Chris Welsh, the Parks Operations Manager, Who Is Now Directly Responsible for the Management

EAP website: www.ealingallotmentspartnership.co.uk

Spring 2016 No. 22

A wet and cold spring means that it has been a slower start than usual for most of us but it looks as though the weather is improving and that planting for the new growing season is beginning to get under way. There’s quite a lot to report on in this edition. The 2016 AGM was particularly well-supported. Joseph Mangar of the Horsenden Group of allotments has now taken over as EAP Chairman, John Bradley of Blondin continues as Secretary and Simon Higginson of High Lane has taken over as Treasurer. We had two guest speakers. Julie Riehl gave a very interesting presentation (summarised below) on the activities of the London food-growing network Capital Growth and Samson Masih of Dunster House provided information on the composting toilet system that they produce.

Chris Welsh, the Parks Operations manager, who is now directly responsible for the management of the borough’s allotments, attended the AGM on behalf of the Council and outlined the Council’s thinking on the way forward in regards to allotment site management following the loss of our Allotments Manager. He has since expanded on these ideas at a recent meeting with Site Managers and Local Allotment Associations involved in site management, Further meetings are planned as the finer details of the proposals are worked through.

In general, management of Council allotments will in future be much more closely aligned to the Council’s parks management system than previously. It will utilise the same team of maintenance contractors, the Park Rangers who look after the day-to-day management of the boroughs parks, and other parks support staff. The good news is that no sell-offs are planned and there are no plans for outsourcing allotment management. Existing closed sites (about six small sites), however, are not being re-opened at this time as this would involve too much cost and effort and in most cases the reasons why their use was abandoned still apply.

Most of the proposed changes impact the way that Site Managers and Local Allotment Associations work with the Council and individual tenants may not necessarily notice many

of them. The intention, where possible, is to devolve responsibility for day-to-day management of sites to local allotment associations. Sites in the same geographical area will be encouraged, again where possible, to form ‘clusters’ – e.g. area working groups to support each other, share information and help manage small sites. The main management areas with direct impact on individual tenants are rent collection, the handling of non-cultivation issues and eviction for breaches of Council allotment rules. No rent increases are planned for the 2016 and 2017 growing season and rent collections will continue to be the responsibility of Managers/Associations. No major changes are envisaged on the treatment of non-cultivation and eviction processes other than a general tightening up of rules and procedures to ensure a standardised approach throughout the system.

The most encouraging feature of the meeting was the clear intention by the Council to both maintain and improve on Ealing’s allotment system. It is still early days and we are all well aware of the saying that “the road to hell is paved by good intentions”. There appears, however, a general feeling that the Council is willing to play its part in pushing things forward given a positive response by the Ealing allotment community. So, to some extent at least, the ball is now in our court!

Capital Growth

The main presentation at this year’s AGM was given by Julie Riehl of Capital Growth, London's largest food growing network. Julie is one of Capital Growth’s management team and her prime responsibility, among many other things, is helping run the Regent’s Park Allotments Garden - their flagship growing garden.

Capital Growth is a partnership initiative between London Food Link, the Mayor of London, and the Big Lottery's Local Food Fund. It is championed by the Chair of the London Food Board, Rosie Boycott and is part of the charity Sustain - the alliance for better food and farming. Although the Regent Park Garden is the only garden it directly runs, it is at the centre of a network of over 2,000 gardens throughout the city. Its main role is to offer help to people so they can start their own growing space. It provides

support, including access to discounted training, networking events, advice on growing to sell, and discounts on equipment, to all who grow their own food in London. Joining the network is free; just go to their website http://www.capitalgrowth.org for details.

From the very beginning, Capital Growth have focused on offering training adapted to growing in a city environment (little space, less light, container growing), and focusing on organic techniques. This year, they are offering sessions on a range of subjects targeted at

garden managers. Workshops are taking placein five areas across London, including their flagship growing garden, They include:

Nature’s best: Companion planting and natural pest control - Saturday 7 May
Food growing, mindfulness and pupil well-being - Wednesday 11 May

Salads in the city - Wednesday 18 May

Organic food growing for real beginners - Wednesday 18 May

Click on the links above or go to the Capital Growth Website for further details

In 2013, Capital Growth launched the Harvest-ometer: an online tool to help growers keep track of how much food they grow and how much money this saved. It stores the garden’s yield data and converts it into money and meal values and provides graphs that you can show friends, family, supporters or even funders! They also have an online report called Reaping Reward (available for download on http://www.sustainweb.org) which outlines their findings on how much London grows. From the data collected in 2013, the most popular vegetables (in kg) grown in London include salad leaves, squashes courgettes, potatoes, apple and kale. They are currently writing a report covering 2014-2015. Their network encompasses a wide range of people whose experiences of growing in the city are worth sharing and theyorganise a range of events throughout the year to allow fellow-growers to meet and exchange information on what they are doing. These are aimed both at supporting current Capital Growth spaces and promoting community food-growing in London. Their June Network Event will include workshops and food. Keep an eye on their website for more details.

Capital Growth also offer amap of London’s food gardens which allows members of the public to contact gardens needing volunteers. They help sites who are trying out or running enterprise activities,fundraising events,selling produce to local restaurants and market stalls. They also work with Food Growing Schools: London to help all schools in London grow their own food by offering training for teachers and competition and events aimed specifically at schools.

Chemical weed-killers and allotments

In the past at Blondin, for ease of maintenance, we have used chemical weed-killer to keep weeds under control on our main and communal hard hoggin paths. But recently we have been discussing the use of these weed-killers and some of our committee members have done some research into their use and possible adverse effects.

