Posts tagged ‘gardening’
An Escape from the Office
STAA staff, trustees and volunteers have been on two learning events in recent days.
On Tuesday 30th September a group of nine staff and trustees visited Hill Holt Wood in Lincolnshire. This was made possible thanks to a grant from Locality through their Knowledge and Skills Exchange. Hill Holt Wood is a social enterprise with its base in an ancient Lincolnshire woodland. Although somewhat different to a large allotment site in St Anns, there are many similarities between the two organisations and our respective sites which we were able to explore. We received a warm welcome and introductory presentation from Nigel and his team. We then broke for lunch, followed by an afternoon tour of the woods and training areas before catching the bus back to Nottingham. We left with plenty to ponder about how we can make better use of the allotment visitor centre and generating potential future income streams.
Afternoon tour of the wood.
Allotment gardeners walking around the kitchen garden at Hill Holt Wood.
On Wednesday 1st October, Michael took a small group of our heritage display garden volunteers to have a look round the walled garden at Clumber Park. The idea was to take inspiration from the ornamental borders, vegetable beds and orchards and see what ideas we could bring back to Oliver’s Plot. The sun shone as if it were midsummer and the gardens still looked great for so late in the year. The long herbaceous borders were in full bloom and buzzing with insects. We were particularly impressed by the national collections of local apple varieties and rhubarb. There may be some tweaks to Oliver’s Plot as a result of the visit – come back and visit STAA in 2015 to see if you can spot them!
A step over apple tree
Victorian lantern cloches, seakale together with forcing pots, and trained peach trees.
Come and celebrate the harvest with us this Saturday, 11am – 4pm!
Entrance on Ransom Road.
Tours
Heritage tours: 11:30am, noon and 2pm
Wildlife tour: 1:30pm
Workshops
Drumming workshop: 11:30am – 1:30pm
Willow weaving: Noon – 1pm and 3pm – 4pm
Morris dancing: 1pm, followed by a performance for the Lord Mayor at 2pm
Throughout the day: Children’s archaeological dig and peg work at the STAA table
And there’s more!
The burial of our time capsule overseen by the Lord Mayor at approximately 2pm
Apple pressing at the Community Orchard
Produce competitions – Only 20p to enter
Food from Beccy’s Global Kitchen
Tomato tasting
Frank Shelton the ‘Owl Man’ with Kim the Barn Owl
Produce displays
Homemade cakes and refreshments
Stalls and community information
Harvest Celebration Produce Competition
If you are coming along to our Harvest Celebration on Saturday, why not enter one of our fun produce competitions! 
Summer Newsletter 2014
Our summer edition of the newsletter for plot holders at St Anns Allotments is now available! Please click on the picture below to read the full copy.
What’s on at St Anns Allotments
There’s a lot for allotment holders to get involved in over the coming weeks…
You may have seen posters around site and lots of activity on Facebook leading up to our Wildlife Weekend, which is kicking off this evening with a bat walk. The bat walk is fully booked, but take a look at what’s on over the weekend, there are plenty of activities to join in with! You don’t have to be a plot holder to come along, so feel free to spread the word!
Also coming up we are inviting St Anns Allotment holders to enter one of our annual allotment competitions! There are four categories to choose from, judging will take place during National Allotment Week and prizes will be presented at our Harvest Celebration event in September. Please get in touch if you would like to enter.
Next week the neighborhood policing team will be holding an allotment beat surgery at the Visitor Centre. If you would like to discuss security on site or need some advice, this is a great opportunity. Please see below for details.
With the holidays coming up, we’ve got lots going on at the Community Orchard. The activities are free, fun and your kids will love them!
After the success of our last pruning and grafting workshops, we have decided to hold two summer pruning and apple tree budding workshops in August. Please get in touch if you would like to book. For details and prices, please look at the poster below.
If that’s not enough to be getting on with, we are still running our heritage walks on the last Wednesday of every month (until September). The tours start at 1:30pm and we suggest a donation of £2. Booking is essential, as places are limited. There will also be a one off ‘Heritage Open Day’ tour on Thursday 11th September at 1:30pm.
Gardeners’ Newsletter Spring 2014
The Spring newsletter is now ready! Please click on the front page below to read it.
Pruning & Grafting Workshops for STAA Allotment Holders
Are you an allotment holder at St Anns Allotments? Would you like to learn how to prune your apple trees and graft yourself a new tree?
Come along to one of our free workshops!
After some basic theory you’ll get the chance to practise your pruning and grafting, supervised by Alice, our fruit-tree expert. Basic tools will be provided but please feel free to bring your own secateurs and gloves. There’ll be some indoor and outdoor activity so dress appropriately and remember your waterproofs! Bring along some grafting material or choose from a selection of heritage trees grown on the site. Booking is essential. For more details, please see the poster below…
The Great British Garden Revival – The ‘Magical’ Glasshouses of St Anns Allotments
Have you been watching the Great British Garden Revival? We were on last night’s episode, which was dedicated to shrubs and glasshouses. Here’s a picture of Diarmuid Gavin in our Victorian glasshouse!
If you missed the show, take a look at this clip for a tour of Don’s (also known as Pipe Man) glasshouses and to watch Diarmuid Gavin helping volunteers John and Stephen make a cold frame for Oliver’s Heritage Display garden.
November Update
If you like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, you might have noticed that we have started loading our time capsule!
Here’s a a sneak peek of some of the things we’re putting in…
To find out more, take a look at our Facebook timeline photos. Each photo has a short explanation and we’ll be adding more soon.
The time capsule will be buried in the centre of our labyrinth which is being worked on by DISO volunteers.
Here’s a picture of the DISO team.
In other news: Last month we were sad to see Rob Zviko leave. We enjoyed a nice meal at Mister Pizza in West Bridgford to say goodbye. Here’s the whole STAA staff team below (with Rob in the middle) – you don’t often see us all in one place at the same time!
Rob leaving does mean that we are now recruiting a Partnership and Volunteer Development Officer. For more information, please visit our website.
Finally, we’d like to share a colourful photo from the Heritage Display Garden to cheer up the winter blues. To see more photos, take a look at the Facebook album.
St Anns Allotments 