Memories of Allotments event

Where: Twickenham Library

When: 5th April 2019 11am – 12.30pm

For more information, click here.

PRIZE WINNERS

OVERALL WINNER

Mike Goodwin (plot 57, Priory)

RUNNERS UP

Rashid (plot 48, Hertford), Deborah Genders (plot 29, Hertford), Pam Islip (plot 36, Priory).

OVERALL CHILDREN’S WINNER

Oliver Goodwin

CHILDREN’S RUNNERS UP

All other winners: William Lambert, Adelaide Kennedy, Holly Lambert, Pandora Kennedy, Miles Goodwin, Hollie and Miles Hess, Isla and Freddie Dawson.

Show Winners

Children’s categories

Baking categories

BEST ALLOTMENTS 2018

Judging the allotments every year is a pleasure and a pain!

A pleasure because I always find some truly beautiful little plots I’ve never seen before and a pain because it is so difficult to decide who will be winners.

Allotments are not just a piece of ground to grow healthy fruit and vegetables and beautiful flowers, they have always been a space for recreation and relaxation where friends and family can meet and work together, an escape from the stresses of modern London, an oasis of calm in an increasingly busy world.

Bearing all this in mind, when I judge the allotments, I mark everyone out of 100 with roughly 40% for quantity and quality of produce, 40% for overall appearance including creativity and design, and 20% for pest and disease prevention, recycling, composting, and wild life encouragement.

BEST ALLOTMENTS

OVERALL CUP WINNER FOR BEST PLOT OUT OF ALL ALLOTMENT SITES

John Hynd at Priory (No.76)

PRIORY SITE

WINNERS

John Hynd (plot 76) and Emily Coates (plot 10)

Emily (Plot no. 10) has had a plot for donkey’s years; it is a very small plot under some large trees, but it has always been immaculate with edged grass paths, beautifully espaliered fruit trees, lovely flowers, and a good variety of excellent fruit and vegetables.

John (Plot No.76) has also had his plot for many years, but last year decided to completely renovate his allotment, which included removing everything but the fruit trees.  This renovation included double digging the area to remove bindweed, shovelling in large quantities of manure, putting up sturdy cages to protect fruit and vegetables, and pruning and retraining fruit trees. All the hard work is evident in the vegetables fruit and flowers on his plot this summer and while work is still in progress, the Site Reps and I felt all his hard work deserved a prize.

RUNNERS UP

David Waterhouse, Terry Farrar, Boo and Donal Douglas, Geoff de Metz, Finnie Harrington, Mike Goodwin, James Duncan, Janet Lavender, Susan Moore

• David Waterhouse (No. 11) lovely pond neat boxed beds with lots of vegetables
• Terry Farrar (No. 23) for his pumpkins and brassicas.
• Boo and Donal Douglas (No. 33) for the sheer amount of produce.
• Mike Goodwin (No. 57) for the scare crow, good design and lovely flowers.
• James Duncan (No.67) for pretty wicker bed surrounds and lovely Dahlias.
• Janet Lavender (No.65) for lots of good produce and nice little pond.
• Geoff de Metz (No. 43)
• Finnie Harrington (No. 45)
• Desmond Millen (No. 49)
• Susan Moore (No. 68)

HERTFORD AVENUE

WINNER

Jenny Jefferies (plot 19)

Jenny has had her plot (No. 19) for a good few years, but despite illness and injury it has always been a “prize winner” with clean wood chip paths, lots of excellent fruit, vegetables all well protected, and rows of bright flowers including magnificent sweet peas.

RUNNERS UP

Tim, Michael French, Helen Lawrence, David and Nikki Dawson, John Edgar, Warwick Radford, Caroline Bendall, Hans Weisskopf

• Tim (No. 10) for excellent vegetables and watch out for his enormous brussel sprouts!
• Michael French (No. 33) for his very neat boxed beds filled withherbs and flowers.
• Helen Lawrence (No. 38) neat grass paths, well trained and protected fruit and vegetables.
• David and Nikki Dawson (No. 25) were novice winners last year and the plot still looks good and productive.
• John Edgar (No.28) as always good vegetables (and I’m sure he uses a spirit level for his beds and paths!)
• Warwick Radford (No. 40A) has very pretty design.
• Caroline (Ronnie) Bendall (No. 51) is hidden away at the bottom of Hertford Ave. Very creative use of wood from cut trees with good vegetables despite the shade.
• Hans Weisskopf (next to Jenny) is our oldest allotment holder and still producing vast amounts of fruit and vegetables.

THE TRIANGLE

The Triangle is probably the most difficult site to propagate. The upper, older half has terrible drainage with underground springs and water pipes. Perennial weeds such as mares tail and brambles can make the plot holders life a misery.  The lower half of the site was laid out in the 1990s with bad topsoil laid over stones and gravel and some large trees by the Pitch and Putt make this area very shady. Anyone with a plot on this site deserves praise.

