It is essential that cans and containers which have been used for any chemicals or pesticides, organic or not, are NOT washed out in the tanks. Please ensure they are thoroughly rinsed via the tap and emptied onto the soil before they are immersed in the tank. Also, please don’t wash tools in the tank as this can create a build-up of sediment at the bottom.

They may be small at the moment, but very soon the courgettes, tomatoes, beans and all your other crops are going to be bursting out. How do you deal with the glut? Make chutneys, main dishes, puddings, cakes, wine? Recipe suggestions please to the editor.

To start the ball rolling, here’s one from Michael, adapted from Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food recipe book.

Try cooking your green beans in vegetable stock spiked with a little chilli (this works well when they get a bit old and stringy):

Top and tail the beans, chop roughly and fry in a little vegetable oil with some chopped spring onion and a small chilli pepper. After a few minutes, pour in enough vegetable stock to just cover the beans. Then simmer for 6 or 7 minutes. Delicious, especially when served with spare ribs or pork chops!

A few holders have ponds on their plots. The pros are that they can attract wildlife, especially frogs and toads, and water-loving plants can be grown. The cons are they can be a breeding area for mosquitoes and there is the possibility of danger to children and others. If you have a pond, put in oxygenating plants to keep the water from becoming stagnant and cover the pond with a strong wire mesh.

Do you have one to pass on to other gardeners? Here are a few from plotholders. Please send in your own. Even if you think it may be well known, there will always be someone for whom it’s new.

“Last year I was too late to buy seed potatoes. I had some shop-bought ones that were beginning to sprout, so I put them in and had a good crop.”

— Abigail Bunney (8b)

“Lidl in Feltham is a good place to buy gardening items. I bought some cloches with hoops and a perforated plastic cover for £2.99.”

— Daphne Wheeler (13a)

“I sow onions and carrots together and have not had the carrots affected by carrot fly. I found this better than using fly-resistant varieties.”

— Sue O’Callaghan (20a)

“Lots of the plastic materials used for food packaging can be used for gardening. Make holes with a hot skewer in large yogurt pots and cream pots for seed sowing, especially for peas and beans. Use the base trays from ready meals for seed trays. Cut up the lids of ice cream boxes to make labels. Wash the spray containers for bath and kitchen cleaners and use as sprayers for fertilisers, insecticides, etc.”

— Anne Neville (16b)

“Interplanting sweet peas between runner beans and climbing French beans helps to attract pollinators, as the flowers of the sweet pea are stronger scented than the bean flower”

— Michael Thierens (16)

In the last newsletter, we touched on companion planting. This can be a very beneficial approach to natural gardening, in terms of both pest control, and in helping pollination.

The common marigold (Tagetes patula) and Meadow Foam (Limanthes dougasii), also known as ‘poached-egg flower’ are perfect habitats for ladybirds and lacewings, which are natural devourers of aphids, etc. Similarly, Californian Poppy (Eschscholzia), fennel and alliums also attract beneficial predators.

A wonderful addition this summer is Hilliers Nurseries selling larvae of both ladybirds and lacewings which you can release on your plot. The nearest Hillier garden centre is in Sunningdale, just off junction 3 of the M3, or you can phone them on 01344 623 166.

The carrot fly can also be a pest but interplanting double rows of onions between each row of carrots can help to deter them, as Sue O’Callaghan has proven (see Top tips).

The website www.gardenorganic.org.uk of ‘Garden Organic’ provides much good advice to help us, for example:

“Bindweed hates disturbance so it flourishes where the soil is not cultivated. Dig out or hoe off every new shoot you see. When you dig the soil, keep on pulling out all the roots you find. If you do this constantly you should be able to eventually conquer it — regular cultivation is what bindweed hates. Put the shoots and the plants into a black bag and leave till they rot down to mush then put it in the compost bin. Incidentally, all perennial weeds can be composted if they are bagged and left to rot first.

Couch grass is more difficult to eradicate. It can be conquered if the area is covered over winter with a tarpaulin or similar material to exclude all light and then the roots dug out next spring.”

Angela King (15a) produced a muchpraised salad for the open day:

Summer salad with manchego cheese and spicy sausage.

