Hello Fellow Allotmenteers & Friends,

It's a short newsletter at the end of this month I'm afraid - March is a particularly busy month and it's getting increasingly difficult to get a spare five minutes here or there for newsletter writing! If you're not particularly busy on your allotment and would like to provide a helping hand with a contribution or two - then feel free! Next month is going to be even more hectic - so if April gets skipped, you'll know why!

HE'S NOT "A RIGHT CHARLIE!" - CHARLES IS RIGHT (on this one at least!)

Prince Charles says organic allotments can save the environment   By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent 7:00AM GMT 24 Feb 2011 Gardeners are the key to saving the environment, according to the Prince of Wales, who has called on people to “be the change they want to see” by growing organic fruit and vegetables wherever they can, from allotments to containers on balconies.   Prince Charles examines a hallmark he hammered in to a piece of silver as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall looks on during a visit to Goldsmiths Hall Photo: GETTY

The heir to the throne, who gardens 13 acres at his home Highgrove, insisted even a tiny patch of land can make a difference to the environment by sucking up carbon, providing food and creating habitat for birds and butterflies. One of the country’s largest landowners said allotments are also important for community cohesion and teaching children about where food comes from. "It is so encouraging to see the number of people starting to grow their own food, whether in their gardens, allotments or containers,” he said. "Although this will not resolve the problem of food security, it does start the process of individuals thinking locally and encouraging local social networks, which are important for community cohesion." In a very personal account of his relationship with gardening, the Prince revealed that when he first decided to go organic people questioned “whether I was in my right mind or not”.

SEED POTATOES - A "Thank You" Gesture. I recently received an e-mail from Iain Harbour from JBA Seed Potatoes up in Arran, Dumfries & Galloway. As most of you will have noticed, JBA is one of our web-site sponsors. Apparently they've had quite a bit of custom from traffic that's been relayed from the AAA web-site to their site. As a thank you gesture he's given me a 10% discount code that I can share with you as members of the AAA web-site who receive this newsletter. Here is a copy of what he sent me:   Dear Gwilym (Aberaeron Allotment Association) As a valued customer and an on-line website associate we are giving you a 10% discount code.  I have set up a voucher with up to 10000 uses just for your members. The voucher code is: AAASPRING2011 you and your members will get 10% off until 12 noon on Saturday 9th April If the newsletter goes out on Tuesday/wednesday that should give at least 10 days for the newsletter readers. That should do the job for you. I will let you know if anyone uses it. You can use this voucher on all JBA products apart from delivery costs. You will be pleased to know that this has been our busiest year online and that your support has helped us to be recognised as the No.1 online seed potato supplier in the UK. We have restocked the shop for you, so go on, treat yourself to a few extra potatoes or potato accessories that you may find of use. This voucher can only been redeemed online. Enjoy! All the best Iain PS - Ready to Eat Potatoes Visit the new 'Ready to Eat Potatoes' section on our website where you can get eating potatoes direct to your door from our farm stores. All of our stock was harvested last year and stored in the ideal conditions. We do not use any chemicals on the potatoes and they are stored in temperature controlled sheds. The potatoes are not washed so they have a much longer storage life if you keep them in a cool dark place in your house that is frost free. Potato Growing Questions Answered Hopefully the weather will pick up soon and you will be able to start work on your ground. You may already have chitted your potatoes in advance and are desperate to plant them but just be aware that frosts could very easily nip the fresh leaf growth of the plants and set your potatoes back. If you want any help then go to my new potato forum where you can ask all the questions that you need answered. This forum is becoming more and more popular with new members joining every day. Simply go to www.growingpotatoes.co.uk and sign up and once you receive an email from us you can click it to activate your account. Please check your spam box if an email does not arrive. JBA Seed Potatoes So if any of you are last minute shoppers for some seed potatoes, or any other potato planting accessories then get cracking - the offer ends on the 9th of next month. For those of you who may have already ordered from JBA - SORRY - I didn't know that this was in the pipeline, otherwise I'd have told you to hold fire. To use the redemption code to get your 10% discount you need to access JBA via the AAA web-site. Just click HERE if you want to do that now. PLANTING YOUR SEED POTATOES For those of you who are now busily preparing to plant your seed potatoes, here's a little guide for you - that may come in useful. The "old hands" will obviously be well aware of this - so don't think that Grandmother is being taught to suck eggs here! You should use the following distances for your trenches (/ridges): First Earlies should be planted 10 - 12inches apart along your trenches; the space between trenches should be around 24 inches. Second Earlies and Maincrops should be planted 15 inches apart with a space of 28 inches between the trenches. Use the soil that you have already taken out of the trench and carefully scatter it on top of the potatoes until the trench is once again flat. Once the plants start to grow through, you should earth them up. Earthing up is best done with a garden hoe: the aim is to form a peaked ridge with the loose soil at the edge of the trench to prevent your potatoes turning green which would make them inedible. This may be required two or three times in a season. If you have problems with slugs, now is the time add slug pellets to the trench (following the recommended dosage). In July/August, you can use Nemaslug, which are nematodes designed to attack slugs and stop the problem.

