Does your allotment site decorate or not?

It’s an odd one isn’t it? We don’t. Not a single wreath or twinkly light, at least so far, and I walked the site this morning (in the freezing cold) to check. Of course that could be in part because our allotment office has been closed for a couple of weeks and will remain closed until New Year, for essential work removing asbestos from the walls and repairing the roof. Without that hub for our activities I suspect most of us are simply shooting up to our plots, grabbing a few Brussels Sprouts etc, and shooting home again to the warmth. I did speak to Ron, who’d come up to gather some veg, and he agreed that people weren’t hanging around because there was nowhere warm to hang, and nowhere to get a nice hot cuppa!

But driving around the Midlands the other day (as you do) I was amazed at how much tinsel and tree decorating there was on show at allotment locations there. Really some plots looked like little landing strips with their glittery LED lights. It was very jolly. I wonder what makes the cultural difference between decorators and non-decorators – does one person start the trend and everybody else follow on, or is there some kind of council bye-law that allows it in some places and frowns on it in others? Drop us a line if you think you know the answer.

Meanwhile I snapped this picture a few weeks ago: the nice people at BHOGGS had probably hung these peppers in their tree to allow them to ripen without being attacked by mice – but it looks suitably festive, doesn’t it?

Labels: allotment-appearance, allotment-december, allotment-facilities

Salford lead the way in recycling ... their own waste products!

Salfords's allotmenteers are an imaginative bunch. The plot holders at Tindall Street allotments, in Peel Green, are hoping displays will come up smelling of roses after their own 'manure' is spread on their flowers.

Dan Griffiths, site manager, said, "We are very proud to have this toilet - we think it’s the first of it’s kind in Salford and will help us plough back manure into our plots. We won’t be using it on our fruit and vegetables - just on the flowers."

The toilet unit, bought with a £6,000 Lottery grant, has two internal boxes. After availing him or herself of the facilities, the user puts a handful of sawdust-type material inside the toilet bowl to encourage composting. After a year, the compost will be ready to be used on the allotments.

When that happens, the gardeners will transfer their attentions to the other box and the whole process starts all over again.

Labels: allotment-compost, allotment-facilities, allotment-toilets