Hurry - Onions and Potatoes now in stock!

2025 Seed Potato & Onion Order Form

 

Mr Fothergill seed prices

 

Potatoes - (or hope springs eternal...)

No beating about the bush, this email heralds the arrival of the potatoes, onions, shallots and stuff.  To celebrate this momentous date in the calendar, we will be throwing open the doors of the hut at the usual time on Sunday for the collection of pre-orders, and for those last-minute impulse purchases.  Yet again, we have reduced our quantities, so we would encourage you not to delay visiting if you missed the order form - or were completely baffled by it...  We are aware that there were some issues, but such are the hazards of a owning a grumpy, uncooperative, out-dated computer. 

 

The hut dwellers have enjoyed the winter Sunday mornings, huddled around the wood-burner, but we are now girding our loins for what will surely be a sunny and fruitful 2024 season.  I mean, can the weather get any more interesting?  The wet weather has certainly put a damper on any optimistically planned autumnal clear-ups, but I guess that the weeds will be raring to go and the slugs will be revving up their engines as soon as a ray of sunshine penetrates the gloom.  Yay!

 

We will continue to operate on Sunday mornings throughout the season, and we are currently well stocked with most items, including varieties of compost and growbags, seeds, netting, canes etc.  Normal trading hours are 10 - 12, although we may be open a little later during busy periods.  At the moment we do not have plans to open on Saturdays, but will happily discuss volunteer openings if you are up for it, Saturdays or Sundays.  

 

So!  Come on down to collect your orders, or swoop in on the remaining stocks!  We will be pleased to see you, although maybe I was a bit rash in claiming that we will be throwing open the doors.  In these chilly, draughty times I suspect that we will continue to (loudly) encourage members to close the door behind them!  Also, if you wish to purchase seeds via the Kings Seeds Scheme you have until the end of January to panic buy.  Let me know quickly if you are hoping to order and claim your 50% discount.

 

Happy New Year to one and all!

Keep your eyes peeled...

I’ve run out of potato puns, but suffice to say that this email heralds the beginning of our new season.  As well as alerting you to the exciting news that the potato delivery has taken place this week, it also includes important news about :

Seeds

Break ins, hedging and gates

Volunteering opportunities and opening hours

Poly tunnel growing space

Plant (ish) sale

 

Yes!  The potatoes and oniony items have arrived and orders will be available to collect from Sunday January 29th between 10am and 1pm (as opposed to our normal 10 -12 noon). We would ask you to collect them sooner rather than later;  we are always concerned about possible deterioration in wintry conditions.  If you did not place an order, there will still be some varieties available, although it is worth noting that we are scaling back on our total order year on year, as demand decreases.

 

The Kings Seeds orders have also landed, and are available to collect.  We achieved our target of £200 and enjoyed the benefit of half price seeds! Yay!  Additionally, we have a good selection of seeds at the Hut, although these are not quite as generously discounted!!!

 

Unfortunately, our allotment site has had more unwelcome visitors during December and January, and if you only visit your plot occasionally during the winter months it would probably be worth popping by to check that everything is ok.  There are frequent reports of the security gates being left unlocked and even wide open, and this is obviously frustrating to allotment holders who are more vigilant. PLEASE close and lock gates responsibly, and consider if there is anything that you can safely do if you see anything suspicious. As far as your own plot is concerned, the society has had a kind donation of some pots of hawthorn whips which are intended for use on the Hagg Lane allotment site in order to fill any gaps in hedging.  Please come to the hut if you would be interested in using some of these.  Free!

 

Changing the subject completely, do you think that you might be able to help us?  It has been a long road, and we are just about getting back to normal , but we are aware that the personal circumstances of members the volunteer team are ever changing, and we’re not always able to give the time that we used to in the past.  Obviously we have reduced our opening hours, although we are aware that some members would be pleased to see us open on Saturdays as well as Sunday, if it was practical.  If you are at all interested in helping, please get in touch, or pop in for a chat.  You will find us a motley crew - some more motley than others – but we do our best to be friendly and hospitable!  In the short term... we are hoping to get some working parties together in March.  Amongst other things, the society polytunnel needs a complete overhaul, and we need both brains and muscle to help dig trenches and do battle with a new cover.  Expressions of interest, please! 

