We’ll be gathering at the allotment tonight, 5-7pm. Next week we’ll move to the usual time of 2pm, though if the weather’s good we’ll definitely be there beyond 5pm…
We’re also planning a harvest festival (provisional date: Wednesday 14th October). We need help moving equipment, devising games, beautifying the plot, baking cakes, those kind of things… if anyone would like to help with this please let us know.
Hopefully see you later!
Tomorrow we’ll be harvesting potatoes! The plants have succumbed to blight, so must be removed. We could leave the potatoes themselves under the soil but may as well remove them as we have plenty of potato sacks to store them in and can then re-sow the bed with Phacelia (our green manure of choice). The harvest looks like it will be a good one. See photo below for an indication: all that came from one plant!
See you tomorrow (5-7pm)!
A word and some pictures from our very own Chris:
Greetings fellow allotmenteers,
The last few weeks have seen a resurgence of weeds, so we’ll have to knock them back. But we can also start removing old plants and continuing with our green manuring (growing plants at the end of the season to fix nutrients into the soil and protect it from harsh winter weather), not to mention harvesting the wealth of plants that are ready to eat. Speaking of which, here’s a photo-taster of things that are ready, including the first of our tomatoes, onions and garlic (hung up to dry), (more) courgettes, and even our first aubergine! (which admittedly looks a bit weird)
mulch love xx
In the light of this upcoming new academic year, we uncovered this gem for you! Our friend Robbie Foulston made this beautiful video a couple of years ago. **Music by the talented Lewis Smith**
We have a shed load of events coming up, so do keep your eyes peeled… maybe another Harvest Festival…?!
Hello dear Greeners,
This week the e-mail will be kept fairly short, as we got most of the announcements out of the way last week.
To give you an update on what we did last week:
Firstly, we were very happy to see some new faces. Thank you for helping with planting, weeding, and strimming and we hope you enjoyed being exposed to some of the allotmadness.
I know, you won’t believe it, but our beloved Sean actually improved the deck area at the streameven more, by building some proper steps. Now it’s almost entirely safe to take a hike to the stream. Chapeau!
At the end of the day (well, “session” in this case) we had a box full of lettuce and some mushrooms (Edible or not? That is the question.) and many memorable experiences (like I said, t’was a slightly unusual session).
Lastly, for those of you who are into that sort of thing, we found the biggest worm: thicker than a pen and of considerable length – guess we provide them with a very nurturing environment…
Now, for this week, don’t forget that we are hosting the very first allotigong session on Wednesday at 3:30PM. It’s scheduled to run until 5PM, but depending on your stamina, you might feel the urge to keep on qi-gonging past that time. It’s £3 and will be a great opportunity to experience something new while really getting in touch with your body. But more about that on Wednesday. Of course, also join us as usual for our gardening session starting at 2PM – the plants are growing quickly so there’s lots to do.
If you haven’t signed up for the allotment trip in Week 10, do so now (you know you want it, don’t waste any time ;)! It will be great fun and a unique experience – hence, a wonderful way to start your summer holiday! This is the link: https://docs.google.com/…/1m23Wx-6XTjEpRibZKIPzmqnFc2…/edit…
Lastly, if you visit the allotment on your own outside of the Wednesday sessions, please don’t forget to close the cold-frames, the polytunnel doors and to lock the shed before you leave!
See you on Wednesday (don’t forget to bring a bag or a box for some veggies and herbs – mint and lemonbalm are doing wonderfully and are great in teas!)
Best,
Society of Allotmenteers
*Please don’t ask what Ben is doing in this photo. He took most of these wonderful pictures, so the little idiosyncrasies shall be forgiven. (:
Dear Perennial Pals,
We hope your term three is going smoothly! Why not drop down to the allotment some time for a little session (Wednesdays 2-4 PM)?
We have quite a few things to cover this week in terms of what’s happening in the next couple of weeks, with our allotment trip coming up and the conference I mentioned last time. So here goes…
In terms of what happened last week:
1) We bought a strimmer! You might want to turn your head sidways on this one… I haven’t figured out how to rotate pictures yet!
As Health and Safety officer, I give this guy a 4 out of 10. Good effort on the saftey goggles, but perhaps actually wearing them would be a little more within the regulations…
2) Because we bought a stimmer, we now need to lock the shed! and the lock combination is 911… (ACAB though).
