It's Our Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

GREEN LANE ALLOTMENTS' BLOG

It is exactly one year today since our blog was born! Can't let the day pass without a mention.
Disappointed not to have received any birthday cards though. Does it mean that no-one has remembered our birthday?

Blackberry and Apple Oaty Crumble

If like us you have lots of blackberries on your plot then try this delicious oaty blackberry and apple crumble click here

Funding Support from the Co-op

We have been successful in obtaining a Community Fund Award from the Co-op . The council have also found us some money to pay for half of the phase one part of our security fencing. This should mean that with funds already raised we can now afford to replace the main gate and the fencing to either side of it. (Let's hope the price hasn't increased too much since we obtained a quote!).

It's very encouraging to know that we can now actually start on some improvements. I would like to thank everyone who has supported us either through a donation or providing us with an affiliated link. Thanks also to those of you who have earned us commission by buying through these links. Thanks to those on site who have organised fund raising projects and also everyone who has supported them by taking part in these projects. We still have a long way to go before our project is complete so please do keep supporting us. Any new ideas for increasing our fund will be carefully considered,

Want more strawberries next year?

If you would like to increase your number of strawberry plants for more delicious fruit next year, you can do this without buying more plants. Try potting up plantlets formed along the runners that are freely produced by strawberry plants. It is advised that the last week in September is the latest that you can do this, so there is still time to have a go click here to read more.

August Photo Album

Today was a beautiful summer's day - remember those do you? Just in case the weather remembers that it's bank holiday weekend and takes a turn for the worse, I decided to make the most of the sunshine and take the August photos.

Click here to view the larger album at the bottom of the August diary page.

Who needs Ikea?

Our new al fresco dining room suite!

















This cluster of logs provides an ideal spot for us to relax with a drink, (or as today a fresh picking of greengages), between bouts of weeding and planting.
It is made from reclaimed logs left on site by a local tree surgeon. It has a double function as it also provides a habitat for minibeasts too!
A sort of designer log pile.

Gill's Blog

Gill on plots 36 and 37 (I think) has started a blog and it is already looking great - to pay it a visit click here.
Any other Green Lane plotters with their own website or blog?

Pigeons again?

Back from holiday we found that the cabbages that we had planted just before we left had been devastated again!
So how did the pigeons get under the nets that covered the newly planted brassicas?

Well they didn't - this time the culprits were caterpillars. Not just any caterpillar though as most caterpillars do no harm to crops and instead feed on nettles or other native wild plants. The culprits are the caterpillars of Large White Butterfly (on the left) and Small White Butterfly (on the right). Generally these are known as the Cabbage White butterflies.

Still on the subject of France

Just before I went on holiday Odette sent me these photos of her vegetable patch in southern France, in Wakefield's twin town of Castres.

Click here for a larger view and also to visit the web site to see more photos of Odette's garden.

If you are a visitor to our site from another region of the UK or one of the many countries from which we have visitors (see the map on the sidebar) then you too could have a page on our web site by emailing photos and a bit of explanation - in your own language if you like - to our contact email address on the sidebar. It would be great to see what gardeners are doing in other parts of the world!!

Back from the French Countryside

Wondered why nothing was happening on the web site or blog? Well just got back from a peaceful week in the Ardeche with no links to the electronic world out there! Took these two photographs of roadside vegetable gardens or jardin potager

This one was in the hills (well mountains) above Lablachere.

This was at Saint Genest be Beauzon opposite from where we were staying in a renovated olive mill built in the 1700s.

I'll post some photos on the diary page later just in case you are someone who enjoys other people's holiday snaps - promise not too many and if you don't want to look at them you needn't need you?

Photos now posted on August diary page Click here

Next Association Meeting

Date and time of next meeting:

At the April meeting of the association people asked for meetings every two months. However problems over weather and holidays meant that the last meeting was poorly attended.

The next meeting is scheduled for the end of September beginning of October. To ensure that as many people as wish to can attend the meeting could I ask you to let Sue know of your preferences for date and times and those to avoid. For instance do you want to keep meetings on a Sunday and if so at what time? Would you prefer a midweek meeting in the evening and if so what time and day? Do we want meetings less frequently over the winter months? We are open to suggestions. It is pointless having a meeting if few attend as we don’t want to make any decisions without people having the chance to have their say. Could you please contact Sue either on site of by email greenlaneallotments@hotmail.co.uk by 1 September 2007.

July diary is complete.

The July diary is now completed click here to read more and the August diary has been started click here to read more.
Maybe it should be August month of courgettes - if you have ideas for how to make use of a glut of courgettes then share them by making a comment on this post. No doubt Pat will come up with a recipe or two!!
Your ideas may be amusing rather than practical but remember children read our blog!!

Links to web sites mentioned in the comments:
Italian Taste
Chocolate Courgette Loaf

We made the local press!

We made the Wakefield Express last weekend. They published an article to support our appeal for help in funding a security fence.

Don't forget though anyone can support us without it costing a penny - just use our affiliated links click here to order from:
Harrod's Hortcultural
Thompson and Morgan
Gardening Naturally
Greenfingers

You can also order from Amazon and gain us commission click here and order by using the search box to locate the product that you wish to order or view the offers.

Every order placed via our web site earns us commission from the companies to whom we are affiliated. If you are a company and would like to support us by affiliating with us in this way please email us using the email contact link on the sidebar.

Competitions 2007

This year's competitions are:

• Largest Pumpkin
• Largest Onion
• Longest Parsnip
• Tallest open sunflower
• Best allotment wine (all to taste)
• Best allotment pickle / chutney (all to taste)
• Best scarecrow (for the kids)
• Hottest Chilli (Paul to taste)
• Heaviest tomato

• Heaviest carrot
• Longest runner bean
• Heaviest potato
• Best grass head (for the kids)

Each competition costs £1 to enter.

Each individual competition will only be run if 3 or more people enter it.

The competition is scheduled to be held on Saturday 18^th August. Is everybody happy with that date, or due to the weather we have had and its effect on the crops, do you want to move the date back into September?

Alastair is running the competitions so please either talk to Alastair as soon as possible or make a comment on this post (to ensure that comments come from plot holders on Green Lane please state your plot number in the comments).