Seasons Greetings & Appeal for Volunteers

A message From Mavis and the Committee

We hope that you all had a
Very Merry Christmas

(hope you enjoyed all your home grown vegetables!)

and

Good Wishes for a good gardening year for 2009

******************

Actually - "Stanley Road Allotment & Garden Society NEEDS YOU"

How would YOU

like to help with the preparation of the new Trading Hut,

which is due to open on 14 February 2009?

Do you have any DIY skills?

(No need for modesty)

If the answer to any of these questions is yes

or,

if you can spare about 2 hours every 6 weeks or so to help out in the new Shop, either on a Saturday or Sunday morning, please contact Nigel.

With your help we can build on the success we have achieved in securing the lottery award and transform this allotment into one in which we can all take pride.

Lottery Funding News at last !!!!

http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/

For the second time this year, the Stanley Road Allotment Society has cause for celebration. This time, it is because the Society has just been awarded a £10,000 grant from the National Lottery, “Awards For All”, to provide a new Trading Hut. The chairman, Mavis Peart said: “We are all absolutely delighted and I am very grateful for all the hard work that the Committee put into making the bid.”
Commenting on the award, Carl Brown, the Site Representative, said that Stanley Road is one of the most improved, and certainly, one of the most sought after allotments in the Borough with demand for new plots exceeding supply, resulting in a substantial waiting list. He believes that the grant for the new Trading Hut is a recognition of our success in transforming the allotment to become a valuable community resource.
We are all looking forward to the new Trading Hut when it opens in the spring. It is a great opportunity. The Society hopes that it will be a strong focus for help and advice as well as a ready source for garden supplies. It will be the centre of an allotment community that is inclusive, reflecting a diverse mix of nationalities, cultures, ages and gender. The allotment is proud of its links with Stanley Park Junior School and Orchard Hill College both of whom have plots on site. “Our hopes are high, thanks to a successful lottery bid”, concluded the chairman.

Mavis Peart - Chairman
Carl Brown – Site Rep

Christmas Cheer!

