Page 22 - ALG Issue 1 2019

General
22
snippits
2018 Members Survey
Just got a plot?
Tips for new plotholders – Spring
Every quarter in this year’s magazine we will be giving new plotholders tips for starting their allotment in that season. Many plots change hands in the spring and it’s an exciting time to start growing, but when faced with an overgrown and untidy plot, where do you start?
Get it covered! Cover as much of the plot as possible with either a horticultural membrane or black plastic. Cardboard is also an option, but it does tend to blow away more easily.
Get tooled up
A basic kit would consist of spade, fork, trowel, hand-fork, hoe, watering can and secateurs. You may need shears or a strimmer if you have grass areas to keep tidy. As you get more experienced you can buy more specialised tools.
Little and often
Clear small sections at a time and do not carry out the same activity for too long if you are not used to gardening.
Stay safe
Make sure you wear strong footwear when working the soil, and your tetanus jabs are up to date.
Set up a compost heap or bin
As long as there are no seeds or roots of pernicious weeds such as bindweed, much of what you clear can be composted.
Don’t know your dandelion from your creeping buttercup? There are books and online guides available, and a comprehensive guide can be downloaded from https://horticulture.ahdb.org.uk/publication/ weed-identification-guide-revised-2016. Also, it is available as an app.
Resist the rotavator - unless you know that the soil is completely free of weed roots.
Brush up on your knowledge
Buy a book, look online, find a course, or download an app to help you plan the coming growing year. Work out a rotation plan for the plot that includes the veg that you like to eat.
Have a chat
Talk to your plot neighbours; they will know what grows well on site, may have spare seedlings, raspberry canes and rhubarb etc. and may be able to identify plants on your plot you are not sure about.
Assess the aspect
Work out how the sun tracks across your plot; this will help you decide where to plant any permanent plants such as soft fruit.
Check the soil type
Is it loam, clay, silt, sand? What’s the PH? There's lots of advice on the growing pages of our website: https://www.nsalg.org.uk/growing- advice/soil/.
Starting a plot in spring means that you can grow most things
from seed. They can be started off from mid-Feb on a windowsill or warm greenhouse. Seeds can be sown directly in to the soil from May onwards (when soil temperatures have risen).
Last but not least: be prepared to accept a failure and learn from your mistakes. Consider keeping an allotment journal to record what works and what does not.
The next issue will look at starting a plot in summer; let us know if you have any useful tips that worked for you when you started your plot. Email: diane@nsalg.org.uk
Many thanks to the hundreds of members who took the time to answer the online members survey that we undertook
in August 2018. It made interesting reading and we will
be taking all your comments in to account as we work on updating our Strategy and Business Plan.
Member benefits
We asked you to rate the benefits from most to least. It was encouraging to see how much the magazine was valued. Although only a small fraction, it was concerning that 5.3% of the people who responded to the survey had never
seen the members magazine and we are exploring ways of reaching more members with the magazine in the future.
E-newsletter distribution
If you receive the newsletter as a committee member do you pass it on to your plotholders?
We hugely appreciate the efforts of the committee members who forward the NAS e-newsletters to their affiliate members and we would love to increase the number of plotholder affiliates who benefit from the offers, information and competitions within the e-newsletters. Please consider circulating the e-news next time it arrives if you do not do so already.
Allotmenteers Liability Insurance
Are you aware that membership of the National Allotment Society would give you inclusive Allotmenteers ALI insurance that offers up to £50k liability if you are accused of accidentally causing injury or damaging property?
The new Allotmenteers Liability Insurance is a valuable benefit. So far 324 NAS member associations have taken advantage of our new inclusive ALI insurance and their plotholder members now have personal protection if they are accused of accidentally causing injury or damaging property. The benefit is worth up to £50,000 and is available to affiliate, life and individual members.
Our Values and Communication
We also asked questions that gave members the opportunity to comment on how well we communicated our values and state how they perceived the Society. An encouraging 62% of respondents saw us as supportive and 71% felt that we were informative. 47% of respondents felt that we communicated our values well. Finding ways
of improving communication with members and other stakeholders is central to our future plans. We anticipate that this will not only increase our influence (only 20% of you felt that we were influential) but also let members know about some of the work we do behind the scenes, such as working on the new garden town and village developments and talking to government, at events such as “Evidence Week” at Westminster, attended by Phil Gomersall, NAS President.
Please keep us up to date with your correct email address
Contacting members by email is becoming increasingly important in order to enable the Society to stay efficient and keep members informed; so, it is important that you contact us to tell us when committee members change, especially the main contact for NAS membership. Ideally this should be the outgoing officer or another committee member.