Hello dear Bradley Folders,

What incredible harvests we’ve had this year and thanks to all who sent donations to food banks and charities. We’ve made at least 15 deliveries with a value on average of £100, how fabulous! 

Time now to prepare for winter and potential floods so please do make sure your sheds and structures are weighed down, your water butts and wheelbarrows are labelled, you’ve taken all debris from your plot, and you might consider sowing green manure to keep your soil in place. It’s risky gardening on a flood plain but we can mitigate as best we can. 

I’m putting some bricks in the bottom of my water butts and filling them to the brim because we will be turning off the water in the taps either on October 31 or when frosts threaten, whichever is sooner. We’ve all enjoyed the new irrigation system and many thanks to Phil and the volunteers who installed it earlier this year.

Also huge thanks to Ken and colleagues who have restored and refurbished the entrance gates, and painted our name in gold. It feels great to have a secure entrance ..please make sure you lock up on every visit. If you have friends calling by, do make sure they can text you to enter…. don’t leave the gates unlocked! 

Also please make sure you’ve bought everything you need from our shop……the Kings seed catalogues are available outside the shop to place orders and we will be shutting the shop over the winter months. Exact dates to follow soon. The shop is a great place to meet folk on a Sunday so do please sign up for a volunteering shift. 

We’re also looking for more volunteers to help with key roles. We need a charity coordinator  to keep track of food banks and charities who receive our produce … particularly their opening hours. And to maintain a list of willing drivers who can do drop offs. We have all the information already; we just need someone to keep it up to date and to coordinate drivers with dates and times of drop off. Ideal for someone who’s just retired or someone younger at who wants an extra responsibility to put on their CV. Do let me know by return of mail. Thanks!

Also, it’s great to see more children on site and we’d like to find someone to organise some activities…a Halloween pumpkin hunt? A sunflower growing competition? An Easter bunny trail? Visits from local schools? The opportunities are endless so again please reply to this email if you think you could organise some Young Gardener events. Just a word of caution though….don’t let your young ones run around unsupervised, there are numerous ponds, tools and chemicals on site so always keep a close eye on them. 

More seriously, we have an accident and incidents book in the shop if anything untoward happens on your plot. And a reminder we have a First Aid kit on the wall near the shop door.

Good news now…your committee is holding steady the membership fees at £10 per person. Our membership secretary Julie will be gathering these in November (forms will be sent out and available in the shop in the next couple of weeks).

Finally a most important date for your diary…our Christmas event will be held at St Catherine community hall on School Lane from 2pm on Sunday December 14th. Please bring along food contributions , there will be hot drinks on offer and maybe a taste for everyone of Bradley Fold cider. 

Best wishes from everyone in the committee, 

from Janine ,

Chair of Bradley Fold allotments.