Page 63 - ALG Issue 1 2020
P. 63

                                                                                                                                            South West
Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset
REPRESENTATIVE
Mr Neil Dixon
12 Flamstead Crescent, Kings Tamerton, Plymouth PL5 2AX 01752 363379 neildixon@blueyonder.co.uk
Wales
All counties of Wales
REPRESENTATIVE
Judith Hill
07724993310 or 02920 758080
MENTOR
Allan Cavill
South West 07748178964 allan.cavill2@gmail.com
MENTOR
Peter Ryan
Wales
0845 564 1881 pryan.nas@gmail.com
  Welcome to our new members...
Best of Tricks Association Shepton Mallet Town Council Plymouth City Council
10 individual members
     Want to see more from your Region?
Send your articles to natsoc@nsalg.org.uk
     Welcome to our new members...
Cambrian Road Allotment Association Cold Bath Road Allotments Association
4 individual members
     Communal water supply
Maesycoed Allotments Association
Maesycoed Allotments Association in Pontypridd has no running water and therefore relies heavily on individual members harvesting their water by use of water butts etc. However, following a hot and dry 2018, there was an obvious need to improve/expand our allotment site’s communal water supply for the benefit
of all members. Following an onsite meeting
in July 2019 with Mr D Gough (Water Efficiency Manager) for Welsh Water, I worked with Welsh Water to organise delivery of 10 Slim Line Water butts, each with a capacity of 100 litres.
Our allotments, like many in the South Wales Valleys, are on a hilly slope, so it was decided
to set up these water butts at the top of our allotment. One of the images shows the completed project, with two banks of five water butts alongside the IBC container with sheeting and guttering for harvesting water. Once the IBC container is full, it will automatically overflow into a water butt which will be linked via hoses to each water butt, hence maintaining the level of each.
The completed project
  Happy harvest time in Beaumaris
Anyone venturing onto the allotment site in Beaumaris recently could have mistaken it for France with boxes
of grapes being piled up ready for transport to the winery.
Having had a reasonably good growing year, vineyard owner Keevan Anker was ably assisted by fellow plotholders, Rick Keeves and Bill Hopkin, in picking this year’s harvest. With a final yield
of 108kg of Seyval Blanc white grapes and 48kg of Regent Red grapes, Keevan loaded up and set off to Halfpenny Green Vineyards near Telford where
the white grapes will be made into “Beaumaris bubbles” using the “methode champenoise” and the red
grapes made into rose. If last year’s vintage was anything to go by, Keevan’s wines will be very popular. In addition, he makes cassis and also has cider made from the apples from the tree on his wife’s plot.
Not to be outdone, Bill & Joan Hopkin harvested their bumper crop of hops. Unfortunately, to the disappointment
of many, they are not using them to produce ale but to be dried and made into hop pillows. All these are in addition to the bountiful harvest that all the hard-working plotholders have reaped recently. Their efforts will be recognised at the Baafta (Beaumaris annual awards for the allotments) evening.
Bill & Joan Hopkin with their harvest of hops
  Rick Keeves and Bill Hopkin assist grape grower Keevan Anker with his crop
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 63






















































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