WINNER

Freddie Dawson (plot 8)

Freddie and his wife (No. 8) have had the plot for 2 years and despite all obstacles have produced an amazing amount of good quality fruit and vegetables.

RUNNER UP

Sheena Clarke (plot 12A)

Plot No. 12A Sheena Clarkes. It has very neat raised beds in an attempt to combat the mares tail which has worked, but the struggle continues – good luck new plotholder!

THE PAVILION                                                

Tucked away behind a thick hedge by Palewell Park sports pitch, many of you will not have visited this site. It’s like a little world of its own. There are some lovely plots here but unfortunately it’s really difficult to find the numbers so some of you may have missed a mention…

WINNER

Giles Dimock (plot 7)

Giles (No.7) has grown some excellent produce with strong cages for protection and a good composting area.

RUNNER UP

Nick and Harriet Hinton (plot 2)

A prize-winning plot with neat raised beds filled at the moment with plenty of flowers and herbs.

PALEWELL PARK

WINNER

Amani Orr-Earling (plot 4)

I wasn’t able to visit this site (No. 4) but according to their Site Rep this plot is always neat and productive and an inspiration to other plot holders!

RUNNER UP

Mr. and Mrs. Pratt (No. 7)

BEST NOVICE PLOTS

Not many nominations this year.

WINNER

Nadia Mackenzie at Priory Plot No. 40A

A tremendous amount of work has gone into this plot to produce new beds filled with good vegetables in just over a year.

RUNNER UP

Antonia Wyld at Hertford Ave No. 32A

Very new plotholders, new raised beds were constructed and a very hard-working lady shovelled in tons of topsoil through the heat of the summer. More work in progress so a possible prize winner next year…

Thanks to all those who attended the Annual Show on 2 September 2018.

Over a hundred people attended the show and many entered their best vegetables, fruits, flowers, baked goods, jams, and creative endeavours for judging.

The BBQ boasted burgers, sausages, quiche, and a selection of amazing homemade salads.  After eating and socialising, it was time to announce the winners and prizes.

Prizes

View the full list of the BHAS Allotment Show Winners for 2018 as well as photos from the day.

Thanks to all those who entered and congrats to all the winners!

The raffle was a big attraction, and with prizes such as books about gardening, an original print from a local artist, and a bottle of homemade wine, it was no surprise.  The bake sale also showed off the amazing baking skills of the BHAS members, like these delicious Allotment Show 2018 cupcakes.

There was also a very popular plant sale where many attendees picked up a variety of plants grown by BHAS members and donated for sale.

Raffle prizes

Plant sale

Bake sale

Tea and coffee station

Special thanks

Our thanks go out to the orchestrator of the event, Halina Kessler, along with the many volunteers who helped to set up and clean up on the day.  Our sincere gratitude go to the judges, Mary Thorp and David Bradshaw, for volunteering their time to judge the vegetable and baking show entries.

We’d also like to thank the Ginger Pig in Barnes, a local butcher, for their delicious sausages and burgers, which were a big hit for our BBQ, and local garden centre, Adrian Hall, for donating a plant for the day’s raffle.

Thanks to all who attended and we look forward to next year’s show!

SHOWTIME 2018

Mary Thorp, one of the judges, has notes from the day.

What a beautiful day for a late summer show on the allotments with warm sunshine and, miracles of miracles, not a breath of wind to blow away the entries!

The weather this year with the long cold winter and spring and dry, very hot summer probably explains why there were less entries. So:

• no carrots (they do not always germinate in high temperatures)
• runner beans become “stringy” without galleons of water
• potatoes have less slug damage this year but have not grown very big in the hot sunlight
• no garlic and few onions – both tend to go to flower in extreme weather conditions unless given protection (though there doesn’t seem to have been much allium mite around this year – probably the cold winter killed some of them off); and
• no sweetcorn on show but then I know many of you have given up the fight with the foxes and badgers!

Despite the difficult conditions, a fabulous collection of tomatoes were on display, some superb pumpkins (including John Pagett’s which was one of the biggest I have ever seen) and Mark’s fine, prize-winning cabbage with hardly a sign of a slug bite.

The single variety flower vases were lovely but no Dahlias and I know there are some beauties growing on many allotments; surprisingly, few entries of apples and other fruits when there are bumper crops of many “top fruits” on the plots.

The children’s entries were a joy to judge. Amazing “out-of-this-world” veggy monsters – especially Isla and Freddy Dawson’s turtle – and the miniature gardens were tiny works of art (some budding garden designers here?).  The pictures were lovely, particularly Lottie and Milly’s joint creation.

It was really good to see some new names entering!

-Mary