Hello everyone and welcome to winter.

What a great time of year to tidy up our plots and prepare for bad weather. Please follow all the guidance for flood resilience … weigh down your sheds, water barrels, wheelbarrows and other structures. We have to trust the Environment Agency has repaired the riverbank so we won’t have another turbulent breach. However, there’s no denying the fact that Bradley Fold is on the flood plain and it is highly likely at some stage the EA  may perform a controlled opening of the flood gates , meaning  we get a more gentle wash of river water across our site. Act now so you don’t lose your belongings. Thanks.

Also be aware that our shop will shut from November 30 and reopen on January 4. You can meantime catch up on chatter and good cheer at our annual Christmas event on December 14 in St Cath’s community hall on School Lane at 2pm. Please bring food contributions to share, we look forward to seeing you there.

Also very important: please ensure you have all paid your membership to Didsbury Garden Society. It’s £10 per person payable in the shop or to our bank account Didsbury Garden Society sort code 01 02 69 and account no 25664018. Please use your plot number as reference, thanks. 

You also need to complete a form for each person agreeing to our conditions of tenancy and completing our age/ ethnicity survey: it’s useful for us to show a good diversity mix   when we apply to partner organisations  for funding. These forms are available in the shop and were also circulated by email by Julie a couple of weeks ago.

Also we’ve just had some good news …..a huge well done to our fabulous committee and volunteers who helped us recover from the dreadful New Year floods. We won a special Pride of Manchester award from the RHS and Britain in Bloom for overcoming adversity. How fantastic! 

We also won a Best Neighbourhood award and for the third year running we were ranked as Outstanding Level Five for the standard of the plots when judges visited in June.

This is a fabulous achievement when you consider the state of the allotments in January and we say a huge thankyou to everyone who helped. Extremely proud of you all! 

Best regards from all the committee,

Janine, Chair of Bradley Fold.