Stanwick Allotment Society Notes of Meeting 9 Tuesday 11th October Courtman Road, Stanwick

Transcription

1 Stanwick Allotment Society Notes of Meeting 9 Tuesday 11th October Courtman Road, Stanwick Attended - Dave Cox (chair), Hilary Merricks (secretary), John Chatley (treasurer), Apologies: Julie Paterson, Kathy Walmsley, 1. Minutes of last meeting Agreed in the meeting 2. Finance Grants o Grants for All CLOSED o Aviva grant application carried forward (next round of funding opens on 16 Sept) approx. 1k available CLOSED o Woodland Trust will get 30 whips, and will reapply in Spring o National Allotment Society Grant 200 received, may use some of this to improve the vacant space o Potential Race Group grant next year sent letter to Terry Coleman or Les Marchant o Co-op no project at the moment Funds: o Allotment Society funds now have a balance of in the bank 3. Membership National o John to try the Corby branch for someone to visit; also trying to get password for membership o Update 1: regional rep will now attend the meeting on 29 th November, so this will be at the village hall and open to all tenants o Update 2: John trying to get password to access members are of website so that we can order Kings seeds on-line and access other member benefits (some technical issues) Kings seeds catalogues distributed 4. Parish council Minutes of meeting in September noted

2 5. AGM issues raised Water supply quotes for extension to be discussed at November Parish Council meeting Parish council approved the extra small gate, so unlikely to approve a full-size gate Vacant area agreed that top soil from Richard can be used to level it off and sow with grass seed; have a look on 22 nd and agree area for composting. Ask Taff how much it would cost in materials and get some pallets Community garden rotovator agreed that we don t want to take responsibility for letting other people use it We won t advertise items like this for sale on the allotment notice board Tenants cannot use storage container for valuable machinery 6. Any other business Use of poly tunnel next year need to see how many want to use the poly tunnel again next year, likely to be 10pa ( sent to all tenants - 13/10/2016) Community garden AGM provisional date of 9th November (venue TBA) allotment tenants to be invited Consider joining the two committees to one; see if Jenny has an opinion about this Christmas Fayre community garden will do a game; allotments not planning to attend Date of next meeting: 7pm Tuesday 29 th November Village Hall Minutes Agreed: Date:

3 Minutes of Stanwick Community Garden Meeting Wednesday 21 st September Present: Dave Cox, John Chatley, Brenda Marshall, Wilma Harris, Alison Neville. Apologies: Carolyn Brawn The minutes of the meeting held on 8 th August 2016 were read. It was agreed it was a true account. We have realised that there are still rabbits within the boundary, probably due to people not shutting the gate. They are in the car park and would very quickly get in if this is not addressed. We agreed to point it out to anybody seen leaving the gate open. The Church Fete went well. Although it didn t raise a lot of money it raised awareness of the Garden and its aims. Carolyn organised a guess the weight of the marrow competition, which went down really well, and we sold potatoes, Courgettes, marrows and potted plants. We also thought that the open day went well despite the rain. We sold quite a few plants on the day and nearly all of the cakes that were donated by various people. We still have ten builders type shovels and we don t seem to be having much luck in returning them, or swapping them for something else. We may have to sell them off. There was a joint meeting on 3 rd September with The Pocket Park and the Allotment Society. This meeting has its own minutes, but it was asked who is responsible for the grass cutting in the various areas. It was confirmed that the Pocket park has responsibility for its area, apart from the playing field in the middle which the Parish Council are responsible for. The Allotment Society and The Community Garden are responsible for their 2 acres of land, and the Social Area is the responsibility of The Parish Council. We have jointly applied for 1200 whips to plant along the borders, but so far have only received 38. This is apparently a mistake. The Community garden is hoping to get around 400. There is a plan to cut back the shrubs on either side of the main gate as you come into the car park this Autumn so that there is a clear 25 feet either side to aid visibility. The next joint meeting will be in February 2017 The Allotment Society held its first AGM this week and they may be asked to take on their own management in But they will have the chance to say that they are not ready yet.

4 The treasurer s report revealed that all the monies from the recent sales have not been collected yet. It was agreed that we should not purchase new items with the cash before it has gone through the books, as it is difficult to keep track of it this way. It was decided to leave the plants in the polytunnel if they are ok in there over- winter, although we will have to maintain some sort of watering rota. The boards with the watering record seem to be working but we are going to have a notebook in addition to leave each other messages about what has been done and anything that needs doing. Dave will get this. Dave is going to donate the pumpkins to the School and pre-school. It was suggested that we invite them to come and pick them, or choose them, hoping that this will encourage them to come and take an interest in their raised beds. We thought this to be a good idea. Wilma suggested a barrow next year for the sales of produce to save anything going to waste. During the summer months we should have this regularly in the car park and if it can t be manned have an honesty box. It was thought that the Allotment holders wouldn t mind contributing any surplus produce to the Community Garden funds. It was agreed that we should discuss this further nearer the time. It was explained to the new members of the committee that none of the produce grown in the Community Garden belongs to any one individual, and we need to find ways of distributing or selling plants and vegetables to help our funds or to give to the Community. As the plots in the polytunnel were probably only supposed to be rented out for the first year we will have to review this in March. We could use them next year for growing our own tomatoes, peppers etc. it was pointed out that we would have to tend these plants, but hopefully we will have new members by then who would take part in this. We discussed the manure situation and John confirmed that it had all been used on the fruit cage area. We decided to try and get some top soil for the raised beds. We looked at the future plans once more and decided that we will need to dig over the area ready for the Sensory garden and the Chamomile lawn. We will look at the cost of seed ready for the spring and have the ground prepared before then. We may mix Thyme with the Chamomile as this is a better perfume when walked on. Carolyn, or Carolyn and Brenda will purchase any plants for the Sensory garden that need planting now, such as Roses and grasses. But we will need to look at the plan again before planting these. John will be planting the fruit in the fruit cage soon, and due to the lack of space it was decided to keep the strawberries in the raised beds or in the ground outside. We may need to purchase a mesh Cloche next year to protect them from birds. Or we could just fix some netting over the raised beds.

