Page 14 - ALG Issue 4 2021

the young plotters club
Forest: Sticks and carrot leaves for the leaves. Flower buds as fruits, bean flowers and beans and some flower petals to make colourful.
Art inspired by
Hannah Bullen-Ryner
Many thanks to Savitha Khenan, who sent us these two lovely pieces created on her dad Boris’s plot at Deans Lane in Edgeware. Savitha is 7 years old. She spends lot of time with her dad on the allotment.
Tom’s Tips
Hieveryone! Ihopeyouhadagood summer, and your allotment gave you lots of fruit and vegetables! This year has been a bit strange. I have had some really good crops, and others not so good. The good news is I was still getting good pickings of raspberries in late September.
Winter is a really important season, as we get lots of jobs done that doesn’t involve seeds and water! I have tidied up the plot and me and my dad have had to put a new fence around our orchard, as the crafty chickens have now learnt how to jump over it! Hopefully the new one will keep them in!
My bees produced some amazing honey this year, and I was able to actually put it in jars for other people to have. It’s so nice and sweet and it’s great to know it has been made from flowers and plants from around where we live. In the winter there’s not a lot of food around for them
and the bees huddle together in the centre of the hive to keep warm. The temperature of the hive has to stay consistent otherwise they will start
to die. Their job is to keep the queen alive! To help them out I fed them during the winter. I make up warm sweet sugar water which I pour into a special feeder at the top of the hive. This means they do not have to leave the hive for food, and they can stay nice and warm indoors whilst its freezing cold outside. I also clean up all the other bits of the hive that are not used in the winter, ready for the spring.
We are only allowed bonfires in the winter months on our allotment, which is good because it helps
limit the number of fires and also helps the planet by reducing our carbon footprint. It’s really nice to have a bonfire, but you must only burn dry materials such as wood
and sticks. The most important
thing is to ALWAYS check your pile for hedgehogs. Like my bees, they like to hibernate in the winter and wood piles are perfect habitats for them. We need to help increase the numbers of hedgehogs, so please check your wood piles before burning them.
14 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
Cat: Savitha has a rainbow colour cat.
With the flower petals she has made a cat’s face.