EAP website: www.ealingallotmentspartnership.co.uk
Autumn 2015 No. 20
Oldfield Allotments – First Prize in Ealing-in-Bloom (Large Site Category)
A late, but very welcome, spell of Indian Summer has extended what has been a pretty good growing season for most. This is probably just as well as in other areas the Ealing Allotment Community is facing potentially choppy waters. As reported in our last newsletter, local government cuts have led to the imminent departure of Stephen Cole our dedicated (in both senses of the word) Allotments Manager. We had hoped to be able to update you regarding the Council’s arrangements for handling the various tasks associated with his position. Unfortunately, the Council is only now fully getting to grips with the range of activities involved and it looks as though this will have to be delayed until the Winter newsletter. Suffice it to say, that every effort is being made to ensure that this transition will be as seamless as possible.
That said, it is as well to remember that we are living in changing times as regards public service provisions. There is little point in looking back and saying that “the Council always used to do ...... ”. To a much greater extent than in the past, we as a community, need to look to solving our own problems – hence the move towards Local Management where Local Allotment Associations handle more of the routine aspects of site management.
Most allotment sites have kept their activities very much to themselves. However, in a time when all aspects of local government expenditure are under pressure, it is important that allotments be seen to be an integral and valued part of the local community. In this context, the increased local community activities reported in our “Around the Associations” section - in the form of open days, organised visits to allotments by local schools and youth organisations etc., - and the participation of sites and individual plotholders in the Ealing-in-Bloom competition, all play a useful part in underlining the value of allotments to life in Ealing as a whole. Perhaps it is time for you and your site to get more involved!
Ealing-in Bloom
The allotments section of the annual Ealing-in-Bloom competition attracted a magnificent fifty eight entries this year. Of these twelve entries were awarded prizes, eight were awarded “very highly commended” certificates, eleven “highly commended” and thirteen “commended” certificates – listed below.
Oldfield Allotments and Braund Avenue both held on to their last year's first prize positions for the best large and small allotment sites, respectively. An increasing number of sites, however, are snapping at their heels and it will be interesting to see how long they can maintain their winning runs. This year, the first prize in the large allotment plot category went to Kristine Kristensen of Oldfield Allotments. Her entry so impressed the judges that she was also awarded the prestigious "Judges Special Award". Top spot in the small plot category was taken by Eddie Weston of Whitton Drive.
Large Site Category
1st Place / Oldfield / Manager - Michel Le Guilcher2nd Place / Framfield / Manager - Tony Lewis
3rd Place / Brentham / Manager – Patrick Williams
Small Site Category
1st Place / Braund Avenue / Manager - Andy Doyle2nd Place / Whitton Place / Manager - Joseph Mangar
3rd Place / Cleveley Crescent / Manager-Patrick Williams
Very Highly Commended / Limetrees 2 / Manager - Jonathon Pinnock
Highly Commended / Whitton Drive / Manager - Joseph Mangar
Large Plot Category
1st Place / Kristine Kristensen / Oldfield2nd Place / Joanne Jackson / Oldfield
3rd Place / Nigel & Lynne Sumner / Ascott
Very Highly Commended / Simon Stilwell / Framfield
Very Highly Commended / Jonathon Pinnock / Limetrees 2
Very Highly Commended / Oscar Smith / Oldfield
Very Highly Commended / Fiona Hughes / Oldfield
Highly Commended / Isabella Castle / Ascott
Highly Commended / Patrick Williams / Brentham
Highly Commended / Vincenzo Giannotta / Cleveley Crescent
Highly Commended / Lee Gray / Oldfield
Commended / Trevor Sharman / Ascott
Commended / Primo Rizzi / Cleveley Crescent
Commended / Jim Wilson / Framfield
Commended / Hilary Jayne / Framfield
Commended / David Williamson / Framfield
Commended / Dennis Wilkinson / Framfield
Commended / Gabriel Callinn / Oldfield
Small Plot Category
1st Prize / Eddie Weston / Whitton Drive2nd Prize / Paula Lawrence / Oldfield
3rd Prize / Wiktor Staniaszek / Braund Avenue
Very Highly Commended / Debbie & Peter Fogarty / Ascott
Very Highly Commended / H Octave / Whitton Place
Very Highly Commended / A Stachowicz / Whitton Place
Highly Commended / Winston Buckley / Braund Avenue
Highly Commended / A Attenborough & P Dadd / Framfield
Highly Commended / Lilla Aberathy-Kot / Oldfield
Highly Commended / J Walsh / Whitton Drive
Highly Commended / S Mackintosh / Whitton Place
Highly Commended / A Chaudhary / Whitton Place
Commended / Hilary White / Blondin
Commended / Gill Prentice / Braund Avenue
Commended / Marion King / Oldfield
Commended / Krishna Bahadir Gurung / Oldfield
Commended / K Sheldon / Whitton Drive
Commended / E Williams / Whitton Place
Site Profile
Carbery Allotments
I walk down the Avenue, amidst the relentless, deafening din of the traffic and turn the key in the lock of the big wooden gate, walk through and along the leafy lane. I turn the corner at the end, into the allotment. Peace and quiet reign .. noise, all but gone, replaced by a deafening silence, broken only by a singing blackbird, swaying high in a tree or, later in the year, a robin's sharp trill, as he stands, quite near, eyeing me from the top of a cane. Carbery, comprised of only 28 plots, has a unique atmosphere. We sort out any problems together and are lucky to count among us some very kind, willing and capable men, who make light work of any repair or maintenance jobs in thesite. We used to have a big problem with intruders, but since Stephen Cole organised the building of a high metal link fence, plus spikes on the top of the gate, there have been no more break-ins or thefts of produce, touch wood. This year, one of the tenants arranged for huge mountains of wood-chip to be delivered, but we still can't persuade anyone to bring us manure! I found a stable, that was willing to deliver, but their popularity was our downfall. They invested in a larger truck, which couldn't get through our gate!
