement seemed to work reasonably well and there were not too many panics.  We also had a lot of fun running around after flying seed packets...  Once again, we don’t think that we will be able to give customers browsing access to the hut, and we ask that you have a definite idea of what you are hoping to buy.

We are expecting a delivery this week, but definitely do not want any volunteers to assist this time, because of the obvious complications.  So, in addition to the dwindling stocks of seeds, compost and growbags that we were left with last week, we also hope to have:

£2.60/£1.60 Garden Jute Twine 500g/250g

£4.00 Peat Free Multi Purpose Compost 40L 

£5,50 Clover Ericaceous Compost 75L       

£6.00 Clover Decorative Bark 75L

£17.00 Perlite 100L

£30.00 Vermiculite 100L

50p/m Fleece 17g

£3.50 Doff Slug & Snail Killer 800g

£4.50 Silver Sand 20kg

£4.50 Sharp Sand 20kg

£4.50 Pea and Bean Netting 4x1.7m

Thanks to the contributions of different members, we were able to rehome various seedlings and plants last weekend, including sweet peas, courgettes, tomatoes and brassicas.  We will possibly have more plants this weekend, but if you have any surpluses that are heading for your compost bin we are sure that there will be a grower out there desperately seeking to fill gaps in their planting.

It is probable that we will try to open the hut on Sunday mornings for the next few weeks, but if the situation changes we will let you know.

Enjoy the sunshine!!!

Sunday, May 17th

All things being well, we are planning to open the allotment hut this Sunday, May 17^th, for 2 hours, between 10 am and 12 noon.    Obviously, we will be operating in accordance with government guidelines and this will shape our style of customer service! 

Because of our confined space, we will almost certainly ask you to remain outside of the hut, so, if you plan to visit, please come with a firm idea of what you are wanting, as we are not able to accommodate browsers at the moment.  You can view our normal stock items by scrolling to the bottom of our website.

At time of writing, we have various types of compost and some growbags.  For those of you who were surprised by the frost, we still have some seed potatoes, and there is a limited stock of packets of seeds left over from when we were forced to close.  At the moment, we also have most of the usual stuff like tomato feed, bamboo canes and slug pellets.  Our suppliers have advised us that they are hoping to re-open for business very shortly, so stocks may be returning to something approaching normal before long.

A few people have been enquiring about plants, and we hope to have some seedlings available for sale.  Rumours have included mention of sweet peas and tomatoes.  If you would like to join the seedling rehousing programme, we are sure that others are likely to be glad to relieve you of any surpluses.  Unfortunately, we cannot entertain the idea of a wider plant sale, as this would be likely to attract too many customers.

On a different matter, once again we have been asked to remind allotment holders that bonfires are not permitted at this time of year, and should not have been taking place at all, in any case, during this time of pandemic.  Please be considerate.  Also, you should be aware that allotment tenancies can be terminated if holders violate this instruction.

Finally, we hope that you and your loved ones have remained safe and well, and we are looking forward to seeing you very soon.   Just off, now,  to hack some t shirts to bits, in order to construct some very fetching face masks.  As you do...

Best wishes as always

Break ins and bonfires

Firstly, sadly, we have had a report of a number of instances of vandalism on parts of the Hagg Lane Allotment site. Obviously this is very upsetting for anyone affected, and we are sorry that there is nothing that we can do to help. If you do find that you have been a victim of any sort of criminal activity, we would always encourage you to report it to the police. We accept that there is probably little that can be done after the event, but it is important to make sure that crime statistics reflect what is happening.

Secondly, we have been told by the police that a number of “power tools” have been unexpectedly recovered from Hagg House Allotments, suggesting to the police that they were to be retrieved by criminals at a later date. As no one from Hagg House has laid claim to any of them, we would urge any allotment holder who might leave such tools on their plot to check that they are still there! Or, indeed, if you keep tools of this nature in a shed or outhouse at home. Again, if they have disappeared, you should inform the police.

Thirdly, bonfires. It is not illegal to have a bonfire, but the Allotment’s Office, along side many other local authorities, are asking us not to. Looking over the Rivelin Valley, it is noticeable how far smoke spreads across the city from bonfires on our site, and, indeed, across Sheffield. We are asked to be considerate to the many people who are having to stay at home, some of whom will have respiratory problems or coronavirus symptoms. As a bit of a hint, the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue website has a page entitled
I pledge not to have a garden fire during the on-going pandemic…

The weather is great at the moment! The soil is warming and weeds are bursting forth. We hope that you are well, and continue to be able to enjoy gardening. Keep in touch if it helps!

Our very best wishes

Debbie and Eric

Break ins on Hagg House and Hagg Lane Site

E-mail from our friends on Hagg House Allotment Site:-

"BREAK INS

Our site and Hagg Lane had break-ins Tuesday night, (Tuesday 8th April 2020 - full moon) and a lot of damage was done to sheds fences and gates. Please try not to store anything of value on your site, it is worth noting that shed that were not locked were not damaged. Some power tools/ property was stolen and dumped in one plot holders shed who raised the alarm.

If you own a site tripod light and its missing please let us know, I also have had a rubber mallet with a white head dumped on my site, it was used to smash the door on my shed.