• 250g broad beans (podded weight, fresh or frozen)
• 200g peas (podded weight, fresh or frozen)
• 130g spicy sausage
• 100g watercress
• 100g Spanish manchego cheese (or other)
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• tablespoon olive oil
• tablespoon of chopped mint.

Cook the beans for 3 minutes, add the peas and cook for a few minutes more till tender but not squashy. Remove skin from sausage, slice and fry quickly. Dice the cheese. When vegetables and sausage are cool, mix the oil, lemon zest and juice and mint in a serving bowl and stir everything together until just mixed.

A useful book to give you ideas for your produce is The Allotment Cookbook, by Kathryn Hawkins, New Holland Publisher s, £12. It has a fruit and vegetable glossary with information about harvesting, preparation and cooking, plus recipes for savoury and sweet dishes, accompaniments and preserves.

This year’s AGM will be held at the Winchester Hall (adjoining the Turks Head pub in Winchester Road) on Sunday 18 November, 3 to 4.30pm. During this last year, many plot-holders have commented on the good atmosphere on the site.

Perhaps you have ideas on what could be done next year? So please come and discuss them!

Soft drinks and snacks will be served.

Please lock the gates behind you whenever you enter the site, even if you are working close to the gate. Fortunately, we’ve never had any major damage done by intruders but, if it was obvious to passers-by that the gate was sometimes left open, it may give ideas to those with anti-social intentions. The council is also concerned with the increase in professional ‘fly-tipping’ in the borough and considers our car park to be a prime site, being so close to the A316. We hope to get more secure fencing installed to that corner this year.

Although there are no prohibitions on bonfires, they are best lit in the late afternoon or early evening.

• Please take account of the wind strength and direction so neighbours experience minimum disruption.
• Always keep water nearby, either a bucket or hosepipe, and check the fire is completely extinguished before you leave it.
• If you have too much to burn, take it to the concrete base at the NE corner and stack it, taking care there is nothing (such as metal or plastic) which is not flammable. However, bonfires here are to be lit only when a committee member is present.

Even when times were less straightened than today, gardeners have always been paramount at reusing and recycling. Now, more than ever, we need to turn items we already have to new uses. Reusing doesn’t only mean using CDs as bird scarer’s and drinks bottles as mini-plant protectors. Here are a few other ideas for turning something unwanted into something useful.

• Straight-sided juice cartons, with tops cut off and holes made in the base, are good for starting off seeds like beans which need a deep root run.
• Activated-yoghurt bottles (Yakult, Actimel) make cane toppers, both to avoid a poke in the eye and to support netting. Also good for soaking seeds for a day or two before planting.
• Large diameter drainpipe (10cm) sawn into pieces about 2-3ft long and stood on end, make holders in which to store bamboo canes.
• The cut-off shoulders of wire coat-hangers (from dry cleaning) make pegs for anchoring netting and fleece.
• The net bags which contained oranges can be stretched over a plant pot, with a central cane for support, to protect seedlings or a growing plant.
• Ready-meal plastic trays have several uses - pots of seedlings can soak up water from below; two deep transparent ones with one resting on the other and a few holes punched into the upper one make mini-greenhouses for pots of seedlings; the larger transparent ones, with a few holes, can be inverted over newly sown seeds on the ground to protect them till they germinate.
• Some garden centre seedlings come as 8-pot or 12-pot groups. Take off the carrying handles and cut them up to make plant labels.

If you have any good ideas for reusing junk, send them to the editor and they’ll be included in the next newsletter.

An information sheet on optimum-value composting on the plot has been compiled from that supplied by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Planning), Garden Organic, Richmond Environment Dept and other organisations.