 

And then...once the polytunnel is back in working order, we hope to offer growing space to people who could make use of it.  We’re open to discussion!

 

And then...last year we had many enquiries about the return of a plant sale, and lots of people called in looking for seedlings.  We know that we cannot undertake a plant sale on the scale that we used to, but we would like to be able to offer something in its place.  Anybody got any ideas?!

 

Well, that’s it for now!  We hope that you’re looking forward to the warm spring sunshine, hosepipes at the ready! 

Potato & Onion Order Form

 

Ne'er-do-wells

Unfortunately we have received reports of multiple break-ins and acts of vandalism on the Hagg Lane allotment site.  We always encourage victims of such crimes to report the event to the police because, whilst it is unlikely that anything can be done to find the culprits, it is helpful to the police to keep tabs on where crimes are committed, and to maintain realistic statistics.

If you haven’t been to your plot recently, it might be a good idea to check for damage and losses, and it is obviously helpful to keep the site gates locked, even when you are on site.

Hope that all is well with you.

Feeling chipper, half baked or making a hash of it....

The allotment year is already trundling onwards, and we are pleased to let you know that potatoes, garlic and onions have now arrived at the Hut.  Once again, our order has been reduced to reflect the quantities purchased over the last few years, and there have also been a number of crop failures to throw in.  If you have pre-ordered, please come to collect your stuff as soon as possible – we always get nervous about potential frost or rodent damage the longer they are left with us.  If you haven’t pre-ordered, and are hoping to drop by to make a purchase, we suggest that you don’t hang about!

 

We have also received the seed order from Kings, and our seed merchandiser in the Hut is freshly stocked.

 

We are still opening on Sunday mornings only, between 10 and 12 ish, working with a reduced volunteer team.  Apologies if this causes any frustration.  Please contact us directly if our current opening hours makes it impossible for you to visit, and we will do our best to help.  Obviously, we are trying to operate as safely as we can, and would ask visitors to the hut to wear a mask, and to use common sense if there seems to be a bottleneck! 

 

Look forward to seeing you soon.  Happy New Year!!!

 

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

Order! Order!

 ... (or so they say in the shambles that is our system of democracy...)

 

So, this long and eagerly awaited email is to remind you that it is not time to rest on your growing laurels.  Instead, you will undoubtedly be tidying away the last of this year’s triumphs in the vegetable patch, putting your beds to ... er ... bed and already planning how you will increase your yields and defeat the aphid army, in a totally environmentally friendly manner.

 

Firstly: Technology permitting, next year’s Potato Order form.  Once again we have reduced the total quantities of stuff that we are ordering, to try to match the demands of the past few years.  With this in mind, we would seriously urge you to pre-order as soon as possible in order to secure your preferences, although we will probably still be able to offer some for sale in February.  If you want, you can email your order to us, or visit us at the hut on a Sunday morning.  Onions, garlic, shallots etc are also on the list.  Ooooh, and there is a rumour that the ever-popular bucket/potato competition will be making a return.

 

Secondly: The Kings Seed order will be being placed on November 15^th, or thereabouts.  For a handling fee of £1.30, we hope to be able to offer members a discount of 50% off vegetable, herb and flower seeds, assuming that our order totals more than £200 altogether.  Your order needs to be submitted by ourselves in order to qualify and, again, you can email this to us, or beat a path to the hut.  We can build a little bit of flexibility into the date, but don’t want to repeat the excitement that we lived through earlier this year.  Please let us know if you are running late AND please contact us if you do not receive acknowledgement of your order within 14 days of sending it to us. 

 

Thirdly: We have had a delivery of Peat Free Compost this week -  Bloom and Gro Organic Peat Free 40L. It is new to the market!

 

Finally, it has been lovely to see an increasing number of visitors to the hut, and to meet new allotment holders from both near and further afield.  We look forward to seeing you sometime soon, and socially distanced cups of tea are on offer once more,

 

Get them orders in!

 

 

Seed Potato Order Form

 

It has been sow long

 Autumn planting onions and garlic

These were available to purchase from the hut from Sunday, September 12^th. Because of the unpredictability of the numbers of customers that we are getting, once again we have only placed a small order.  I’m sure that you will appreciate that we need to cover our costs and it is always a tricky balancing act making sure that we are not left with unsold perishable items.

