Page 62 - ALG Issue 2 2015

Wales
Bridgend County Show
10-12 July, Bridgend College,
Pencoed Campus, Junction 35 off M4
Do you ever feel like entering one of those ‘traditional’ summer allotment and gardening shows but are put off by the idea of aggressive competition? Are you restricted to a small back-garden or growing on a patio? Would you like to just take along whatever you or your family have grown and maybe share tips with fellow gardeners in a relaxed setting? Would you like to eat some ‘plot- to-pot’ food and taste homemade wine in the company of other like-minded folk?
Well, if this is you, come along to the first-ever Bridgend Kitchen, Garden and Allotment Show, which is part of the much bigger Bridgend County Show. The County Show has something for everyone – trade stands, craft stalls, show jumping, dog show, poultry show, rabbits and goats and this year it also has a gardening section. Please look out for publicity about categories, etc. It would be great to see you, better still why not enter!
Saulat Abbasi
Porthcawl Allotment Contributes to VE Day and VJ Day Anniversaries
Here’s a question for you: what do Dr Carrot, Potato Pete and an iconic poster depicting a foot on a spade have in common? Well, they were all part of
the ‘Dig For Victory’ publicity campaign created by the Ministry of Agriculture during WW2 to encourage people to grow their own fruit & vegetables. The campaign on the Home Front became so successful that the over-production of carrots was fed into
grown on allotments, open spaces and people’s gardens at the time. Interestingly, the war effort meant that gardeners made do with whatever construction materials could be salvaged from damaged buildings and the like. Some folk think that recycling is a modern phenomenon; it isn’t; allotment holders and gardeners have been doing it for years. Part of the display will be a simple raised bed with the letters VE, replaced
wartime propaganda:
Germans were led to
believe that RAF pilots
owed their success to
improved night-time
vision through eating lots
of carrots! Up and down
the country, folk were
encouraged to turn over
gardens and public spaces
to grow food and thereby reduce the nation’s reliance on convoys from America which had to get past German ‘U’ boats prowling the Atlantic.
Anyway, the 70th anniversary of VE Day is coming up on 8 May and the Wilderness Allotment Association is helping Porthcawl Town Museum recreate a World War 2
Dig For Victory allotment garden to mark the occasion. The museum is housed in the town’s Old Police Station and is run
by volunteers. The WW2 display will be located in what was the exercise yard
for prisoners. The museum has already acquired an Anderson Shelter and it’s hoped that the allotment display will give
a fair representation of what was typically
by VJ later on in August. Look out for photos of the display in a later edition
of Allotment & Leisure Gardener: better still, come on down to sunny Porthcawl and drop in
to see the WW2 display. More reading on these subjects can be found at:
www.educationscotland. gov.uk, www.wartimegardening.co.uk and
www.carrotmuseum.co.uk.
Saulat Abbasi
Competition winners (ALG1.15):
Fentongollan Farm
Prize – 60 Cornish daffodils worth £18.95
Janis Yeoman, Yorkshire
Recycle Works
Prize – FSC Compact Wooden Compost Bin
Grahame Forster, Mirfield
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Part of the display will be a simple raised bed with the letters VE