• Site the bin on soil, in a fairly sunny place if possible. Bury the bottom edge a couple of inches below soil level to deter rats. It may be useful to have a little space in front of the bin so you can tip out and rake through the contents when they are composted.
• A mixture of ‘greens’ and ‘browns’ works best. Greens include: soft prunings, grass cuttings, thinnings, unwanted vegetables, fallen fruit, chopped up twigs, fruit and vegetable peelings and crushed eggshells, but not cooked food which will attract rats. Greens break down fairly quickly and provide moisture and nitrogen.
• Browns include: broken-up egg boxes, torn-up cardboard, scrunched-up paper bags, screwed-up or shredded bank statements. Bedding and excrement from vegetarian pets like hamsters, rabbits and gerbils can be added sparingly but not from meat eaters like cats and dogs. Browns rot down more slowly but provide carbon and fibre and allow air pockets to form within the mixture.
• As not all of these materials are available from the plot, people sometimes bring them from home. Wood ash, old straw and hay and small amounts of untreated wood sawdust can also be added.
• Avoid large quantities of any one item (especially grass cuttings) and mix everything together within the bin every now and then. Add a little water whenever the mixture looks too dry and/or leave the lid off when it’s raining.
• Add material at all times of the year and as you add more, that below will sink. Mixing it up keeps it aerated and can speed up decomposition.
• Autumn leaves are best put into loosely tied, punctured black plastic bags as they take a year or even two to decompose. Then add to the bin or dig in as a soil conditioner.
• Perennial weeds such as bindweed, ground elder, creeping buttercup and couch grass won’t be killed in a bin. But they contain valuable plant foods so put them into an inside out plastic sack with the top folded down and leave them to rot. Then add to the bin.
• Activators can speed up the process of composting. Comfrey leaves and nettles are good. Many people have success with QR, a natural and economical product obtainable from Chase Organics. Human urine is also a good activator.
• It will take a year or more for everything to break down. Good compost has a pleasant earthy smell and is dark brown with a crumbly texture. If you don’t want to wait a year, tip all the contents out onto a large plastic sheet. If the lower levels have turned to compost, rake this out, take out any large or twiggy bits and bag it. Put the semi-composted material back into the bin and then start adding fresh stuff.

The Adrian Hall Garden Centre in Feltham has set up a scheme to provide for bona fide allotment growers a range of products used for the growing of produce and the cultivation and maintenance of plots. For registered members, these will be at prices lower than those offered to the general public. For example, all outdoor plants (fruit, vegetables, bedding plants) and pots and containers are 15% less; tools, growing media, seeds, bulbs, fencing materials, screening, meshes and netting, fertilizers and chemicals are 12.5% less. And there are many other items at between 12.5% and 5% discount. You can register by getting a form and information pack from the centre (Snakey Lane, Feltham TW13 7ND), or call 020 8751 7600 or visit www.adrianhall.co.uk and click on the Allotment Grower Plus logo. Give Michael Thierens’ name and address as the contact. Once registered, you’ll get a card, which must be shown at each transaction to claim the discount. You can also phone or email to check stock and prices or request information.

The British Bee-keepers’ Association recommends ways in which everyone can help to protect and foster bees.

Buy local honey - this helps beekeepers cover the costs of protecting bees.
Encourage bees to visit your garden and allotment by growing flowering plants and vegetables, such as all the allium family, mints, beans and flowering herbs, daisy-shaped flowers and tall flowers such as hollyhocks, larkspur foxgloves.

If you see a swarm, contact a beekeeping association, the local authority or the police who will arrange for a beekeeper to come and collect it. Don’t disturb it or spray with water.

If you have space in your garden for a beehive and don’t yourself want to be a keeper, the local association may be in need of extra site.

Bees are good neighbours and only sting when provoked. If a bee is near you, don’t flap your hands. Stay calm and move away, into shade if possible.
If you have bought honey produced overseas, always wash out the empty jars and don’t leave them where bees could find them. If native bees feed on leftover honey, it could contain an infection which could spread within the hive.

Note

• Read an interesting article on bees in Middlesex on the St Margarets Community Website

You may not have realized it, but one of the many things that the committee does is arrange public liability insurance cover for the Cavendish House site, through the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG).

What is public liability insurance? It covers accusations (with demands for compensation) made against you by other people on the grounds of harm they have supposedly suffered, including accusations made by uninvited intruders who break in to the site, people who have been invited in, and other plot-holders.

We have recently been notified that this only covers individuals who are members of the NSALG, at an annual cost £2 per person. To take advantage of this cover you can pay at the AGM, or by cheque made out to Cavendish House Allotment Association and given to Rosemary Fulljames, 3 Haggard Road, Twickenham TW1 3AL.

Written by our committee treasurer, Rosemary Fulljames.

The lock and chain for this are difficult to manipulate. So please don’t put the shank of the padlock through the hole in the sliding bar. Wrap the chain round twice loosely and put the shank through two links of the chain.