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Newsletter 29 – AUTUMN 2017
EVENTS CALENDAR 2017We are coming to the end of our Social year now but are still anticipating members` involvement in our monthly Sunday morning “cake and chat” and:
Sunday 5th November - 11am Sausage and Bacon butties at the monthly gathering
We will give you more details by email and on notices on the gate and on the board outside the hut.
SUMMER BBQ IN JULYGazebos set up, chairs and tables ready, a good selection of food prepared by the Committee and the BBQ fired up for our Annual Social do. This was, as usual, a happy and food filled event but although enjoyable, was not as well attended by our plot holders as we had hoped. The Committee will be canvassing opinion from you as to what YOU would like by way of a social event in the summer. We have been doing the Summer BBQ for some time now and maybe it's time for a change! If you have any ideas, please stop any one of us and let us know.
SITE MATTERSWe currently have 5 people on the waiting list and there are no vacant plots. Bonfires will be allowed from 1st October to 1st March on Tuesdays after 12md and the first Saturday of the month after 12md. They must be extinguished, if not burnt out, by dusk.The barrier will be put up near the hut to preserve the main path from damage from cars during the wetter months.
Regular inspections of plots have taken place over the Summer conducted by Phil Bruce Green, the Parks and Green Spaces Officer at the Council. He also gave up part of his weekend to come to the Sustainable Gardens Open Day so, putting a face to a name, he can be seen with Kim in the photos of the event below.
Once again we are grateful to Ross Parker and his son, Joe for their constant supply of chippings to our enclosure at the entrance to the site. We had a bit of an oversupply near the gate but hopefully the heap will go down over time. We have managed to source a new manure supplier and will let you know when it is coming. You can still help yourself to bagged manure from outside the field in Tippendale Lane. We thank you for helping us to keep the site tidy by taking your rubbish home or to the dump. If you don`t do it the area near the gate just becomes a dumping ground or a Committee member has to dispose of it somehow. Following a suggestion from one of our new members who didn`t know who was who or where the plots are, there is now a Site Plan with names of plot holders, on the wall in the hut.
SUNDAY CHATIt is good to see so many of you on our monthly coffee and cake gatherings. We will keep going during the Autumn until 5th November, where we will be finishing the season with another of our popular Sunday brunches at the usual time of 11am – first come first served!
BEST PLOT COMPETITION 2017AYLETT NURSERIES have done it again. They have supported Burydell by judging and donating prizes for our Best Plot Competition. Dennis, the Plant Manager at Ayletts, spent ages making his choice and had a very difficult job given the stunning display on many of our plots. Well done to
all the recipients of a coveted Ayletts voucher! He chose Aly and Adrian on Plot 38, here celebrating with Mum and a glass or two of the red stuff!
Winners:Best Plot on Burydell – Plot 38 – Alyson and Adrian FrickerBest Plot Runner up - Plot 29 - Jan Castle and Pat SolomonsBest Newcomer - Plot 27a - Martin StevensBest Newcomer Runner up - Plot 27c - Lorraine Dogget and her son Nathan Our successful Newcomers – Martin on Plot 27a, an addition to his first plot 26a and Lorraine,Plot 27c who, with her young son, has been slaving away for only a few months on their new plot. Nathan is an enthusiastic member of his school gardening club and we welcome such a young enthusiast to Burydell.
TRANSITION ST ALBANS, OPEN FOOD GARDENS 2017 Transition St Albans promotes and encourages sustainability in our community. Many groups, churches, schools and businesses in the area are involved in organising films, lectures, talks, guided nature walks, open days at Building Research Institute open vegetable gardens, and repair workshops with the emphasis on growing your own food. So we were very pleased when they approached us to see if we would like to be included in their Open Food Gardens events. This was a first for us and we felt that it would be a good opportunity to show off our lovely site to local friends and neighbours as well as Transition St Albans visitors.So on Sunday 2nd July Burydell allotmenteers showed off their skills! We advertised locally, hoping to attract local interest in our site and in allotment gardening generally. We were not disappointed - we had a large number of visitors - both via the Transition St Albans programme, and local friends and neighbours. The Committee provided refreshments for a nominal donation which was donated to Transition St Albans. They were delighted by the interest shown and the number of people who attended. We were especially pleased by the large number of you who chose to be on site and talk to passing strangers about your plot, including our very own Allotment Officer from the Council, Philip Bruce-Green, who gave up his Sunday morning (in an unofficial capacity of course!) A bonus for visitors? They went home with an idea that they may want to have an allotment themselves and took some produce
donated by you. Thanks once again to all of you who helped to make it a success!
Helen from Transition St Albans wrote the following after the event on Burydell.Congratulations to the Allotment Holders. It was a huge success and very pleasant and successful. There were numerous allotment holders there. They had invited friends and neighbours and put up posters around Park Street. They provided tea andreally super home-made cakes. They requested donations for the tea and cakes and, at the end of the morning, emptied what they had taken into the main pot. We counted 32 visitors plus 2
children. It may not be quite accurate as it could be difficult to distinguish visitors from allotment holders. I took £100.55. I was shown round the allotment plots, which was fascinating, peoplewere very friendly and companionable and Nicolas loved the cakes! Thanks to you all.
