Sunday 1st March, 10:00-12:30Great Big Tools ‘n’ Sheds DayAll welcome to help and meet The TeamSpring is just around the corner and time to get all the tools ready for the coming season.
11.00am Coffee Break |
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Monthly Archives: February 2015
Finance Officer
Sustainable Living Initiative is looking for a Part-time Finance Officer (one-day a month). This is a paid position.
Main responsibilities include:
• Maintaining the account spreadsheet and payroll;
• Preparing budgets and financial reports for the management committee
• Preparing end of the year accounts for the Companies House and the Charity Commission.
Good knowledge of Excel essential.
Anyone interested, please contact Mahesh (sustainable@grow-our-own.co.uk)
MaheshSkill-sharing workshop
Sunday 1st of March at 2 pm, at GO2 Bluebell South Allotments
Would you like to learn how to coppice your bean-poles and pea sticks and how to make your Bean Support Frame (see the picture) using locally coppiced products?
Please come and see me after the lunch.
MaheshMuck and Compost
There is now a large pile of horse manure at the crossroads – follow the path down from the greenhouse.
Please use only as much as you need.
We also have a HUGE amount of garden compost available which is ready for use. – You may wish to sieve this, sieves are available in the blue shed.
The compost ready for use is located in three bays:
- Next to the horse manure and newer compost bay at the crossroads.
- Next to the red shed.
- At the top of our site, between the leaves and the newer compost bay.
(Newer compost bays are those still being added to – the material in these is not yet ready to be used as it has yet to rot down) .
A reminder please, when adding garden waste to the newer compost bays, please shake off as much soil as possible and also cut down into bits / break up any larger brown material – basically we don’t want large items such as sweetcorn and brussel sprouts stalks going in whole – they would take forever to break down.
Thankyou
PS. If you’re unsure, ask other growers, rather than just guessing what to use – if you use compost which is unready, you may introduce weeds to your plot.
First Sunday Food Share
‘Food Share‘ is on this Sunday, 1st March, at 1pm in the big shed.
If this is your first Food Share then please bring a dish and/ drink to share & come along to meet the other friendly growers.
Please let me know if you have signed up for the Food Team as we’d like to welcome you to the group.
Finally, if anyone has any spare serving spoons then we’d appreciate having them. Some of ours have gone missing!
A reminder for those who may not have seen the Bluebell Events webpage… Food Share is preceded by Tool Tidy in the morning.
Jane G. (Maintenance Team)The Answer Lies in the Soil …
We are in‘2015 Year of the Soil’’ and there is plenty on-line for anyone interested in the subject. For example, I was reminded that it is the first 7cms of our soil that is so very important, which also means we should think before we dig. By turning over this top-soil regularly we are burying millions of micro-organisms each time we do it.
At GO2 Bluebell our soil is very sandy and alkaline. It needs TLC and its humus building up regularly. This way water will not run through the topsoil so quickly, the micro-organisms can do their various jobs, more worms will be attracted, and crops will be healthier. Having got my plot clear of couch grass, by using a fork, I don’t dig any more. I try to keep the hoe going through the topsoil regularly and just ‘riffle’ in any compostable material I can get into the surface.
Happy riffling!
Peter AThe beginning of March
As the weather warms up a bit it is time to think about sowing Peas, Turnip, Beetroot, Radish, Parsnip and spring sown Broad Beans, do remember to label where you have sown everything, they do take time to germinate and it is very easy to forget where you put them!
Look at our handy guide to planting…(Click here)
Tessa – Seeds TeamBroad beans and Courgettes – When to Harvest?
Keep in touch
If you are not receiving the newsletter you may be reading this on our blog.
If you know of anyone who doesn’t get this newsletter, but wants to, tell them to look on our website at http://grow-our-own.co.uk/members-area/newsletters/#main where they can sign-up or just read from the archive. Remember the password is “shallots”.
Care to give?
Peter A. is asking for anyone who can spare some perennial flowering plants – not shrubs – to bring them to the Bluebell GO2 Centre and or reply to this newsletter.
They are to be planted in the quadrangle at Nightingale Care Home, Welborne, near Dereham, which needs cheering up.
Here are 7 favourite perennials, Salvia, Foxglove, Euphorbia, Erysimum, Lupins, Verbena, Penstemon
A Time to Read…
The Tenth Anniversary Annual Report is published – click here →
(or here for a summary)
… and a Time to Sow
Now is the time to sow beetroot, Radish, Parsnip, Spring Garlic and Broad Beans, if you missed out last Autumn, and don’t forget to mark each row of seeds! The seeds are in The Centre (the green shed) at the back. It is important to try and rotate your crops, there are charts to explain this on the Seed and Plant notice board (and here on our website).
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Keys
The keys to the shed and loo are missing from the pot with the blue lid. Have you taken them away by mistake? If so, please bring them back as it is quite expensive to keep having keys cut.
Official re-opening!
On Sunday 15 February we open again from 10 – 1 pm for the new growing season.
Please come and see us. Phil, Rita and Christine will be there. We would like to see familiar faces and meet people who’ve joined recently.