Moor Green in November

Moor Green
3 days ago
5 min read

Winter greetings fellow plotters! What are you up to on your plot? There's alot of hunkering down for winter going on I notice. The water supply is now switched off. The supply from the sky is more than adequate for anything we might need for the next few months. Water barrels are full after last week's rain alone. Greenhouse and polytunnels are being emptied and cleaned up. Enormous heaps of manure and mulch being applied, cardboard and weed suppressant overlays being installed . And Bonfires!

They're a wicked thing of course - pushing out particulates and warming the planet. But there is something very comforting and satisfying about watching the rubbish on your plot go up in flames and smoke. Enjoy it while you can - to the end of November at least. Longer term it seems unlikely that the Council is ever going to allow bonfires in March again. We are trying to get that change - but all the momentum, probably rightly, is in the other direction. Oh well, we'll all just have to get cleverer at composting and dead hedging and repurposing loppings into the base of raised beds and all that kind of stuff. Just keep going - that's the main thing. Like our President...

President and First Lady!

For those of you who've only seen him wearing overalls and hi-vis jacket this is what our legendary and honorary president Mr Boswell Douglas looks like when he's getting married! I've only ever heard him called Boswell once and he looked surprised. Even on his wedding invitation he's Baz. On site he's usually Dougie. Massive congratulations to Dougie and Shaz and best wishes for the future to you both. Rumour has it that Dougie is 88 so an example to us all of what many years plotting can do. We're trying to persuade him to do a talk in the Clubhouse after Christmas. Working title: Allotments and Eternal Youth. He'll be too busy...

Security

The existing main gate camera is solar powered and is now inoperable due to lack of sunshine. It’s possible to temporarily take it down and re-charge, but it’s a pain so this weekend hopefully a work party is installing a new camera - a challenging project which involves stringing up a cable from the toilet block to the new pole at the main gate. It requires ladders, chainsaws, climbers and slack rope walkers. There are branches to cut, poles to drill, barb wire to thread and possibly some hot soup to consume. All of that before the IT boffins are able to commission the new camera on the Sunday. We should all be very grateful to Dan and his team (Rob, Tom, Anthony, Bernard, Howard and Zulf) for the work they put into this and their general care and maintenance of the onsite cameras. They are having a big deterrent effect - along with the new fencing we've put in along two sides of the site. The committee's working priorities this year are

Top – discouraging intruders, theft etc

Second – flytipping

Third – misdemeanours e.g. leaving gate open.

And we're having some success with all of them. We know there is a pile of logs still blocking the Russell Road entrance. We reported it to the Council two weeks ago and they've lost the report. And my bin, but that's another story. We've rereported - hopefully they will deal with it in the next ten days. Or we'll need some volunteers...

Win Win!

A big shout out to two of our newish plotholders who had the nerve to enter the Birmingham wide competition plot for Best Plot and Best Newcomer. They operate a Chelsea Flower Show system of medals - gold is top, then silver gilt , then bronze. Anyone who's been to the actual BDAC awards meeting can see the close resemblance between Chelsea Showground and the Bordesley Green site. Lianne Baker-Brook got a richly deserved silver-gilt Flo Pickering Trophy Best Newcomer award after turning a distinctly neglected patch of wasteland into a really beautiful piece of cultivation in just one season. Howard Meek won one of only three gold medals in a big field of competitors in the BDAC Best Plot Awards for his plot, which is so well thought through and ruthlessly managed that his near neighbours (i.e. your editor) try not to look at it too much.

Whats's even more cheering is that these two are big supporters and great volunteers and committee members. Come and join them - you could even compete with them for a medal next year! I'd start working on it now though...

Winter Fair or Fayre if you insist

I don't know why we have to go all medieval when spelling our annual big winter event - but it's on all the big posters that we bring out every year so it's a Fayre. And it's going to be great!

The gift stalls will include ceramics, stained glass, jewellery, crocheted toys, jams, chutneys, marzipan and Italian treats. Please note that some stalls will take cash only. As always there will be delicious cakes available, plus the outdoor kitchen team will be selling hot food. Might as well mention the well-stocked bar again...

And there's more

We've never done this before but it's good to get the Clubhouse used to the max in the winter and this looks like a great idea for those people who like working with greenery indoors as well as out. Limited places only so book early if you can.

You get to take your creation home as well obviously...

Christmas Out of the Blue!

Don't miss this either. This band makes an amazingly solid sound and has a vocalist to match. You'll know if you caught their outdoor performance in summer. They sound even better blasting it out while squashed into a section of the Clubhouse. It's live and it's free. Get there early for a good seat!

Boring but Important Stuff.

All of the padlocks are now working properly as far as we know. If you have a problem, call in the Clubhouse if it's open. There's usually someone from the committee who can help. or email madahal.site1@gmail.com. Please don't fill the lock with WD40 - we then have to spend time degunking the mechanism before we can fix it properly.
Rent. 95% of plotters have paid up - many thanks for your cooperation. And it's nice to get the chance to talk to tenants, pick up gossip, get their grumbles and - this year in particular - quite a few word of thanks which is much appreciated . We've been thinking about whether to move to a system of encouraging everyone to pay direct into the association bank account. It would save hours of volunteer time sitting in the Clubhouse for three weekends then processing the results. And more and more people are used to doing it this way anyway. On the other hand it would probably give rise to mistakes that we can't fix immediately and we'd lose the human contact. What do you think?

Which would you prefer?