5 It was decided to dig up the Antirrhinums as they are looking quite sad now, and it would be good to clear the raised beds as much as possible ready for the top soil. We will also be planning what to grow in the spring for the Village planting and will meet with Tim Page in the near future to decide. We discussed obtaining some trays to stand pots in. It was decided to get a couple but said that not all plants like to sit in water and that the staging has slats to enable free drainage. The wood is pressure treated so it should stand up to it. The subject of the address was discussed. Dave said that if he sends a message to all committee members sometimes he gets a reply sent back just to him. If the recipients always reply to everybody then we will all be able to see what is going on. We set a date for The Community garden AGM (also to be our next meeting) for 26 th October in the Stanwick Club. This has been booked.

6 Minutes of Stanwick Community Garden Meeting 5 th October 2016 in the meeting room at Stanwick Club Present: Dave Cox, John Chatley, Carolyn Brawn, Brenda Marshall, Alison Neville, Members of the garden:- Clare Annable, Janet Carrington Apologies: Wilma harris The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 21 st September 2016 were read. It was agreed it was a true account. Carolyn and Brenda are planning to buy the roses to grow over the archway into the sensory garden, when time allows. The area needs to be dug over before they are purchased. At the same time they will price up some trays for the polytunnel. It is thought that we will need some for the spring when growing seedlings and probably will need some gravel to use a couple of trays to stand the succulents on. John reported that now he has collected the monies in from the sales that we had, there is a balance of Some of this can be used for the trays and the roses. East Northants Community Fund has provided the money to purchase the fruit bushes that will go in the fruit cage. The Stanwick Christmas Fayre and Christingle was discussed and it was decided that Stanwick Community Garden should have a stall, inside the village Hall if possible. As there will be no produce to sell at this time we will have a game for the children and promotional material to raise awareness of the garden. Alison is going to research a game that she has seen. Janet volunteered to make tree decorations from plastic fruit and vegetables and cover them with glitter. Carolyn will source a Christmas tree about 3ft tall to go outside the village hall. Clare volunteered to represent us on the Christmas Fayre planning group. At the present time it appears that most of the group are available on the day of the Fayre. St Laurence Church has decided to hold their Harvest Festival on 3 rd week in September next year, and they are going to combine this with a produce show. At the end of this some of the produce will be auctioned to raise money for the Church. We agreed that we would donate some produce for this. Dave will inform Hilary that we are willing to be involved. John has made a suggestion to change the way we manage the Community Garden and gave us all a written copy of his ideas, with a plan attached. The initial discussion on this subject resulted in various opinions. Generally it was thought that some of it was good, but not all of it.

7 The concerns raised were that we would all need to go and think about it before making any decisions. There was no provision for Community Groups such as the School, or Pre-School, and they may want to come along in the spring. Have we given other groups enough of a chance to be involved yet? Janet said that she would be willing to help with the children if the school do manage to come in the spring. Dave will be seeing the School soon about the pumpkins that he is going to donate for Halloween, so he will talk to them once more. It was thought to be good that one or two people should have responsibility for certain areas within the garden so that helpers would know who to ask where to plant, or which jobs need doing. But that they would not actually make major decisions about their area. It was also discussed that we might want a large whiteboard to leave messages for each other, but decided to try a notebook first. John s suggestion that we grow less vegetables and more flowers is still under discussion, especially as we had already agreed to supply vegetables to the Church for the harvest celebrations. There was no herb garden on John s plan and we already have a quite well established herb garden which Clare said she wouldn t mind looking after. One of John s ideas was to continue letting out plots in the polytunnel to allotment holders and also have plots to rent in front of the polytunnel. The idea being that it will bring in revenue and it helps to keep the work down for the Community Garden helpers. It was pointed out that if we used the whole of the polytunnel for the Garden that it would become very difficult to water it especially in the summer as it would take an hour or two to water all of it. However, it was also said that we could have a lot more helpers in the spring and the facilities should be for the Community, not for the Allotment holders. Should anybody be growing things for themselves in a Community Garden? It also may prevent people from becoming interested in the garden if they cannot potter about in the polytunnel. It was suggested that we might give somebody the responsibility of organising the polytunnel. Another idea was to shrink down the size of the plots to rent and keep half of the left side for growing tomatoes, peppers, etc. Bearing in mind that we have already committed to growing flowers for the village planting, it was agreed that we will fill the staging quite easily next year. Another concern is that the way we do things at the moment there has been a lot of wastage because we haven t yet set in place a way to distribute the produce. John asked everybody concerned to forward their comments to him by in the next two weeks so that he might put together a proposal for the AGM. Carolyn asked again if we had a chance of getting a refund on the shovels from Raunds Hardware. Dave said that Jenny is looking into this. We had a brief discussion about access to the Community Garden by the elderly or disabled.

8 We have raised beds for wheelchair users, but access to the site is difficult. The car park is gravel and almost impossible to cross in a wheelchair, and then the ground is not flat inside. Although we do not have anybody at present in need of these facilities who wishes to visit the garden, it may stop people from being interested. Watering in the polytunnel for the next few weeks will be Alison-Friday and Sunday Carolyn -Thursday and Saturday Janet- Mondays and others when they can, bearing in mind that during the darker evenings watering will need to be done during the day. The date for the AGM will be decided when everybody s availability is known.