Page 54 - ALG Issue 1 2020

East Midlands
Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland
Stokes Wood Allotment Composting Demonstration Site
The Composting Demonstration site at Stokes Wood Allotment has now been operating for almost a year, during which time a wide range of compost bins suitable for home and allotment composting have been brought into use.
The Stokes Wood Allotment plot offers one of the largest displays of working composting bins, plant food and compost tea makers in the East Midlands. With an adjacent pavilion/ meeting room, refreshment facilities and outside breakaway area with a permanent gazebo, the allotment site provides an ideal venue for composting workshops, talks and awareness training for allotment plotholders, allotment societies, garden clubs, schools and householders. At the entrance to the plot, a bank of pallet bins is used for community composting for garden waste produced on the site reducing the need for bonfires and waste being sent to landfill.
There is a wide range of composters for home use, including ‘Daleks’, Compost Master, a beehive composter, tumbler bins – including a large Mantis tumbler – and a homemade barrel bin. There are also a range of compost bins suitable for composting cooked food as well as other organic waste. These include two Hotbins, a Jorra tumbler, a Green Johana and a Green Cone. The site also has a range of wormeries including stacking, single chamber and dog poo wormeries, plus demonstrations on making liquid plant feeds and compost tea – including aerate compost tea, as well as soaking systems for perennial weeds.
During 2020 it is proposed to introduce pilot programmes providing basic composting awareness training for householders, as well as more detailed training and certification for composters providing a wide range of techniques and skills, offering societies the option of having a Compost Mentor on their sites to encourage composting and reduce waste being burnt or sent to landfill.
Northampton Allotment Network Annual Pumpkin Competition 2019
Judy Odley, Association Secretary, Harlestone Road Allotments
For many years the Northampton Allotment Network (NAN) have held an annual pumpkin competition, normally on the Sunday prior to Halloween. Any site in Northampton that is part of the Network can enter.
For the past four years the competition has been held at Harlestone Road Allotments in Northampton.
This year’s competition was held on Sunday 27th October 2019. The
categories for the Competition were Heaviest Pumpkin, which has to be grown on the Allotment from which it is entered. This year’s pumpkin weighed in at 94lb.
There were also two best carved categories, one for adults and one for children.
The past two years has seen a decline in interest in the Competition, and, although there was not a lot of attendance this year, fun was still had by all that did attend.
54 Allotment and Leisure Gardener