3) We re-potted the aubergines, hot peppers and sweet pepper! and we look just about as a hot as the chilli peppers……..
4) Turns out Ben’s Qigong patience pays off… because aubergine and pepper seedlings have an **extremly** gentle stem which you must avoid touching or pulling when you are repotting them. According to our master gardener (and now foraging expert (you know who you are)), it is much less harmful to take them by the dicotyledon (the two little leaves that aren’t actually part of the plant but that help the plant grow straight and balanced).
5) Again, don’t forget to bring a bag and take some salad from the polytunnel! It’s going to seed pretty fast so hurry hurry!
Ok, glad we agree, Chris with a secateur is a tad scary
All the above photos were taken by our favourite Ondrej! 🙂
Cool, we’re all caught up! Now a few announcements:
A) ALLOTMENT ROAD TRIP!!!! Here’s a message from Chris, who’s been kind enough to organise –>
“It’s been a fairly long time coming but we now have provisional dates for the allotment trip. They are: Tuesday June 23rd to Friday 26th.
The trip is free and open to everyone – no matter how (in)frequently you’ve been down to the allotment. The plan is to visit three growing projects in the South West (Somerset and Devon) of high agroecological and political significance. The plan as it stands is to leave Tuesday, stay the night with Tinkers Bubble (a pioneering agricultural commune in Somerset) work the following day with them, then drive down to Devon to Landmatters Permaculture Project. We will stay that night with them and then do another day of communal tasks before either wild camping or staying another night with them (depending on the mood). Finally we will visit Martin Crawford’s forest garden before driving back home on Friday afternoon/evening.
More details to come but the trip is basically free, all you need is a bit of food, sleeping bag and roll matt (we’ll work out tents between us closer to the time).
Sign up for a slot space on the minibus here: https://docs.google.com/…/1m23Wx-6XTjEpRibZKIPzmqnFc2…/edit… ”
B) Student Eats Conference in Lancaster
As mentioned in the last email, there’s a Student Eats conference happening in Leicester on the 3rd of June. Due to our membership to Student Eats, we are able to attend completely free of charge (well, appart from the transportation)! If you’re interested in the conference, message me (a.villanueva@warwick.ac.uk) and I will give you the registration code. You can Register here. I’m thinking of going! Would be nice to have someone to go with!
C) Camie is organising a STOP FOOD WASTE Photo Competition!
Here’s a message from her:
“Do you feel outraged about the ridiculous amounts of food being wasted on our campus? And do you feel powerless facing the general indifference of Warwick food outlets? If you or your friends work at one of the Warwick campus outlets or if you just happen to witness food being needlessly wasted, please inbox us photos and we will publish them on the page for you, in order to make the posts anonymous. In the past, we have heard of entire trays of uneaten canapés from Warwick Conferences simply being thrown away as well as whole boxes of unopened sandwiches from Rootes Grocery Store being wasted. We ultimately want to show the scale of waste on campus so as to approach Warwick Retail and Warwick Conferences with more strength in our argument that something seriously needs to be done about this issue. We are also offering a prize of a ‘freegan’ lunch made from fresh produce which could has been rescued, delivered straight to the library during your revisions, for THE person who sends us the most impressive photo.”
Click below if you want to check it out!
https://www.facebook.com/STOPFOODWASTEWARWICKUNI
Anywhoooo,
See you soon, hopefully! Remember, you are always welcome to drop by the allotment any time you wish!
Little reminder that we meet every Wednesdays from 2 to 4 PM.
Mulch Love,
Allotment exec xxx
Dear chlorophriends,
Here is a little email of what we’ve been up to this week….
But first, let’s start off with some interesting gardening tips regarding the month of May.
Keeping all of this in mind, let’s look at this week in photos.
1) We now have a functional (and frankly quite beautiful) stairway to the stream! The stream is a marvelous resource for us (though it is obviously much more than a resource and exists on its own terms). It is where we get most of our water. Tricky thing is that the path to it becomes a bit of a slipperly mud slide once you’ve taken a few trips down with a leaky watering can…Sean did a marvelous job. He’d been there for a couple of hours before the session, crafting these beautiful little steps! Come take a look for yourself. For now, here’s a picture.