ANNUAL DONATION TO “GOOD CAUSES” 2017At the AGM members agreed that there were sufficient funds for us to again support a“good cause” this year, nominated by members. Thank you to those of you who took part. As a result of your nomination £100 will be donated to Riding for the Disabled, Waverley Driving Group. Based at Hill Farm, the Group is run by volunteers who give people with disabilities, both mental and physical, the opportunity to develop an interest in horses and carriage driving. SUNFLOWER COMPETITIONLots of sunflowers can be seen on a number of plots, some tall, some multiheaded, some standing alone, others grouped together but all have bees feeding on their flower heads.The Committee did not know which belongs to who and will be looking at photos taken when the sunflowers were at their best, at the Committee meeting on 26th September. We`ll let you now the result by Email. Just a small prize but worth it to see Burydell brightened by different sunflowers.
ST STEPHENS GARDENING CLUBSt Stephen`s Gardening Club held its Annual Show on Saturday 9th September at How Wood School. Judged by RHS experts it is a great community event with classes for all veg, flowers, cakes, jams, pickles, crafts and photography and tea, with cakes made by Jan Davies and Jan Castle. Once again Burydell Allotmenteers were well represented. Here are our winners with some of their winning produce, their certificates, cups and satisfied smiles! A special congratulation to Mark Taylor who bagged three different trophies, including the RHS Bronze Medal for best overall performance, best fruit and most points in the vegetable category – really well done! It was a great event.
The Club has its last talk of the year at the Parish Centre, Bricket Wood. Members and non members welcome on 17th November – AGM and Talk – Butterflies of France.
SITE FOR POSSIBLE REDVELOPMENT OPPOSITE THE ALLOTMENTSThe following information provided the BLAA Committee with knowledge of a possible development in years to come. In due course we will submit comments. Please give your comments to any committee member so that we can fully represent our members.
Nicholas Tyndale, Parish Counsellor, reported that Neighbourhood Planning was created by the 2011 Localism Act. Without a Neighbourhood Plan, local people would have less influence on local development. Our Neighbourhood Plan (which will cover St Stephen Parish) is being developed by a Steering Group supported by the Parish Council. The group was required to put out a ‘call for sites’ asking local landowners to identify sites suitable for development.(St Albans District Council made a similar ‘call’ to inform its Local Plan.) The land opposite the allotments is one of 21 suggested sites. The agent has suggested it would be suitable for 30 homes, a mix of 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms, with vehicular access from the Beeches (with pedestrian access from Burydell Lane). He proposes leaving the riverside boundary undeveloped, with the potential to create a riverside walk joining up with Ver Valley Walk 8. The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group will form views on the suitability of these sites for development, and this will inform the draft Neighbourhood Plan (which will ultimately be put to a referendum). Any site allocated as suitable for development would not necessarily be developed in the form suggested by the agent, and any development would be subject to the usual planning process (but this process will be informed by the Neighbourhood Plan and the Local Plan, once they are in force).
The Steering Group’s views will primarily be informed by two factors: independent expertanalysis of the sites’ suitability; and comments from residents and local organisations.Therefore, both individuals and the BLAA committee are encouraged to submitcomments. Site descriptions, a comment form and additional information about theNeighbourhood Plan are available at:http://www.ststephenparishcouncil.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan/
FRIENDS OF BURYDELL LANE ALLOTMENT ASSOCIATIONWe enjoy the support of many Park Street and Bricket Wood Residents as a result of theAssociation agreeing to extend the hand of friendship to non-allotmenteers. Anyone leaving theallotment is included, if they wish, as a Friend. By being on our Friends mailing list they will:
Be the first to hear about our SOCIAL EVENTS Receive our NEWSLETTER every 4 months Be a part of our thriving ALLOTMENT COMMUNITY Be able to join us for a CUPPA AND CAKE on the first Sunday each month from
11am-12 noon
No subscription is expected, just their interest and involvement. If you know anybody who wouldlike to join as a “Friend” please let Jan know on [email protected]
And finally - the monthly RHS Magazine, The Garden is on the table in the Hut for allMembers to share. Why not have a break from sowing, weeding and muck spreading, enjoya tea or coffee and read The Garden or the hard copy of our Newsletters? The Hut is there forall to use. Please just close the door when you leave.
Your next Newsletter will be out in early February 2017. Any contributions to JanCastle by mid December please.
YOUR COMMITTEEIn the event of site related problems please speak to Pat, Site Liaison Officer, in thefirst instance.
Chair: Kim [email protected] … 07899 844564
Secretary: Barbara [email protected] … 01727 872092
Treasurer: Jan [email protected] … 01727 874842
Site Liaison Officer: Pat Solomons
[email protected] … 01923 671277
Membership/Newsletter: Jan [email protected] … 01923 671277
Information: Barbara [email protected] … 01727 872092
Gill [email protected] … 01727 875399
Derrick Davisderrick.a.davis@btinternet … 01727 873657
Christine [email protected] …07703 498257Jim [email protected] …01727 872014
Chris [email protected] … 01727 875399
Kati [email protected] …07783 404090