We have been using Roundup®, which contains glyphosate, and have become particularly concerned about the possible harmful effect this has on bees and other beneficial insects, and on possible effects on human health. Roundup® is also manufactured by Monsanto, a company whose ethics have often been called into question.

So for now, we have stopped using weed-killers on our main communal paths, and are strongly discouraging individual plot-holders from using it on their plots. We would be really interested to hear if you have a policy about use of weed-killers on your allotment

site, or if you have found any alternative ways to keep weeds on communal paths under control.

Please let us know by emailing us at

If you want to do your own research, we found the following websites useful:

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/glyphosate-campaign

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/aug/07/supermarkets-garden-centres-weedkiller-ban-cancer-glyphosate-monsanto

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2985493/glyphosate_harms_bees_spatial_learning.html

http://www.gmwatch.org/news/archive/2014/15710-new-study-shows-honeybees-harmed-by-herbicide-used-on-gmo-crops

Roger Sealey,

Chair - Blondin

Ealing-in-Bloom

If you, or your site, have not entered the Ealing-in-Bloom competition previously, this is the year to take the plunge and do so. Ealing has been nominated as one of the finalists in this year’s RHS Britain-in-Bloom competition. Get into the spirit of things by supporting our local annual Ealing-in-Bloom competition. As one of the beneficiaries of Ealing’s strong support of its green spaces, it is the least we can do.

There are four categories open to allotments: the large and small site categories and the large and small plot categories. As all site managers know two golden rules of site management are “rubbish attracts more rubbish” and “good practice tends to spread”. Entering your site into the E-in-B competition, is unlikely to lead to an immediate transformation but does tend to increase tenants pride in their site and every little helps! As individual plotholders entering your plot can give an extra spurt to do that little bit more that lifts your plot and spurs you on to higher things.

Entry forms can be obtained from local libraries, by email or downloaded from www.ealingallotmentspartnership.co.uk . Don’t forget entries have to be in by May16th!

Site Profile

High Lane

High Lane Allotments in Hanwell are tucked away behind Mayfield Primary school within the Brent River Park. A small site consisting of 41 plots, however with a real country feel about it. In the last year it has gone from having 10 plots spare to a lengthy waiting list - indeed we are now letting plots divided in 2 x 2.5 pole sizes which is less daunting for the beginner, or time-poorplot holder, but also means we can let more people have their own plot.

We have a number of projects planned to improve the site: already in place is an area complete with bays made out of pallets near the gate to allow the dropping off of manure from stables or wood chippings from a local tree surgeon. Also planned for this year is the clearance of a triangular-shaped piece of land which will be grassed over and eventually be the site of a compost toilet, wildlife areawith pond and seating area to relax and chat. We also have a row of prefab concrete sheds we'd like to refurbish.

Last year thanks to a grant from the Bubble initiative we had a June BBQ for plot holders, their families and friends. It was so successful we had a 'harvest festival' BBQ in September - Steve Pound MP was able to join us, and seemed to enjoy himself as he stayed all afternoon!

We became Locally Managed last year which gave us a bit of autonomy, but also, because it involves the drafting of a constitution, instilled a sense of purpose as a community.We will definitely develop this communal aspect going forward and have already started a series of visits to thesite from Mayfield Primary School.

Simon Higginson

Chair – High Lane Allotments

Around the Associations

Framfield

Framfield has had a very busy start to the year.

·  In February we hosted several groups from Hobbayne School who were taking part in a photography competition.

·  The beginning of March saw our first work party of the year. We completed two main jobs, thanks to large number of wonderful volunteers who braved the weather: We cleared an area in our plum orchard ready to set up two community bee hives. These were funded by a grant from the Greenredeem, Ealing Councils

recycling incentive scheme. A group of plot holders are currently being trained by one of our resident bee-keepers. This gives people a chance to learn bee-keeping who may not otherwise have the opportunity. The hives will make a great addition to our school visits programme.

·  We emptied our main equipment store, prior to the old corrugated asbestos roof being removed by the Council. We would like to thank the Council for doing this – the old roof was becoming very unstable and represented a serious risk to plot holders and visitors alike. We have nearly completed constructing the new roof.

We found an interesting way to fund the new roof…

Over the years we've had some odd visitors to Framfield (MPs for example), and have experienced all sorts of strange happenings on site. In the middle of March, however, we definitely had the most unusual visitors yet, including a Serbian orchestra, astronauts, a frogman and a dinosaur (opposite). We also witnessed an earthquake and a riot broke out. No, it's not the AGM just yet... We hosted a team filming an advert for the BBC World Service, which was shown on BBC 1 and 2 in

April – perhaps you saw it!. After visiting lots of allotment sites across London, one of our plots was chosen to feature in the advert. Some of our chickens became film stars – they’ve become divas ever since. Our meeting room turned into the wardrobe and hair and make-up department – can any other allotments report professional ironing (opposite) taking part on site?

The fee that we negotiated will pay for the materials for the new roof on the equipment store, so well worth a bit of disruption.

Any resemblance between the dinosaur and Dennis our chairman (also pictured) is entirely co-incidental…

Hilary Jayne

Secretary- Framfield Allotments

Brentham

Plenty of activity at Brentham already this year. Our first priority has been clearing up the site and we have already had two successful working parties. In many ways we were sorry to see the back of the old shelter, shown being demolished opposite, but with a tree growing through its roof and a real damage of collapse in a heavy wind it had to go. No compunctions, however, about the clearing out of our “motorbike copse” which had for the last 10-15 years been home for an abandoned rough sleepers’ camp, a stolen motorbike