Page 61 - ALG Issue 4 2017

committee team of members. The plots are fully occupied with a healthy waiting list of potential gardeners for when a plot becomes available.
Each year the Association enters a selection of their produce in the Horticultural section of the Pembrokeshire County Show and in 2016 came away with a rst and second in the Allotment Class.
Carolyn Klass
Rhydypenau Allotments
NGS Open Day
Three years ago, newly voted onto our Allotment Association committee I suggested that it would be a good idea to open our allotment to the public so that they could appreciate the health bene ts and fun to be had in growing vegetables, fruit and owers in a communal setting. The committee agreed and asked me to organise it.
This is the third year we have
opened in aid of the National
Gardens Scheme and the most
successful with regards to visitor
numbers, thanks to an article in the previous day’s Daily Telegraph gardening section. There is some preparatory work with regards to registration and providing details for the “Yellow Book”, for which the County Organiser and her team have been of great help. We also needed to undertake and act on the risk assessments required by our landlords, Cardiff Council. The main work, though, is ensuring that there are enough stewards to greet visitors, sell plants, teas and cakes and organising donations of plants.
We decided before our rst open day that, unlike some private gardens that we have visited, we could not possibly ensure that our hundred plus plots looked pristine and weed-free for the public, but the committee encouraged plotholders to do what they could. The members responded and we felt that the site looked the best it ever had, even if the weather did not measure up to expectations.
Perhaps the best aspect of our open days is chatting to visitors, some local and some from far away. As our site, although large, is tucked away behind suburban housing, most Cardif ans do not know it is there and are amazed by the sight of mature oak trees surrounded by a profusion of growing vegetables, fruit and owers. The plotholders, who were able to be on site, all said how much they enjoyed showing off their plots and giving advice to novice vegetable gardeners and also giving away a few samples!
Allotments and other communal gardens provide an alternative to most gardens open for the NGS and a focus for us as plotholders to spend a little extra time getting the weeds under control in the middle of the growing season!
Gareth Kennard-Holden
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