Page 45 - ALG Issue 2 2022

Yorkshire
Yorkshire and parts of Humberside
REPRESENTATIVE
Mike Farrell
Yorkshire & Humberside 07802 196 688 mfarrell.nas@gmail.com
MENTOR
Tony Urwin
Yorkshire & Humberside 0845 250 1292 turwin.nas@gmail.com
Welcome to our new members...
Burley Mills Allotment Association Millhouses Freehold Allotment
Queen Street North Allotment -Swinton Roots and Shoots Bridlington Community Allotment
Sandymount Road Allotment Society Wood Street Allotments
7 Individuals
Hessle Town Council
Leeds Allotments Federation enjoy a challenge!
We were invited to take part in Leeds International Piano Competition...... but fortunately not as musicians. We were one of a number of community groups who were each allocated
a piano ‘installation’ and asked to decorate it for a ‘Piano Trail’ which took people around the city centre.
At each installation, there was a playable piano which anyone could play. Our installation was called ‘Piano-meant-a-lot’ and was in the form of a shed made entirely from old pianos. The planting areas were two grand piano cases which we planted up the weekend before the event opened. We commissioned
a stained-glass panel from a local stained-glass artist (Hannah Stained Glass) which was installed in the shed. I thought it would be fun to grow some marrows to celebrate the occasion, so I carved the following initials: LIPC for Leeds International Piano Competition and LAF for Leeds Allotments Federation in
two young fruits, and left them to grow over the summer. We grew
Jerusalem artichokes in pots to
give height, with runner beans and Blauhilde climbing French beans
for colour, purple pak choi, lots of lettuces, parsley, young brassicas for leaf shape and colour. There were herbs too, and pea pods to pick. Tall flowering fennel added a graceful finishing touch, and dahlias and violas were nicely decorative.
Many people visited the installation over a 2 week period; there were lots of nice comments. It felt great to be celebrating allotments during the difficult Covid time.
The makers of the installation were ‘Pianodrome’ who added the whimsical comment ‘where better for pianos to be laid to rest than the allotment where they can tell their stories to the insects and sing their songs to the plants?’
We all wished we could have taken the shed back to our own plots, it was a marvellous piece of woodwork!
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The Backyard Allotment
Here in Leeds, as in so many other cities, the waiting lists for allotments have rocketed. On my site alone there is a waiting list of 120 names. It’s saddening to have to tell people that at the current turnover rate they are looking at a wait of 10 years. All this at a time when it has not been clearer that gardening and in particular growing your own food, is immensely rewarding and good for us, as well as endlessly interesting and absorbing. Over a number of years, Leeds Allotments Federation has produced a range of different Show Gardens for the Harrogate Spring Flower Show, the Great Yorkshire Show, the Autumn Show and once at the Chelsea Flower Show.
This year we have decided to scale down to a size of plot which is the reality for many inner city dwellers: a 5m x 5m ‘Backyard Allotment’. The Harrogate Spring Flower Show organisers have invited us to install it as part of their ‘Grow your Own’ feature in the Food Marquee – very nice as the Showground is pretty chilly in April! We are modelling this on a typical Leeds terraced house with a brick backdrop which will have a door and a see-through window behind on which we will have an information stand.
The plan is for an area with mixed raised beds and containers which will allow for a selection of vegetables and fruits, such as potatoes in pots, salads of many types, broad and French beans, peas, onions and shallots, a herb bed for herbal teas, some fruit bushes in containers, a Bokashi compost bin, water collection and anything else we can fit in! The vegetables are growing away in the greenhouses of our volunteers, and we are hoping that by the 18th April, when the build begins, we will have some good plants! There is no doubt that it is possible to grow a range of edible crops in a small space, and we really hope that our demonstration will inspire growers with small spaces to have a go.
We’ll send a photo when the garden is all planted up. In the meantime, come to the Harrogate Spring Flower Show from 21st-24th April at the Great Yorkshire Showground and see for yourselves!
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 45