Page 55 - ALG Issue 4 2023

South West
Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset
REPRESENTATIVE
Mark Joynes
01884 243559 mjoynes.nas@gmail.com
DEPUTY REP/MENTOR
Allan Cavill
07748178964 allan.cavill2@gmail.com
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South West Region update
I’m writing this in mid-August, which will be a dim and distant memory by the time you read it and we’ll have forgotten that the most popular phrase for the first half of the year was “It’s been a funny old year”. Hopefully, as we look forward to Christmas and
the New Year, we’ll have been able to take stock of how successful our crops have been over the whole growing period, not just spring and early summer.
On our allotment site in Tiverton, Devon, the wet July was most welcome after the chill, dry second half of May and the scorching, dry June which stopped in their tracks many plants’ growth and killed off two sowings of runner beans. Now, in the third week of August it looks like I’ll have a bumper crop of apples and the outdoor tomatoes are the best I’ve ever grown.
I am also coming to the end of my first year as SW Regional Representative. I’ve had a great, though exceedingly busy time. A baptism of fire in chairing an AGM for an allotment association in February made me realise how little I knew about the legal and administrative aspects of allotment associations, and it’s been a steep learning curve ever since.
At regional level the South West branch has had stands at three ‘country’ shows’ and it’s been a pleasure
to meet allotment holders from around the region
and hear their experiences. I learnt more about the allotment scene in the Torbay and South Hams district in one day, and at the Totnes and District show than any amount of phone calls or zoom conferences
could ever achieve. Best of all I got to meet several
of the committee face to face for the first time since we set up the branch at the height of lockdown, in 2020. For the Taunton Flower Show, a two-day event, we had volunteers Bob and Jeff, from local allotment associations helping Allan, Deirdre and myself, as well
Best of all I got to meet several of the committee face to face for the first time since we set up the branch at the height of lockdown, in 2020
as Diane Appleyard popping down for the Saturday to show us how it’s done. Thank you all for taking the time to help. Many thanks also to Neil and Pip for your help at the Mid Devon Show and to Marcus and Helen for your help at the Totnes Show. By now we will have held our AGM and be into our winter programme of webinars, which I hope many members will take part in and find interesting.
A big thank you to all the committee, past and present, for your contributions to the working of the Allotment Society; it’s been a pleasure to work with you over the past year. And thank you to all the allotment holders I have met or who have contacted me over the past year; I’ve learnt a lot from you and the experiences you have shared with me. I look forward to having contact with more of you in 2024.
Happy Christmas
Mark Joynes, SW Regional Rep
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 55