Category: Allotment Update

Minutes from the last meeting below:

JULY
Craigentinny Plot-holders’ Meeting
Saturday 14th July 2012

Attendees:
Tom (chair), John M, Norma, Monica, John Mc., Ernie, Joan, Rod, George (Minutes)

1. Chair. Agreed Tom would chair the meeting.
2. Matters arising from the last minutes.
A) Path spraying. Had not been done because of the weather.
B) Toilet Roof. Toilet still very damp inside. Tom had sealed around the ventilator and John M. will seal around the concrete at the bottom.
C) Main path. Needs resurfacing. This was identified as one of our priorities. George will emphasise this when he sends Ian W. the minutes.
D) Strimmer. Petrol now supplied and new line purchased. Thanks to Alec and John M.
3. Scaffolding Planks. John Mc. has collected £13 so far. Plot-holders who have taken planks and not yet paid are reminded to pay 50p. per plank.
4. BBQ. Agreed this would take place on 4 August. Monica will put up a notice.
5. A.O.B
A) The lawn mower. On occasions it is not being cleaned after use. Norma will put a reminder on the machine.
B) The weather. We had a general moan about the weather and expressed concern about plots that were flooded.
C) Leaky tap. Norma reported that a tap on the stand-pipe near her plot was leaking. Rod offered to try and fix it.
6. Date of next meeting – Sat 11th August. George gave his apologies. Monica agreed to take the minutes.

NOTICE TO ALL PLOT-HOLDERS
If you haven’t been sent a copy of these minutes & would like a regular copy in future, then please email me at rubiensk@waitrose.com

Seasonal Tips.

Now that the season is drawing to a close you will probably find that you have uncultivated areas on your plot. Why not sow some green manure?
Green manure is a crop that increases the fertility of your soil, while at the same time, as it grows so quickly it smothers weeds. Double benefit.
There are different types of green manure for different times of the year but they all do the same basic job. One’s that I have tried are Tares, Mustard, Hungarian rye grass and Phacelia. The latter has the added benefit that if you save a little of the seed and sow it in the spring and let it flower (you don’t usually let the plants flower otherwise you get them everywhere!) you will get an attractive blue flower that the bees adore.

So have a go and let me know how you get on.
John McKinlay

Welcome Weed

Some of you may know I have a mild affection for the dreaded Horsetail. When I first got an allotment I was very excited to find I had a great crop of asparagus, only to find it was an invasive weed, which had been around since the dinosaurs. You have to respect something that old and if the dinosaurs couldn’t eradicate it, I decided I’d better try to live with it. You’re unlikely to get rid of it, but provided you pull it out when it appears and improve your soil it will reduce over time, and it really doesn’t interfere too much with your crops. Horsetail has an amazing range of medicinal uses, notably for rebuilding connective tissues, skin, hair and nails. The stalks used to be used to make whistles to ward off spirits, perhaps we could try it to scare off our allotment thieves
Joan Pisanek

Eat the Glut

Courgette Muffins
225g (8 oz) wholemeal flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 175ml (6 fl oz) skimmed milk 2 egg whites 4 tablespoons vegetable oil 4 tablespoons honey 4 oz grated courgette
Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas mark 5. Grease muffin tin or line with paper cases.
Combine wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon, mix thoroughly.
Mix the milk, slightly beaten egg whites, oil, honey and grated courgette together. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just barely moistened. Batter should be thick and lumpy. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full with batter.
Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Looking for a distraction from those allotment weeds. Why not go along to Duddingston Kirk’s Flower Show? Held in the Kirk Hall Sat and Sun 1/2 Sept 2 till 5 Saturday, 4 Sunday. On display you will find plants, flowers, fruit and vegetables as well as jams and handicrafts. Afterwards enjoy a cup of tea with some scrumptious home baking.

www.duddingstonkirk.co.uk/

Contributed by John McKinlay

 Proof that the sun does shine on Craigentinny!!!

Thanks to all those who attended the annual BBQ, I really hope everyone had a great time, the sunny weather and fantastic company made for a great day. It was lovely to see wee John who arrived with a trolley load of his homemade fruit wines and the arrival of a regal couple was an unexpected surprise. Thanks to all those  who cleaned up you did a great job……..

