Page 32 - ALG Issue 1 2019

General
Opening your allotment site with the National Garden Scheme
I am a keen visitor of gardens with the National Garden Scheme (NGS). They’re lovely to see, full of ideas, interesting people, and it’s a very civilised way to spend your time.
Our once yearly open day at our allotment site had not been going well. It used up an awful lot of effort for very little reward; it was poorly attended, with very few volunteers coming forward to help. We couldn’t find the winning formula of what to offer visitors or how to engage the plotholders.
I noticed that some NGS counties
opened allotments as a part of their choice of gardens to visit. I suggested to the committee we do the same. That was five years ago, and we have opened once a year with the NGS ever since. It is an extremely rewarding and positive experience for all those involved, including the visitors!
The NGS is not a gardening charity as many people think, but a nursing charity that began life in 1927 as part of the Queens Nursing Institute, (QNI). A woman called Elsie Wagg, who sat on the council of the QNI, suggested one way of raising funds for the charity would be to get her wealthy friends to open their gardens to the paying public. The charge was a shilling, and in that first year they made £8,000.
It was an instant success, and by 1932 the first guide to open gardens in the country was published. This guide is now known
as the yellow book and has been published every year since.
The NGS became an independent charity in 1980, and since that time has been able to increase the amount of beneficiaries’ money goes to. It’s important to note not
all nurses are funded by the Government. Many nurses such as Macmillan or Marie Curie, or those employed within hospices, are reliant either partly or wholly on charitable donations. These are examples of just a few of the nursing charities that benefit from the funds given by the NGS.
If you are thinking of opening your allotment site with the NGS, why don’t
you look in the yellow book or on the NGS app to see if there are already allotments open with them in your county, or a nearby county, and contact them to see what their experience has been?
Contact the county organiser. Their name can be found in the yellow book, the county booklets, or the NGS website. They will want to come and inspect your site. This is not nearly as formal or daunting as it sounds. They’re looking for 30-45 minutes of interest, and on an allotment site what we take for granted could be very interesting to visitors. They will want to walk around your site and see it through the eyes of a visitor.
NGS visitors like to be able to buy a cup of tea or coffee, and a slice of homemade cake. We are lucky on our site as we
have electricity and mains water, so we can provide a ‘pop up’ café. We also sell plants and have a produce stall. We open in September, the traditional harvest time, and showing off the produce we grow is an important part of the day. At our last open day, 3 weeks ago, we attracted approximately 160 visitors.
We have, up to now, always been
lucky with the weather and of course that cannot be underestimated in terms of visitor numbers and the experience of the day. However, NGS visitors are a hardy lot, and even on the worst of days, visitors are nearly always guaranteed. Thanks to using the NGS publicity machine, our open day has appeared on BBC radio Leicester and East Midlands Today, the local BBC news programme. The visitors who come are interested in gardens and gardening. They ask interesting questions, and can engage with plotholders, hopefully increasing the feeling amongst those onsite of being a part of a gardening community.
I am a nurse, and I can see first-hand how the money raised through the NGS is spent. 80p in every £1 given goes towards providing invaluable nursing care in our hospitals, hospices and in our communities. Why not be part of that and think about opening your site with the NGS?
Sharon Maher, BSc (Hons) RGN and Booklet Co-ordinator for Leicestershire and Rutland
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe
Chickweed, speedwell, bittercress, herb robert and meadow grass are all annual weeds that can be dealt with by the well-timed use of your hoe. On my plot it also deals with the pollinator-attracting poached egg plant that sometimes gets a little out of control, and will also remove seedlings of perennial weeds. If you look out for them when they are small seedlings, they can be killed with little effort, maybe 2 or 3 sessions in the spring. Looking closely at your beds also means that you may see other things that need your attention.
Hoeing also loosens the surface of the soil, creating a 'dust mulch' that reduces surface evaporation and conserves moisture.
There are several different types of hoe:
• The Dutch Hoe; this has a wide head and is used with a push pull action
• The Weeder Hoe has V shaped notches at the back that pull out thicker weeds with
the roots attached
• The Swoe is a light push/pull tool that is useful in hard to reach areas
• The Swan Neck Hoe skims below soil level and is ideal for breaking up soil, weeding
or cultivating
• The short-handled Onion Hoe is useful for getting in to tight spaces.
Established perennial weeds will need digging or trowelling out and can be smothered with mulch to reduce their vigour.
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