The hut is currently open from around 10am until 12 noon. Sunday.  As usual, cash only.

 

Kings Seeds Allotment Scheme

In spite of the large amount of unwanted tension and excitement earlier this year, we are proposing to repeat our participation in this scheme again for the 2022 season! (If you partook in this rollercoaster ride of seed buying, you will understand where I’m coming from!) Kings Seeds offer a good range of very reasonably priced vegetable, herb and flower seeds, and give allotment societies a generous discount. If we collate a seed order between us that is worth more than £200 we will be able to pass on to you a 50% discount, give or take a £1.30 handling fee.  At the moment we only have one real paper catalogue between us, but I can obtain more if there is interest.  You can also view their full range on their website.

If you do decide to dip your toe in this lily pond of opportunity, please note that we are bringing forward the ordering date to November 15^th , so that we can breathe during January, February and March.... we will not be able to guarantee any discount after November 15^th .

If you would like more details as to how to order, please email or call at the hut, remembering that we will need to place your order on your behalf. 

 

Volunteers

Our team is now very much at skeleton level!  If you would like to put on weight by sharing some cake, and burn it off again immediately by heaving compost around, please make yourself known to us!

 

Compost

We now , once again, have Clover, Growell and John Innes composts, but have not been able to secure any deliveries of Peat Free Compost to date, because of both production and transportation issues.  We are aware that many gardeners are trying to avoid the use of peat, and we will be getting peat free compost as soon as we are able.

Compost Pricing Update

Please find below recent update from our main supplier:-

"Just to add a little more to this year’s challenge, the worst peat harvest in Northern Europe for 15 years, very heavy and dense peat, Environmental Legislation vastly reducing the amount of peat available in the Republic of Ireland and the global interruption of supply of coir, horticultural textiles and plant pots caused by the pandemic will result in us all going to have a roller coaster of a year"

 Compost Manufacturing Update

"Clover. Clover has stopped manufacturing Clover 75ltr Multi-purpose, 3 & 4 plant gro-bags and bales of peat. This is down to the weight/density of the peat and conserving peat socks for professional products. This situation is likely to continue until they can harvest some dry peat in hopefully June/July.  The 60ltr Clover Multi Purpose are still available.

Gro-Well. Due to the lack of availability of quality, fresh water washed coir, we have replaced the coir element in our multi purpose with Fibagro, a Professional Woodfibre Substrate.

This product will appear in a natural form because it is an unnecessary process to dye it brown. The advantages of Fibagro are that reduces nutrient leaching, provides an excellent nutrient base for good rooting and improved water holding capacity.

 

Price Increases

Nobody likes price increases but in the current climate they were going to happen. Unfortunately, the days of quality, cheap compost are over. We have kept increases to a minimum but cannot guarantee that these prices will not have to increase again as the cost of transport, manufacturing under Covid secure conditions and the availability of raw materials start to be reviewed by the manufacturers across the world"

Potato and Onion Orders

All orders are available for socially distanced collection tomorrow between 10am and 12 noon.

Update

In the light of the current lockdown, the hut will remain closed for the next few weeks.

If things go to plan, depending on the weather, and on our suppliers, we expect potatoes to be delivered during the last week of January.  With this in mind, we will ask anyone who has ordered potatoes (and other items) to collect them from us on the weekend following their arrival – probably either January 23rd or January 30th.  Once we know for certain, we will let you know, and will provide details as to exactly how and at what time we would like you to fetch them.

We are aware that there are often members who have not pre-ordered, and who would normally pop in to buy off the shelf!  I am sure that you will appreciate the possible difficulties with this, this year.  As soon as we know what surplus stocks we have, we will email out again, and work out some sort of system for making them available to those who want them.

Similarly, if you have ordered seeds through the Kings Seeds scheme we will contact you directly as soon as they have arrived with collection, or delivery details!

 

On this rather cold, dreary and damp day in January, summer days seem like an awful long way in the future.  Once again, it seems very unlikely that we will be able to stage a full-scale plant sale in May, but we are trying to work out if there are other ways in which we could possibly match up plants with people. Suggestions welcome!

 

Needless to say, we continue to hope that you, and your loved ones, are safe and well, and wish you a Very Happy New Year!

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