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Newsletter - October 2021

30 September 2021

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GUIDE TO GARDENING IN OCTOBER 

VEG PLOT :- Pick frost tender crops, clear ground & get started on your winter digging incorporating well rotted manure, composted garden waste or mushroom compost. Plant spring cabbage & onion sets.

FRUIT :- Apply grease bands & grease. Remove fruited raspberry, blackberry & tayberry canes & tie in new shoots. Take cuttings of red, white & black currents & gooseberries. Order trees & bushes.

GREENHOUSE :- Pick tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers & aubergines. Empty greenhouse & wash down with Jeyes. Line with bubble plastic. Bring in frost tender plants.

FLOWERS :- Plant spring flowering bulbs. Remove & compost summer bedding. Plant wallflowers, sweet williams, pansies, viola & heathers while the ground is still warm. Sow sweet peas. Mulch borders. Divide perennials.

LAWNS:- Re-seed worn areas, spray with an Iron Sulphate solution to treat moss. Aerate & scarify. Apply sharp sand, an autumn feed & mow with blades set at medium height. 

ALLOTMENT NEWS

THE HUT is open 10-12 noon on Saturdays throughout October for our members. The last day of opening for this season will be Saturday 30th October. Membership is just £5 p.a.

SEED & POTATO SCHEME - Potato orders in by the 17th October please; Seeds can be ordered online, direct with Kings seeds (using a specific web site and login). Alternatively seeds can be ordered via a paper based method. For further information on our seed and potato scheme, please contact Phil Hickley

AUTUMN WORK-IN

The final work-in of the year is on Sunday 17th October. If the date is inconvenient but you would still like to help, please contact Dennis Smith to see what jobs are needed.  

Show 2021

43rd Annual Flower and Produce Show 

After one year of enforced absence because of the global pandemic, we were all delighted to get back to business this year with our 43rd Annual Flower and Produce Show which was a pretty amazing spectacle thanks to our 70 exhibitors who between them displayed 550 exhibits.

Congratulations to everyone that took part - entrants and prize-winners alike along with a team of volunteers, judges, stewards, those donating refreshments, sponsors and many more besides.

This year we had three record breakers in the Mammoth Vegetable classes - including a leek and a potato.

Congratulations to all nineteen Prize Draw Winners, The 'Guess the name of the Teddy Bear' was won by Heather - the Teddy Bear's name was Deacon, while the bottle of whiskey went to Trevor Smy for correctly guessing the Football Team - Gillingham.

This year was especially poignant as we have lost someone who has been at the very core of the Allotments Association for decades, Graham Whybrow, who tragically died in May this year. Paying tribute to Graham at the conclusion of this year's Show, Allotments Association President, Steve Baker, said, "We know that Graham did SO much around the village. Is there anything that Graham wasn't involved in? Events in this Hall, the flowers in the precinct, and of course the legendary Capel Bonfire Night. Many condolences flooded in when Graham first passed and I recall one person saying 'we are going to need 5 men to coverall the things Graham did, many of which the village didn't know he did'! Graham's passion was his allotment and the Allotment's Association where he was a committee member for nearly forty years where he successfully organised the sales hut for many, many years.

"Graham was driven by a desire to want to make everything in the village better - through his ideas and energy whether it was our Show, the Hut or our village. He was a person who never wanted the limelight just a little quiet recognition was enough. He will be sorely missed."

For a full list of the Show Trophy winners & runners up plus photos please visit our web site. https://www.capelallotments.co.uk