~ Do come and join us ~

We thought that it would be lovely to all meet up for a Christmas drink (or two) this year

~~~~~~~~~

We will be in The Greyhound Hotel (Opposite Carshalton Ponds)

on

Friday 5th December from 7.30pm

It will be great to see you all - Ho! Ho!Ho!!

Get your SPUDS ordered NOW!!

Seed Potato Orders can be made at the Shop this weekend.

ONLY 80p PER KILO - Yes ONLY 80p PER KILO!!

First Early
ACCENT
ARRAN PILOT
PENTLAND JAVELIN
ROCKET
VALES EMERALD

Second Early
CHARLOTTE
KESTREL
NICOLA


Maincrop
CARA
DESIREE
PICASSO


ORDER FORMS WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM THE SHOP

~For more information from the British Potato Council - click here ~

Bird Feeders - on sale now

The Trading Hut has a good selection of

Bird Feeders and food for birds - nuts, seeds & fat balls.

Seed feeder + 500 gram of feed £1.75 6 in stock

Peanut feeder + 500 gram of nuts £2.75 6 in stock

Fatball Feeder + packet of Fatballs. £2.25 4 in stock

Premium Bird Seed 60p for 500g
Peanuts 70p for 500g

Small Fatballs 85p for a packet of 6

The RSPB has produced this very informative web page on feeding birds - please click here

Onion Sets & Garlic ON SALE NOW

THE TRADING HUT - OPEN SUNDAY MORNINGS

9.45am TO 11.45am

&

1st Saturday of every month - 10am to 11am

Onion Sets are now in stock

Overwintering Varieties

All priced at 40 sets for £1.50

Radar

Electric (Red)

Japanese (Yellow) limited stock

Garlic will be available from 1st October

All Garlic is sold by the bulb/head apart from the Elephant which is sold by cloves

Solent Wight

Albigensian Wight

Mediterranean Wight

Purple Heritage Moldovan

Elephant Garlic

SEED POTATOES WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE SOON SO RE-VISIT THE BLOG SOON FOR THE TRADING HUT'S COMPETITIVE PRICES!

The Trading Hut Project - 2008

(1) 7'2" to eaves - higher spec as standard

(2) Fibre cement roofing sheets

(3) Heavy duty welded trusses

(4) Real durite used - no inferior imitations

(5) 7'2" height x 1' or 2' wide x 3" thick, our reinforced concrete panels can achieve just about any custom design

(6) Choice of UPVC or Redwood fascias

Overall size - 34ft 6inches (12 metres) long x 18ft 6 inches (6 metres wide)

*******************************************************

SRAGS major project for 2008 is to secure Lottery Funding for the building of a new Trading Hut.

The existing Trading Hut is now too small, what with growing demands and a much increased membership - it has become "outgrown!"

The costing has been agreed and after much hard work finalising the lottery bid, an application was made to Awards For All last Friday for funding. We now await their decision which should take about 8 weeks

COME BACK SOON

to find out!

Environmental Fair - Carshalton 25th August 2008

A REPORT FROM THE SITE REP - CARL BROWN

We previously reported that we had raised over £200 for the Mayor’s Charity at our Open Day on 10 August. This is the text of a letter from the Mayor’s Secretary acknowledging the cheque:
“The Mayor, Cllr Brendan Hudson has asked me to write and thank you for your very kind donation to the Mayor’s Charity of £215 which was the money raised at your Open Day last week. The Mayor and Mayoress thoroughly enjoyed their visit to your allotments and wish you well in the future.
“This generous donation and [sic] will help towards raising money for the Wolfson Children and Adolescent Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital.”
We were very disappointed by the lack of coverage of the Open Day in the local newspapers. Therefore, let’s abandon our usual modesty and through the medium of the blog, take the opportunity on behalf of the Society to thank all allotment holders, including the committee, and the many people who helped behind the scene, for their valuable contributions to making the day a successful and enjoyable occasion. Our thanks also go to the local community for their continuing support of the allotment.

ENVIRONMENTAL FAIR
John Bresman (membership Secretary) and I were at the Environmental Fair at Carshalton Park on Bank Holiday Monday promoting the Society. This year’s theme was ‘Sutton - Creating a Sustainable Borough’. The London Borough of Sutton had a stand, organised by Mo James of Cheam Court and Surrey Organic Gardening Group, entitled ‘Allotments’. The stand included a display by Sutton Parks about allotment provision across the borough and included representatives of the following allotments: Beddington and Wallington Garden Society, Benhill and of course, Stanley Road. There was information about Gander Green Allotments. The Soil Association and Surrey Organic had nearby stands.
The key message was: here is a success story by enthusiastic growers. It was extremely effective. Some visitors from Wandsworth and Merton with long waiting lists looked wistfully at allotment provision in Sutton. John and I were awarded for our efforts by capturing three new members to the Society and issued many leaflets and membership forms. The next few weekends will determine how many expressions of interests are converted to membership. The exercise was well worthwhile and it was interesting to talk to fellow allotmenteers to realise that we all face similar challenges.
In course of the day, we met the Mayor and Mayoress of Sutton who visited the various stands. They both came to look at the pictures of our Open Day and they both said how much they enjoyed the day and the vegetable box they were given.
We also met Fred Power, a past chairman of the Society, now in his 90s. He was on good form and was pleased to hear of the strides that we were making at Stanley Road. But from what he said, we have some way to match the 700 - odd memberships that the Society had in its heyday. Well, this is a useful benchmark!

SRAGS Open Day 10th August 2008

Allotment Open Day supports Mayor’s Charity and - A ‘Gunners’ Supporter gets his Reward

The Stanley Road Allotment & Garden Society celebrated the start of National Allotment Week in style by inviting the Mayor and Mayoress of Sutton to attend the Society’s first ever Open Day on 10th August. A crowd of well over 100 people attended.

As the Chairman, Mavis Peart said, “We are celebrating for two reasons; first, because nationally there has been a huge increase in interest in home grown produce and allotment cultivation and secondly, over the last year there has been a regeneration of our own site with many enthusiastic newcomers of all ages and nationalities, so that now all 204 allotment plots are taken.”

The Mayor, Cllr Brendan Hudson then paid tribute to one particular ‘allotmenteer’, Derek Cozens. As the Mayor said, “He has been responsible for clearing all the overgrown plots, many with brambles 6 feet high, so that when new people came along they were not put off from taking a plot on. The Mayor, on behalf of the Society, then presented Derek with a framed Arsenal shirt, autographed by all of the team, in recognition of all his hard work, help and encouragement. After Derek thanked the Society for his wonderful present, he was cheered by everyone present.

The Mayor and Mayoress enjoyed walking round the allotments and were impressed by the enthusiasm of everyone they met. As they left they were pleased to accept a box of freshly picked vegetables.
The Society also raised over £200 for the Mayor’s Charity from visitors as they too went home with bags of vegetables. It was a truly happy and successful event.