Over the last three years we have been delighted by the support we have had from everyone at Craigentinny Allotments. Turning up to the meetings, come rain or shine and helping at our community work days. Thanks too for all the tea and home baking that facilitated the discussions. We feel that it is time to hand over the reigns to someone else, so if you think that you would like to run the meetings, take the minutes or update the website then please let us know. We are sure you will enjoy it as much as we have done.
John and Monica McKinlay

5th March, 2011
Meeting Minutes
Present: John and Monica, Ernie and Joan, Norma, Rod
Welcome to Alex and Louise Renton (new plot holders) and Barbara Seel (guest from Leith Links).
1. Permission given for FEDAGA committee to meet in our clubhouse for their 7th June meeting.
2. Inverleith shop is now open, Sundays, 2-3.30. Good bargains e.g 2k lime @45p and 1k BF&B @ 55p.
3. Allotment training available – see FEDAGA website. Also on website you can add you e-mail address to be alerted to deals and bargains e.g straw bales and water butts.
4. Bins will resume next week (w/c 7th March).
5. Pond in need of some remedial work and landscaping. Ernie and Joan will organise.
6. Concern was express over the state of the toilet roof. John has been in touch with Ian Woolard who will deal with this. The shed roof may also need maintained.
6. As mentioned at the end of last year, John and Monica will continue to be site reps but will no longer organise or minute the meetings or manage the website. We have always been greatly encouraged by the support given by everyone but feel that after three years we have done our bit. Consequently, we will no longer be doing these jobs but will of course continue to support anyone who takes them forward. To summarise, John will be site rep, Katie is treasurer and anyone else who wants to do any of the other jobs should be in touch.

We will be having our first meeting of the year in March, first Saturday of the month, at 11 o’clock, in the clubhouse as usual.
All welcome!

We have all enjoyed the site BBQs so much that we have decided to have another on the 15th of August. It is a Sunday this time so hopefully more of you will be able to come along and join in the fun.

John and Monica will set up the BBQs for everyone’s use so all you need to do is bring your own food and drink.
We usually start to get ready about twelve while work on the community plot is going on. This time we have big plans to set up some decking and when that is done we will get the food on! Usually an hour or so is as much as we can cope with so food will be about two o’clock.

If you have a battery operated screw driver please bring it along as that would be a big help with the project, thanks.
Looking forward to seeing you there.

Unfortunately it appears that several plot holders have had crops affected by what looks to be contamination of manure by herbicide.  This can affect both the foliage and crop- particularly of potatoes, tomatoes, beans and peas. The leaves may appear “cupped” or fern like and shrivelled.

Our main manure supplier does not use herbicides but does buy in hay etc from other sources who may have used them (or had an adjoining neighbour use them).  The herbicides were banned by the Government but unfortunately are now permitted again.

Current advice is to not use the crops (which may be stunted or deformed in any case).  The beds affected may be safe to use again next season, the recommended length of time differs between sources.

You can carry out a simple test by potting up a tomato seedling or young plant in a mixture of compost and well shredded manure.  If the foliage becomes affected then your manure should not be used, but left to rot down.

There is a lot of information on the subject on the Internet; type in “manure contamination” or “aminopyralid” as keywords.  There is little that can be done unfortunately; it appears to be a widespread problem across the country – the Government should not have allowed the use of these herbicides which are now affecting the food chain.

• A real who-dung-it as keen gardeners kick up a stink (Scotsman)
• Aminopyralid Herbicide Residue in Manure Killing Crops (Allotment.or.uk)
• What to do if you have Aminopyralid Contaminated Manure (Allotment.or.uk)
• Aminopyralid (Wikipedia)

If you do a test, as above, please can you let us know of the outcome so that we can establish the extent of the problem.

The Council has been notified.

Incidentally, there is another crop disease called “Leaf curl virus” which affects potatoes and tomatoes, is a virus spread by aphids, and can look fairly similar (leaves curl upwards becoming hard and brittle).  You can find illustrations of both problems on the Internet, to compare.