July 22 Newsletter

"The summer looks out from her brazen tower, through the flashing bars of July." So said Francis Thompson - and he's bang on so far this year. There's so much sun it's nice to escape into somewhere darkish to produce the Newsletter. But doesn't Moor Green look lovely in the height of Summer? You can just make out Joe Chamberlain's brazen tower above the trees but otherwise we could be allotmenteering in the middle of a forest.

This month the photo gallery focuses unashamedly on flowers. The veg are pretty much looking after themselves now as long as you keep watering. This is the time when all the plotholders work on flowers actually bears fruit. Or flowers to be more precise. Look at this spectacular beauty

Not even sure what it is, but it's huge (see editors bike for sense of scale). And this mallow is even bigger

And if you like blueish-purple you can fill your whole plot with borage - adding just a poppy here and there for contrast

Or go for yellow loosestrife

Or even yellower teddy bear sunflowers

Or just fill your border with colour

It's slightly embarrassing but some of the uncultivated plots produce brilliant shows too!

And for the traditionalist there's the beautiful red rose bush which has pride of place on Ann Smith's old plot.

Thanks to her family you can admire this view from a bench that they have put next to her plot. And hopefully the bush will remain along with the bench to remind us of her. Thanks Richard and Emma!

And finally a vegetable - the flowers can't have a total monopoly. And the old runner beans deserve some credit for the display they put on in July

Good News - the new Roof

You might not have not have noticed but there is a new roof on the Seedstore. Its basically a big tarpaulin but it much improves the watertightness of the building and huge thanks to Steve and Henry who actually rigged it up. Steve with help from Tom is also in the process of replacing rotten wooden window facades. Without their voluntary help the building would certainly deteriorate.

Bigger News. In Fact Massive News. The Other Roof!

After seven months it looks as though we'll be saying goodbye to this.

We're getting a replacement clubhouse roof. Yes you heard that right - we're getting a proper new clubhouse roof! We met local councillors and Councillor Majid Mahmood Chair of Environment (that includes allotments) on Monday 4th July and he was pleased to tell us that approval had been given for the clubhouse roof to be replaced. It was a very positive meeting and we fell over ourselves to say how grateful we were to elected members - particularly our local councillors - for getting this over the line. But make no mistake, without continuous badgering by our chair Max Smith in particular, this wouldn't have happened. Here's a pic of a very happy Max and Paul with Councillors Mahmood, Kerry Jenkins and Izzy Knowles after the meeting.

Huge thanks also to everyone who helped and contributed to our Raise the Roof Fund over the past seven months. The Council are replacing only the roof itself - the money we raised will enable us to replace the ceiling, rewire and insulate and give the clubhouse generally a forty year overdue facelift. Expect a big reopening, hopefully in Autumn. We haven't been given an exact date when the work will be done. Until then we'll be crossing our fingers and reminding them that the current roof won't survive another gale.

Annual General Meeting - 2nd July 2022

Many thanks to all 21 of you who turned up for the meeting. It isnt a bad turn out but before lockdown we were getting much bigger numbers. For those of you who might have got out of the habit please come back - we need your involvement. For new plotholders who've never been , please give it a try next July. We will give you plenty of notice and get the agenda out to you in good time.

It was a pretty routine AGM though we did add a new appendix on social membership to the Constitutiion - largely because we have many new social members, many of whom simply like wallking themselves, their families and their dogs around the site. The draft minutes of the AGM will be posted on the website. The big item of course is the election of the new committee - see list below. Welcome and thanks to them all - old and new!

2022/23 Committee Members

Jonathan Bean

Oscar Cutts

Gemma Deeks

David Draycott

Steve Gwynne

G Iqbal (co-optee)

Ann Kennefick

Carol Moore

Robert (Oz) Osborn

Paul Rooney

Louise Scrivens

Tom Skinner

Maxine Smith

Maureen Westwood

Mark Wright

And Finally - stay cheerful about the slugs, blackfly, greenfly, cabbage whites, mice, rats, squirrels, magpies and muntjacs munching your produce