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Newletter - December 2020

29 November 2020

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CAPELALLOTMENTS ASSOCIATION'S - GUIDE TO GARDENING IN DECEMBER

Season's greetings to all our members and readers.

VEG PLOT: - Continue with your winter digging incorporating recycled garden waste. Mushroom Compost at £30 a ‘Bucket’ load delivered to your plot, phone 310380 or call in to the Mushroom Farm to order a load.  Sow or plant lettuce under cloches. Feed compost heaps with sulphate of ammonia. Check brassicas for white fly & spray as necessary. Harvest sprouts & winter cabbage. Leeks & parsnips can be left in the ground until needed. Check, clean & oil tools including secateurs, lines, watering cans, sprayers & wheelbarrows. Replacements make excellent Christmas presents! Check stored crops for rat or mouse damage (bait sachets £1).

FRUIT: - Apply a Winter Tree Wash (500ml £9.50) to fruit trees and bushes to control over-wintering insect pests. Order & plant trees & bushes with a dusting of bone meal.

GREENHOUSE: - Empty greenhouse & wash down with Jeyes. Line with 1.5m wide bubble plastic (£2 a mtr.). Bring in all frost tender plants. Check for & spray white fly with Insect Gun (£3.40). Sow carrots in a large pot and main crop onions & leeks in pots on Boxing Day.

FLOWERS: - Tidy boarders & mulch with wood chips or chipped bark (80ltrs £5).Ventilate chrysanthemum stools in cold frames. Wrap potted plants in fleece.

LAWNS: - Aerate badly drained areas. Mow with blades set high. Clean & overhaul equipment . Contact Steve Blake for repairs & service on 07813814623 or TGC Garden Machinery Services Tattingstone  for repairs & service & new equipment at very competitive prices on01473 327737. CARE. STALE FUEL OVER 4 WEEKS OLD can damage carburettors and cause poor starting & engines to run rough. Use fuel additives to keep fuel fresh.

All items are available to our members from a range of quality products provided to meet basic gardening needs. Membership is just £5 per annum. Find an application form on our web site.


ALLOTMENT NEWS

2020. An ever changing year for every one seeing our calendar of events and meetings frequently amended and most things eventually being scrapped. The spring work-in, AGM, site visits, Annual Flower & vegetable show, the New Picnic at the Plot summer social and a temporary closing of The Hut. Committee Meetings by phone and WhatsApp group then socially distanced. However the Site remained open and became our plot holders chosen form of exercise, plots were worked, grass was cut, and the sun shone (and we had several weeks of constant watering to do), fruit and veg grew and the Allotments looked amazing, and all this was captured from above with brilliant monthly aerial photography. We launched into a free delivery service, gained new members and had an autumn work-in which cleared a stack of jobs and have built a new meeting room and still have more to do and the Polytunnel we built need a major referb. So, we have a waiting list for both plots and Polytunnel plots, seeds are being ordered through our seed scheme, Hut stock is organised and mushroom compost is being delivered. Lockdown or whatever, in 2021 nature demands that plants must and will grow. Enjoy your gardening.


 THE HUT-winter closing - We re-open on Saturday the 6th February 2021. Until then Members are welcome to follow the Online Sales format for all your gardening requirements - Fleece, Bubble plastic, in fact our full range of garden products and other sundry items such as :- Water softener salt, Block Salt, Wild Bird Seed, Pea Nuts & Lump Wood Charcoal (for the winter hardy cooks)………..

PRICE RISES: - From 1st December Clover Multi-Purpose compost will rise to £5.50 and Melcourt Peat Free compost will rise to £6.50

CULTIVATOR HIRE - A cultivator is available for hire for on site use only. The fee is £10 for the first 2 hours. To hire this equipment please give Dennis as much notice as possible or for any matters relating to the site please contact Dennis.   

POLYTUNNEL - Polytunnel plotholders. We are hoping that at some point during December we will be in a position to recover the polytunnel. It will help us greatly if you can make yourselves available to help with this operation.  


STAY SAFE. SOCIAL DISTANCE, EAT FRESH HEALTHY FOOD. EXERCISE.