The police have taken some of the property and have passed on to csi, they have also told us to call 999 if anyone sees two men in high vis jackets with a white transit van reg NJ54HWY on site. They have been spotted coming on to plots.

Please be vigilant and report anything suspicious there is a crime number so it can be linked 14/59787/20."

Sorry Closed

In the light of government guidelines, and with much regret, we have concluded that we cannot open the hut for the foreseeable future.  We are obviously very sorry about this, and hope that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible – but it is out of our hands, as you will appreciate.

Ironically, at the moment it is deemed safe for us to go to our allotments, as long as we follow all of the safety procedures, including keeping 2 metres apart from others, and especially washing hands.  Reading a sign on a gate at Marsh Lane allotments, from the Allotment Office, it is recommended that you wash your hands after handling gates and padlocks, and also when you leave your allotments.  You are asked to keep hand sanitizer on your plot.  I also noticed that we are asked not to have bonfires – which will doubtless cause many of us an enormous amount of annoyance!  Oh well.  I guess that a pile of rubbish is unlikely to kill anyone, but maybe a pall of smoke could...

We hope that you are all well and safe, and look forward to seeing you again soon.  Keep in touch if it helps!

Best wishes

Debbie and Eric

(onbehalf of the volunteer Team)

Not quite business as usual

We hope that you, and yours, are well, and continue to be well. Enough said.

For obvious reasons, we are having to consider what we can now do at the allotment hut.

Until further notice :

We will endeavour to be open for trading on Sunday morning, between 10am and 12 noon, and then weekly at the same time unless things change.

Volunteers will “man” the hut, but we will ask members to keep their distance – in fact remain outside! We will bring stuff to you, and give any assistance that we safely can, including moving compost for those who cannot do it themselves – but again asking members to keep their distance. Please do not come into the hut!!!!

If you are unable to visit this Sunday, and need items, please email us and we will try to do whatever we can to help. Or if you are housebound. No promises.

We currently hold good stocks of compost and growbags, but we do not know whether we will be receiving any further deliveries before the autumn. We also have plenty of potatoes , onions and various seeds.

We do not know if the Plant sale will take place. Some people are already growing seedlings, and it may be that in a month or so we will be in a position to sell these on. We do not know!

As volunteers, we obviously have our own concerns and responsibilities, and we request that you do not visit the hut if you are unwell, or if you are self-isolating because someone else in your household is unwell.

If you should arrive at the hut and find that we are not there, please forgive us. We will do what we can!!!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To say the least, composing this seems more than a little surreal, but hey ho(e)- interesting times. With any luck, soon we will be back to worrying about chocolate spot, verticillium wilt, blight and slugs. Oh those happy, heady days! Maybe this season will be the one where we get on top of those darned weeds, and bring home a hearty harvest! We can dream!

Stay well, and stay in touch with us by email if you wish. We will update you as and when.

Very warm and bestest wishes to you all.

Debbie and Eric (on behalf of the volunteer team

Pallets, Potatoes & Plants

Pallets of stuff will be reporting for duty on Friday, this week, as the first delivery of 2020 arrives at Hagg Hill.  In keeping with tradition, all members are invited to witness this mighty harbinger of spring, and, in deed, participate in the great unloading and re-stacking ceremony.  Eric has suggested that those wishing to demonstrate their muscle-power would be extremely welcome to join the fun at 8.45am (for 9).  Please!!!

Following all of this excitement, the second event of the day will commence.  Potatoes and oniony items will be the stars of this part of the show, and members are, again, invited to join in the ceremony, which involves unpacking and repacking, along with the odd bit of counting and weighing.  If you feel that you could be a part of this historic occasion, you are invited to join this fray from 10am.  If you have a set of scales that can easily measure 500g, you will be given priority access...!  Please!!!

In all of the above, it is hoped that the kettle will be contributing to the sense of optimism and cheer!

Depending on how we get on, on Friday, pre-ordered potatoes should be available for collection on Sunday. Normal opening hours will be operating, but we should be returning to Saturday and Sunday opening from the beginning of February.   Unsold potatoes and oniony things will be available for general sale from Sunday, also, but we recommend that you get your skates on if you have your heart set on a particular variety. 

The incredible Bucket competition will be taking place again this year.  After much careful debate, a variety of potato has been selected which is reputed to be both blight resistant and a heavy cropper, and you are invited to join in the fun (oh yes!!!) and give it a go.  Buckets from previous entries can be reused.  £3.00 for a bucket + 2 potatoes, or 50p for 2 potatoes.  The bucket and potato harvest is yours to keep.

Looking ahead to the Plant Sales, we will be scaling these back somewhat this year.  Our current thinking is that we will have just one main sale, over the weekend of May 9^th and 10^th , although any plants/seedlings that we have will obviously be available in the weeks before and after.  The current volunteer team is unable to sustain the level of commitment required to keep the sales going at previous levels – sowing, growing, pricking out and watering has become too big a task.  We will continue to grow bits and pieces ourselves, and still hope to have a reasonable selection to offer to members and to the public. In fact we would be very grateful to recruit anyone else who might be interested to do some extra growing, and would be happy to provide seeds and compost to encourage you!  You have only got to say the word, although you may get your hand bitten off!

Hope that you are well-rested after a relaxing winter... and look forward to catching up with you soon.

Best wishes for the 2020 season.

Debbie (on behalf of the volunteer team)