Page 6 - ALG Issue 2 2018 html

Head Office
president’s scribblings
Well the New Year is here and the weather is not too gardening friendly at the moment; I don’t know about your sites but ours is like a bog. Maybe it’s just as well as now I don’t feel too bad about sitting here in front of my computer.
I’ve been on the radio again a couple of times and managed to turn around the topic of ‘gardening at home in the winter’ to talking about allotments, so that wasn’t too bad. I have even squeezed in a couple of illustrated talks to allotment and gardening groups, at Grinley on the Hill and Knaresborough Gardening Club.
Having been promoting allotments for many years now, I am particularly pleased to have joined an NAS subgroup looking at promotional items to compile and subsequently provide regions with a show package to promote our wonderful organisation and our recreational activity.
I am also very pleased to announce, that following my request for sites of particular beauty or interest, I have been able to submit for inclusion in the International Allotments Good Sites Guide the following:
Lion House Allotments, Berwick-upon-Tweed. A very picturesque allotment site situated adjacent to the Town Battlements and overlooking the estuary of the River Tweed, 4km from the Scottish border.
Meanwood Parkside Allotments, Leeds. A very tidy and well organised site which has won ‘Best Allotment Site in Leeds’ on numerous occasions, in the Leeds Allotment Gardeners Federation allotment competition.
If you know of any particularly beautiful or interesting sites, please let your Regional Representative or Mentor know, and we shall see if it justifies inclusion on the list.
From my previous scribblings a number of sites have also looked into applying for an International Allotments Award. Swinbrook Allotments, West Oxfordshire pulled out all the stops and managed to put forward a presentation for an award before the application deadline, which was quite an achievement in itself. They have applied for an award for ‘Innovative Activities’. I wish them every success.
It is also good that other sites are planning to enter next year. 6
Lion House Allotments
Criteria for application can be found on this page www.nsalg.org.uk/ about-us/international-allotment-movement/ of the NAS website.
Following a request from the International Allotments Office, Jenny Mollison, Secretary of the Scottish Allotment Gardeners Society, very kindly submitted a short article and some photographs about their organisation for inclusion in the next International Office magazine.
I was hoping to attend a rather momentous NAS North East Region meeting this month but unfortunately I have had to send my apologies as it clashed with a previous engagement at the Leeds Allotment Federation ‘Learning Day’ run in conjunction with Leeds City Council, Parks & Countryside, more of which I shall tell later.
Phil Gomersall, President
Meanwood Parkside Allotments