The enthusiasm for combining vegetables and flowering plants has been infectious and so many of us see the beneficial results of attracting bees, butterflies and other insects to the site ponds, big and small. The ponds are also a magnet to frogs, newts and insects and the frogs keep the slug population down. However, one large pond has attracted the attention of passing herons, which land and pluck their unfortunate lunch of tadpoles and frogs from the water. A pair of ducks also drop-by for a swim and a walk of inspection round the plots, muttering to each other.
This summer, we had a very sick, mange-ridden fox, which staggered about, half bald, dragging its hind leg. It would come up very close and gaze, pitifully, straight at you, then lie under a tree, just watching people. I rang the RSPCA, but they said they didn't collect and could we take the fox to the clinic?!! Finally, one tenant called a fox-protection place in Twickenham and the woman came out, on a busy Saturday, with a special antibiotic medicine, which she fed to the fox on a bit of bread and jam. He took it straight away. She left, leaving instructions with one trusty tenant, to feed him, at the same time each day with dog food, for ten days. The fox came, each evening, bang on time, polishing off a tin a day with gusto and soon showed signs of recovery. Afterhis second dose, he was healed and now comes back for a chat and a bit of supper, coat glossy and tail bushy. He has now resumed his hole-digging on the plot of the man who fed him!
In the past few weeks, wasps became a problem on two plots, building nests underground and in a compost heap, stinging one man twelve times on his head. The pest control man arrived. He was very serious, like someone in a James Bond movie. It took about five seconds to spray the entrance to the nest.
"Stand back," he said to me – adding,"they'll probably go a bit mental"
I asked him what would happen now.
"They take it down to the queen," he said, darkly, ".. then they all die"
"Do you come and take the nest and bodies away?"I asked
"No, leave 'em there", and added, with a triumphant grin "...Fertiliser!"
Allotment plot holders have one thing in common, besides being slightly eccentric, which is back problems. These have not been made any better by the introduction of the hosepipe ban. The concept that tiny droplets containing bacteria from compost can find their way backwards up the pipe and thence into the tap and enter the mains drinking water of the people of Ealing takes its place in the realms of elfin safety, but.. We must obey. We staggered back and forth, heavy cans causing a kind of nautical gait, with cries of "Ooh, me back!", etc. So, I devised a safe way of transporting water the considerable distance from water butt to my plot. It is by means of wine maker's syphon, placed nozzle end into water butt and other end taped to very long hose pipe. Works perfectly and with added practicality of only directing water into the roots of the plants, not splish-splashing all over.
Finally, rent-time. This is when some people become suddenly invisible. I sit in the rain and sun, twiddling my toes, like someone who has been stood up on a date. Not everybody suddenly has people to see in Ipswich, or is stricken down with slipped malaria, but it does mean that weeks can go by, before all is safely gathered in. But this is the time when I get the chance to have a conversation which doesn't contain the words "woodchip" and "blackfly" and perhaps learn the Russian for "fluid on the knee
As apples drop on my head and it's coming on to rain, I stagger off home, pulling a wheelie basket full of things I forgot to use and jars of other people's jam. Happiness is the most important achievement in life and that is why allotments are important, because, when someone takes an allotment, you see their eyes light up, tension melt away and the gradual
appearance of that daft grin on their face.
Diana Crawshaw
Around the Associations
Northfield Allotments – Open Day
The people of Ealing are a curious bunch. At our first ever open day so many people said to me that they had often walked past the allotments and wondered what they were like inside. The assumption was that there would be row upon row of vegetables tended by a wizened old retired guy drinking tea from his flask. Of course, we do have a few of those, but we also have lots of young families and people who grow flowers.
Saturday 15th August was the first ever open day we had organised. As far as I know it was the first time the gates had ever been opened to the public. We debated at the committee meeting about whether or not to charge an entrance fee. A day out for most families is now very expensive. A family ticket for Kew Gardens is £34. We decided our entrance should be free to all. In the end it wasn't about raising money – it was about making new friends.
We had a wonderful day. Everything went so well partly due to the most perfect weather, blue skies and a gentle breeze. It was hard to gauge how many people would visit. At one hour to go I still wasn't sure if two people would turn up or 200. But, I shouldn't have worried - in the end we had 361 visitors. We must have impressed some of them as 21 then decided they wanted to join the waiting list.
You can’t have an open day without tea and cake. The tables looked lovely with their floral tablecloths and vases of flowers. The whole area looked like a country fair from the 1930s with bunting gently flapping in the breeze. Huge praise goes to Dominic for organising the tables and cake stall – which helped to set the whole tone for the day. From the takings – it seems almost everyone bought tea and cake. We also had a large dispenser of Pims’ cocktail for which we accepted a donation. My favourite story of the day was the visitor who wanted a Pims but didn’t want to donate. So, the ever-resourceful plotholder Fran told him he could have a free Pims if he agreed to clear the tables of dirty cups! Which he did!
The restored Anderson shelter proved a big hit. We had managed to get a story about the Anderson shelter and open day in the Gazette and many people said they had come because they had seen it in the paper. Crispin, who is one of our committee members and an actor, got us some props – tin hats and gas masks. I brought along an old wind-up gramophone player and some Gracie Fields 78rpm records to play. It all helped to set the atmosphere. It was fun teaching the kids how to use the gramophone. It was interesting to see some grandparents explaining to their grandchildren what the Anderson shelter was and recounting their memories of sitting in one as a child.