FAVOURITE QUESTIONS

When I'm down on my plot, probably the most common questions I get asked by my fellow allotmenteers are:

1. "how far apart should I sow . . . ?"

2. "how far apart should my rows be for . . . ?"

3. "how deep should I plant . . . ?"

I don't mind in the least answering these questions, but seeing as so many seem unable to memorise - but need - this information (twelve months gives you lots of time to forget things), I've compiled a "Veg. Sowing/ Planting Guide" for you. I hope it will be helpful - perhaps you could copy and print it (for pinning to the back of your shed door - if you have one, or if you intend to build one sometime)! Here it is:

We also have a "Planting Guide" on our web-site. Look for this button on our Home page (or click on it now) :

When I have a little more time I'll explain to you how gardeners - in time honoured fashion - use various parts of their bodies to quickly measure things (within quite close approximations & certainly accurately enough for what you need on your allotment plot) - assuming you haven't got a tape or a gauging rod handy.

A little something for you to look forward to in a future newsletter - no time this month I'm afraid. What's making it even more of a rush for me is that I'm building myself a polytunnel (at the wrong time I may add - it should have been done months ago, but the winter weather & periods of being unwell put pay to that). Consequently it's now clashing with soil preparation and sowing times!  Ah well - one of these days I'll be able to hit the ground running in spring - instead of trying to multi-task! You all know how poor we the testosterone-laden of the species are at multi-tasking (as I'm regularly reminded) !

MEETINGS

We've had not one but TWO Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) since the last Newsletter! Most organisations like ours have an EGM when an urgent specific subject arises or there's a need to resolve an emergency - between scheduled OGMs (Ordinary General meetings).

Normally EGMs are either called by the committee of an organisation when there's an urgent need for all members to get together, or a meeting is triggered when a majority (usually 75% or more) of the membership requests one for a specific reason, it's normally a rare occurrence.

The AAA, being a little different,  requested a meeting to reaffirm Cause 7 in it's current Rules of Association, another EGM was then arranged to sort out our Tenancy Agreement between the various Plot-holders and the Association - that turned into a ratification meeting to accept the new agreement - and NOW we have yet another meeting to distribute the new Tenancy Agreements to the Plot-holders, issue invoices for annual membership fees, rents and last season's water usage. Quite an exhaustive period of meetings! Most organisations like ours have regular OGMs (usually once a quarter), an Annual General Meetings (AGM) once a year and any EGMs are usually far and few between. Perhaps a bit of clarity in this department will prevail when the first draft of our Constitution is circulated. That is another job that's eating into my precious time at present.

Phillip our Secretary will contact you shortly with the date, venue and time of our next meeting. It is IMPERATIVE that ALL members attend because the new Tenancy Agreements and invoices will be issued in this one. Anyone failing to turn up will have to collect their Tenancy Agreement from our secretary and will have to separately settle their dues with Anne our Treasurer. This will obviously make things a bit more awkward, so it's best if we get it over with in one go when we next meet. That's why it's in everyone's interest to attend - if at all possible.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Welsh name for Tomato is "Afal Cariad" this is identical to the French name for the same fruit - Pomme d'Amour (French for "love apple"). What on earth is the connection?

Researchers determined that Aztecs developed the tomato, as we know it. When the first conquistadors arrived in Mexico, the red fruit attracted their attention and intrigued their taste buds. In the 1600’s, they shipped some to Europe, but at first tomato failed to enthuse the palates of Europeans. Then in a genial strike some “marketing guru” decided to label tomato as an aphrodisiac and named it "poma amoris", the French in turn called it "pomme d’amour". Of course it took off.

By contrast, American colonists thought tomatoes to be poisonous because of the plant’s relation to the deadly nightshade family! In fact it's leaves are slightly poisonous as are the leaves of it's cousins the potato and the dahlia (the tuber of the dahlia is also poisonous as is the greened tubers of potatoes). Like many other plants in the nightshade family, tomato leaves and stems contain atropine and other tropane alkaloids that can be quite toxic if ingested. The ripe fruit does not contain these compounds. Tomato leaves in the form of a tea have been linked to at least one death, but the levels of tomatine are generally too small to be dangerous

"Not a lot of people know that" !

Well that's it for this edition.

If any of you would like to contribute to our newsletter, either with a story, information on plants/ pests & diseases, news, tips or just a recipe. Then please contact me at any time. All relevant material received will be published.

Or you can click on this e-mail address to open a Form-Mail page that links to my personal e-mail account.

Keep up the hard slog!

Keep healthy, happy & friendly doing so!

Kind Regards,

G