2) We planted some brassicae beauties outside! All sorts, even the crazy fractal kind (Romanesco Cabbage).
3) We found a vole! I didnt know what a vole was until now. Apparently it’s a stocky mouse…. bit of a cross between a rat and a hamster. I can’t be bothered to find a picture but look it up if you wish.
4) The reason we found a vole was because we were looking for netting. The vole was hanging out in our net box. We put nets up to protect our brassicaes and our frosty squash babies from pigeons. In the brassicae bed, we also tried a new technique which consists of covering the earth with cut grass (a process called mulching). This will hopefully nourish them as the grass decomposes, but will also keep a layer of moisture in the soil. The reason we were skeptical about using this technique in the past was because there was a possibility that it would invite unwanted sluggish visitors. Luckily, this is one of the beds in which we introduced the nematodes, so no slugs there. **note** We don’t look very happy in this picture but I promise we are a happy bunch.
5) We had TWO bonfires since the last email! That’s right two. We’re a busy, smokey bunch… I’ve been noticing firewood smells around uni from allotmenteers who havent washed their jackets. There’s truly nothing better!
6) We built another pretty reed scultpture/ installation. Inspired by Carla’s first one, we decided to make another one. Only to find that the reeds we had were very short. So we built a tunnel for shorter people (sorry Ondrej…) Here’s a picture of David passing on his positive energies into the installation. 🙂
7) Last but not least, let’s take a look at the watering rota! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yCce0fZI59xK9uGPIKCt5mOgLOf7hoTlSUmbghgARG8/edit#gid=243782648
It would be really really nice to have two people doing the job together if possible, as it is quite a heavy duty job! Don’t forget to water the outside garden too, if it hasn’t rained! And not just the beds… Don’t forget the borders!
That’s all folks!
Well actually no, here’s a picture of some of us working hard at brassica planting…. who’s that in the background you ask? That’s just our creepy scarecrow!
All the pictures were taken by our own lovely Chris M. (apart from the crazy daffodil guy, who came from the internet). As always feel free to join us! We meet on Wednesdays from 2 to 4PM (though these days we tend to stay till 5 because the weather is just too good not to!)
Here’s a map to our allotment:
Mulch love,
Allotment exec xxx
Hello hello phytophilous friends,
Here’s a little email going over the few things we talked about last session and a quick update on allotment life.
1) The nematodes have been unleashed. We rehydrated the nematode eggs in water and let these litte voracious babies loose into the soil. Hopefully this means no more slugs. ***NOTE*** this is organic, perfectly safe for humans and other living creatures apart from…well… the slugs. (Poor sluggies 😥 apprently not everyone enjoys the sweet, slimey company of these adorable gastropods…)
Here’s what nematods look like, in case you wondered:
And here’s a cuter version, to get that image out of your head:
2) Watering season is upon us! As you’ve probably (not) noticed, it getting warmer and warmer (or supposed to). This means that the soil is getting dry faster. Ideally, we would have someone water every day. In order to keep tab, here is the new watering rota document:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yCce0fZI59xK9uGPIKCt5mOgLOf7hoTlSUmbghgARG8/edit?usp=sharing
Please sign up if you think you can make a weekly commitment to watering. Reminder: watering is most useful either in the morning when the plants wake up and the sun is not too hot, or in the evening as the air gets cooler and the moisture stays in the ground. Also, make sure you don’t just wet the surface. Stick your finger in the soil and if it is dry underneath the layer of wet, you might want to add another can’s worth of water.
3) Bonfire Night! On the 30th of April, it is Walpurgis Night also called Witches’ Night, a Czech celebration. The weather for Thursday is looking pretty good, somewhat cloudy but no rain! Probably worth czeching out…
We will keep you updated if the plan goes forward. 🙂
4) Feel free to help yourself to some salad and radishes when you come down to water or hang out!
(Photo courtesy: Yara Photography)
5) Come check out our new dock/pier. Sean and Ondrej have been working on a new, very useful construction, allowing us to fill up our watering cans WITHOUT necessarily having to take a bath in the stream. Makes watering slightly less refreshing but a lot easier. 🙂
Mulch love,
Allotment exec xxx
Warwick Allotment Society 
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