Page 48 - ALG Issue 2 2020

Yorkshire
Yorkshire and parts of Humberside
REPRESENTATIVE
Mike Farrell
Based in Rotherham 07802 196 688 mfarrell.nas@gmail.com
MENTOR
Tony Urwin
Yorkshire & Humberside 0845 250 1292 turwin.nas@gmail.com
Leeds Allotments Federation 2020 Learning Day
Pudsey Civic Hall was the venue for
this year’s Learning Day which was
well attended by over a hundred of
our members keen to be educated
and entertained by a number of speakers through the day. Or was it the enticement of a free fish and chip lunch?
With a start time of 10am, our intrepid team of LAF officers and a few volunteers arrived at 8am to help 11 stall holders set up their stands and banners and to check out the sound system etc. By 9.30am people started to arrive and the room with the stands was a bit like Briggate on a Saturday so that they had to be herded into the main room just a few minutes before the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Eileen Taylor, arrived to open the day’s proceedings.
Emilie Ellis from Sheffield University gave us a presentation on the Diversity of insect pollinators in allotments, a research programme she is conducting on some of the Leeds allotments.
This was followed by Tom Bliss who outlined the work of the umbrella
organisation Feed Leeds and then our very own Joe Foster described his opinion of the best tools for working the allotment and how to maintain them. Hoes and spades sharpened to the point of “licensed to kill”.
After lunch we were entertained by Mick Poultney F.N.V.S, who gave two presentations on Composting and Raised beds/No Dig.
Joe Lofthouse, Horticulturist from RHS Harlow Carr, gave a presentation on pruning fruit trees and bushes.
From the quality of questions raised from the audience throughout
the day’s presentations and
the attendance at the stands, it would seem that we all enjoyed a stimulating and entertaining day and the Officers and volunteers wended their various ways home, tired but satisfied that all in all it weren’t a bad old day.
Derek Hanton,
Leeds Allotment Federation
48 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
Welcome to our new members...
Askern Town Council
Heptonstall Allotment & Garden Society Micklefield Allotment Association Nether Hoyland Allotment Society Windmill Allotment Skelmanthorpe Yedingham Allotment Association
4 Individual Memberships 1 Life Membership
1 Landowner