Summer Newsletter 2021

This has been an extraordinary year for us all and hope we will be able to enjoy more personal freedoms over the summer as well as being to benefit from going to our plots and cultivating fruit vegetables and flowers.

Sites have been inspected and Alison has contacted all tenants if their plot has not been cultivated. New plots have been offered so welcome if you are a new tenant. I am sure other plot holders or your site rep will introduce themselves.

It recently has been very wet and cool so while this has encouraged many vegetables to grow: others are late to harvest.

We have not been able to meet as a committee for a long while and currently it is hoped we will be able to meet in September.
The working party similarly has not met and many planned and potential developments have had to be put on hold.
The handover to the Kennington Community council still has not taken place so Bybrook and Burton Farm remain under the management of ABC.

The Trading Store
We are open on designated Saturdays from 10 am til 12 noon. If we are not busy and have no customers from 11.45 we do begin to lock up so make sure you come early to avoid disappointment. We currently only have around 45 members who have renewed their membership this year. This is a considerable drop from numbers in the past and there may be many reasons for this but we would want to increase members to make opening viable. We had a huge surplus of potatoes this year and will severely restrict our order for next year as the financial loss incurred is not sustainable.

Our most popular items as always are the canes which are great value and we have sold all the peat free compost and await a new delivery which has now arrived so three bags sell for £13.Prices are increasing so please be aware the published price list may not be fully accurate.

We also have a card reader machine so you will be able to pay for goods without using cash. This has proved very popular and most purchases are now contactless.

In common with all retail outlets please wear a mask when visiting the store and only enter to actually pay so as to minimise contact even if any guidance is relaxed over the next few weeks.

Summer Show 2021

Regretfully we have had to postpone this with too much uncertainty around whether the event could be cancelled at the last minute so we look forward to a summer show in 2022.

Otherwise I hope you all remain in good health and enjoy the rest of this year for allotment gardening .

With best wishes for the rest of the summer .

Penny Winston
Chair Ashford Allotments.