Page 6 - ALG Issue 4 2023

President’s
I have just arrived back home from the International Allotments Federation three-day conference in Cambridge that the National Allotment Society hosted. It has been 14 years since it was held in the UK, the last time being held in York. Although European and Scandinavian allotments are mostly physically and vastly different to
our plots, their plotholders seek the same type of information, and their management systems and general structure for allotments is also very similar.
The delegates went home very pleased with the information they learnt from the brilliant speakers we had provided on the various topics relating to ‘soil health’. A very successful conference indeed. It would also appear we are leading the way in a number of areas, which is very gratifying, following all the hard work which has gone into keeping our organisation at the forefront for
the nation’s allotments. We also made
a new contact with St Johns College, Cambridge’s Ecological Dept, which was very interesting.
I will hopefully have a lull next week from all these activities and attempt
to catch up with my allotment as the weeds love these spells when I am away from home. I have had a lovely crop
of grapes this year which have been pressed and are now bubbling away in my kitchen.
Leeds Allotments Federation put on another extremely good ‘Learning Day’. These events are always good. The main speaker this time was Sarah Owen- Hughes. Sarah does a wonderfully enlightening and very informative talk on ‘Soil Health’ which was very well received. This was followed by four different workshops on a range of topics. A very interesting day.
Due to illness, I missed this year’s AGM. For that I do apologise. I did, however,
The weather has been a bit topsy turvy this year, with a long dry spell and then a prolonged rainy time. I have found, however, I have had some good fruit despite this weather.
manage to send in a short introductory speech. I hope all who attended enjoyed the event and learnt something new from the workshops on offer.
The weather has been a bit topsy turvy this year, with a long dry spell and then a prolonged rainy time. I have found however, I have had some good fruit despite this weather. My grapes have done really well and are crushed and bubbling away as mentioned above. I can’t miss this opportunity to say with our present climate: all the more reason for you to fit water harvesting devices to your sheds etc. if you haven’t already done so. Our site had to cancel the BBQ due to a severe weather warning in July, so we had it in September instead. Our site opened to the general public prior to the BBQ for heritage open days organised by the National Trust.
I attended a lovely country show at Weeton near Harrogate. Although I didn’t have a stand there, it was an opportunity to promote the NAS. The President of this show is a friend of mine and is also a manager of a super organisation ‘Horticap’. They run a nursery and a café for the involvement of people with learning and physical difficulties; they also go out doing garden maintenance. There is a really
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6 Allotment and Leisure Gardener