Shepherds Hill Allotments

Dates for the diary

• Sunday 24^th August 12.00: Barn discussion group followed by lunch at 1.00.  Nevil will give some tips on composting.
• Sunday 31^st August: 10.30 maintenance working party: special focus on the green composting area (see below)
• Wed 10^th September: 10.30 – 12.00 Café at the Barn
• Sunday 28^th September: 12.00 Esther’s bee talk and lunch
• Winter Warmer: Sunday 30^th November 12.00 -3.00
• AGM: April 26^th  2026, 12.00

Reminders

• The next site inspection will be in the autumn.  Please make sure your plot is clearly numbered.
• If you want to circulate or put up a notice on the site please write in with details to info@ 
• Water wisely! (see image above).  Also see the advice on the Haringey Allotment Forum website: https://www.haringeyallotmentforum.org.uk/documents 

The green compost area and a maintenance Working Party Special – HELP NEEDED
On Sunday 31^st August from 10.30 am we are holding a special maintenance working party where we need as many helpers as possible to help reorganise the green composting area.  The composting plot has been a victim of its own success and is so well used it has become unwieldly and needs attention.  The maintenance team are developing a plan for it and need help moving piles of green material.  There will be free cake and coffee provided – please come and help if you can.
 
In the meantime if you have green waste hold on to it on your plot until after 31^st August, when it should be clearer where and how to use the bays.  
 
The committee are exploring how best to organise and aerate the composting bays.  We also want to encourage plot holders to compost as much of their waste as possible on their own plots.  This Sunday 24^thAugust Nevil Yildiz will be at the Barn discussion at 12.00 to give composting tips.  And later in the autumn we hope to have Gary Sycamore repeat his popular composting masterclass! 
 
Some tenants have asked about access to the site in an emergency:  

• The emergency services have access to the site with the special locks we have on the gates. 
• The address of the site is Shepherds Hill Allotments, Montenotte Rd, N88RL.
• We are going to put a site map with plot numbers on a new noticeboard outside the trading shed.
• You may want to download the what3words app on your phone.  This app can be used by emergency services to locate a caller’s location to within 3 square metres.

Messages from plot holders
Message from Colin Reading, plot 6A:
On behalf of the cider group I'm looking for more members who are interested in participating and or donate apples for the cider group. The main task is the cutting up grinding and pressing of the apples (Saturday or Sunday mornings). Last year we gave bottles of fresh juice to those who participated, the remainder went to make cider for distribution around Xmas ( those who just supplied apples are eligible for cider as well). The pressings are made into cider vinegar by Annie to be sold at the plant sales etc. (very sought after).
 
If you are interested please contact me.
 
Message from Jill Morrell, plot 9B:
We have inherited a pond on our plot with some filtering equipment, but we are not sure how best to use the equipment and what we need to do to make best use of the pond.  Is there anyone with some pond expertise who’d be willing to come and have a look and give us some advice? Please contact me.
 
Hands off our allotments petitions 
You may have read in the news recently about the selling off of some allotment sites.  There are two petitions currently circulating with more information:
https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/hands-off-our-allotments
https://www.change.org/p/protect-allotment-lands-from-council-sales
 

Thank you to all who helped make our annual plant sale such a success – to the many people who donated plants and other items for sale, made cakes, helped on the day, and who came along and made it such a lovely sociable event.  We raised a record £2,700, half of which we donate to the Harington Scheme.   
 
Also our thanks to all who attended the AGM last month.  It was a sell-out with standing room (outside) only!  Draft minutes of the meeting will be up on the website shortly.  There were lots of good suggestions and comments, all of which will be explored by the committee going forward.
 
Bruno pointed out that next year is the centenary year for the site.  We would love to hear from anyone who has any interesting snippets of social history or old photos or suggestions of where we might research more about the early days and development of the site. We are planning several events to mark the centenary – watch this space!
 
Dates for your diary
 

 
 
Reminder: Don’t forget Gary Sycamore’s mini plant sales, taking place on his plot 108 on Sundays during May and June from 2 – 3pm.  A wide variety of veg and flower plants for sale.