Site Committee meeting January 6th 2016
The newly elected site committee held its first meeting on 6th January. See the minutes here. There are new volunteers to deal with site repairs, fundraising and procedural stuff. If you'd like to get more involved just email the committee at shepherdshillallotments@gmail.com. There's also a reference to the Haringey Allotment Forum. It's important because, once again, Haringey is kicking around the idea of devolving its allotments.There will be a Haringey allotment steering committee on which we hope to have representation from Shepherd's Hill - more details to follow. The next Allotment Forum meeting is on 9th April and open to all tenants across the Borough.
Site inspection - possibly due, possibly not...
Our annual site inspection is due, possibly, in early Spring. Or perhaps not. But please be ready just in case. To be clear, the decision to evict tenants is not taken by the Site Secretary or the Site Committee, it's taken by the Council. If you think there's a danger you'll get a dirty plot notice and there's a good reason why you haven't been able to do any work on your plot, then please let us know in advance. We'll try to help and we'll argue your case. Remember, there's a two strikes and you're out rule if you get two dirty plot notices in any three inspections, so please flag up any problems before this happens.
Plant Sale May 29th - please grow extra plants
The Plant Sale is almost certain to be on May 29th. Please put in a few extra seeds and pot them up with this in mind. More details to follow.
A date for your diary
The Highgate Horticultural Society has been around since 1860. They have 3 shows a year and are looking to expand their entries. The Spring show mostly features spring bulbs and cut flowers and is on 2nd April at the United Reformed Church, Pond Square from 2-4 pm. Entries need to be sent to info@highgatehorticulturalsociety.org.uk by 31 March and entries are set up between 9am and 11am on the morning of the show. For more details see the website, or call Roxane Stirling on 020 7263 6831. The later shows also have vegetable classes and we'll be posting details and reminders nearer the time.
Another date for your diary
The CHADAHS Annual Flower and Produce Show will take place on the 10th September 2016. The CHADAHS committee ask you to please put the date in your diary now but also keep the Show in mind when you are planning what to grow this coming season. The Trading Shed will be carrying a range of seeds that are perfect for growing prize winning produce. And there's a good chance the extraordinarily prestigious 'most improved allotment' trophy will be revived this year. For more information and details of previous winners to inspire you please go to the website www.chadahs.org.uk
Working parties and volunteers
We have very little money and there's lots of repairs and maintenance to do. So whether it's helping to weed the flowerbed at the Montenotte Road entrance or laying drainage across the main path, we need as much help as we can get. We'll work around people's availability, but if you could commit to a couple of hours a month, or every quarter, that would be a huge help. Email the site committee at shepherdshillallotments@gmail.com. Every hour you give is an hour we don't have to pay for someone to come in and do work we could do ourselves, so every hour counts. In the meantime, if everyone who passes pulls out a couple of weeds from the Montenotte Road flowerbed that would be a start...
Say no to saplings!
There are a lot of unwanted saplings springing up over the site, and we don't need any more sycamores - just Gary. Now is a good time to get them out. If in doubt about what you've got, email, and someone from the committee will come to advise.
Rubbish
Other than for reasons of death, chronic indisposition or eviction (and really not even then), it's your job to take away your own rubbish. We no longer get skips free from the council, it's expensive to do it ourselves, and rubbish amnesties inevitably lead to piles of broken glass in a rat-infested, refuse shanty town. So if you're thinking of skip-diving and liberating those shower screens and old sash windows you may not actually get around to using, please, just say no.
Allotment Cookbook
A final call for recipes for the Shepherds Hill Allotment cookbook. Please send Tracy and Cath your favourite allotment recipes by 31st January - click here for details. All proceeds to Macmillan Nurses.
Future SHA site committee meetings
These will all be held at the Victoria Stakes who have kindly donated space for free. The next meeting will be on 12th April. To get items on the agenda email shepherdshillallotments@gmail.com