Gardening guru in Wimbledon

Here’s a bit of a treat for budding gardeners and vegetable growers alike. On Saturday 2 October, as part of Wimbledon Bookfest, BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Toby Buckland is talking to fellow gardener and writer Andrew Fisher Tomlin about how to be a better gardener. Toby will be demonstrating some simple garden projects as part of the event.

WHEN: Saturday 2 October, 11am – 12 noon,

WHERE: Mark’s Church Hall, Wimbledon, London, SW19 7ND.

BOOKING: £6 Box Office 020 8543 4888 or book online,  : www.polkatheatre.com

PSB… as they like to call it on telly

Over the past couple of months purple sprouting broccoli has been the darling of the magazine chefs, now we’ve had our fill from the allotment as the fresh stuff is just about all gone… wasn’t it good while it lasted. The fact they were charging £8 per kilo in some of the supermarkets made it taste even better!.

Purple gold

Did you know… that Bush (Snr) was anti broccoli

• Allegedly, on March 18th 1990, President George W. Bush had broccoli banned from Air Force One. A few days later Apio Produce and the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association sent 20,000 pounds of fresh broccoli from California to the White House, to try to persuade the President to reconsider. The broccoli was donated to local food banks.

Here we go again…

It’s been a few weeks since the snow finally cleared, and now that the ground seems to of defrosted enough to get a spade into it we can get digging again. Although the broad beans took a bit of a beating from Mr Jack Frost the garlic seems to of survived, within the past week the whole allotment has ‘boiing-ed’ into life. After being somewhat confused earlier in the year, not knowing if they were coming or going, the daffs have popped their heads above the ground.

Time to get stuck in again…

You may of noticed an advert appear in the posting below – where it came from and how it got there I’ve no idea – but with a bit of tinkering I think I’ve managed to zap it and stop it appearing again.

Happy new year

Happy new year!

Hope that everyone had a fine time and is ready for some digging to work off any of that over indulgence … er… that is when the ground’s defrosted,… the rain stops and we get more than a two day window with out snow. 

Talking of , which there’s a few new pictures to look at of the plots covered in snow from earlier this month. Click on the ‘Picture’ tag at the top of the page. 

Fingers crossed, over the next few weeks we’ll get to grips with this computer merlarchy and before long have a fully functioning destination of our own out there on the world wide web. 

All the best for 2010, happy digging

I'm sure I planted the garlic here somewhere

Blighted

Sorry for baring bad news, but the tomato blight has arrived on the allotments, so if you haven’t already, I guess it’s probably best to  start spraying.

Don’t do what I did.

Not one for throwing things away, last Sunday I thought I’d check the remaineder of some Dithane that I had mixed up in a bottle in the shed from last year. After shaking the bottle the appearance seemed the same as I remembered it to be, in that milky, yellow, cloudy sort of way. So ignoring the instructions on the packet, (i.e. to use it straight away and not to store the mix) and promptly sprayed my crop (about 50-60 plants). One week later when I visited the plot today, blight had caught hold of most of my toms. I’ve removed all the infected parts, plucked a couple of hundred of green and brown toms and ripped up those plants that were worst hit.

I guess part of me cynically believed that the company who makes this stuff didn’t want you to save any from one year to the next as it would affect their sales. Big mistake. Now to mix up some fresh brew.

Merton Horticultural Show 31 August

At the AGM it was decided that we would enter an Association exhibit as this years Merton Horticultural Show. We have won the cup for the best display over the last few years so we need to keep up the good work

Anyone who has produce to spare at this time would you please liase with Annemarie or one of the Committee Members.

All produce needs to be at the shop by 1-00 pm on Sunday 30th, although we often take late flowers down on Monday morning.

 We will be having our usual Hospitality Table at the Show with a selection of drinks, wine and cheese.  All Association Members are welcome.  If you are not a Member and wish to partake in this event, please join the Association, it’s a mere £2 per annum.

 If you have not received a Merton Show brochure, we have spare copies in the shop.  There are many exhibition classes and all plot holders are invited to enter as many as possible.  The prizes are small cash prizes, but really most of us do it for the fun of the day. 

 We normally donate all of the Havelock produce to the auction at the end of the day and the proceeds are donated to the Mayor’s choice of charity.  If you do not wish to donate your produce, tell me or Annemarie when you deliver it.

Hope to see you all there. 

Hello and welcome…

Welcome to the Havelock Road Allotments blog, 

You may have to bare with us over the next few weeks as we get to grips with technology and general ‘webbery’.

To start with though heres a few pictures from around the allotments to give a flavor of the things to come.

Click on the image to enlarge, hit the ‘back’ button to return to the gallery.