Transition Horsham Community Allotment 2022

Working Parties March to October 2022

Working parties take place on every other Saturday afternoon from 2 - 4pm. With coordinating work groups on the second Saturday of each month as shown below.

• Next working party: TBA

If you are interested in joining the Allotment group, or for more information email us at: allotment@transitionhorsham.org.uk

December 2022

It's definitely winter now. We are harvesting parsley, leeks, chard and winter salad and the last of the achocha. Never heard of it? Ours came from the seedling swap in May. It's a mix of green pepper and cucumber – and the plant produced hundreds.

We have been spreading manure on cardboard to help enrich the soil. One of the compost bins is now full. We hope it will rot down ready for the next year.

We have tidied and weeded and got the plot ready for the quiet time over Christmas. The onions, garlic & shallots should grow early next year and we are looking forward to the purple sprouting broccoli and brassiccas.

The pond is much fuller than before, because of the rain – and the water butts are full. We have added one more. We have also repaired the fruit cage.

At the Unitarians we have cleared more brambles and are now tackling the bamboo with a digger.

Happy Christmas everyone

Autumn 2022

We have had two work parties at the Unitarian Church Wildlife Project. We have been clearing brambles and planting some wild flowers. At the allotment we have picked potatoes, sweetcorn, tomatoes, courgettes, beans, apples, flowers, chard, one carrot and some grapes. We have cleared quite a lot of beds and are now putting cardboard and manure on them to prepare for winter. The pond has now filled up with the recent rain. We hope it will be a good home for wildlife over the winter.

July 2022

Yet another year of extremes. With the Azores high going bonkers and parking itself over the UK for the entire month the weather has been exceptionally hot and dry, with a new UK record high temperature recorded and the driest July on record for SE England. Our main priority has been watering (no hosepipes!) and keeping the pond plants in water and clear of algae. We have also harvested beetroot, beans, lettuce, potatoes, courgettes, cucumber, and are picking flowers because we like them and to keep them producing more flowers.

This year is the allotment's tenth birthday. We had a BBQ to celebrate on Wednesday 27th July. We invited people who had helped the allotment over the years. It was a lovely evening.

Thank you again everyone.

June 2022

The semi-arid conditions continue. Some parts of southern and eastern England have seen their driest January to June period since 1976. A drought warning has been issued for the community allotment pond life.

This is the time of year when our hard work starts to bring vegetables and fruit (that the slugs haven't got first)

We have in the beds:

1. Morning Glory & Dahlias
2. Broad Beans
3. Sweetcorn & Peas
4. Sweetcorn & Leeks
5. Garlic/Beans/Lettuce/Peas/Shallots
6. N/A
7. Flowers
8. Herbs Horseradish
9. Apple Trees/Climbing Beans/Dwarf Beans
10. Apple Tree/Rhubarb/Squash
11. Pear Tree/Apple Trees (First/Last/Dr Hogg)
12. 1. Strawberries
    2. Beetroot/Carrots/Parsnips
    3. Sweetcorn & Cos Lettuce
13. Rhubarb
14. 1. Flowers
    2. Potatoes
    3. Potatoes
15. Beetroot/Mangetout/Climbing Beans/Rainbow Chard/Courgettes
16. Shallots & Squash
17. Cabbage & Chard
18. (Fruit Cage) Brassica/Blackcurrant/Red Currants

The numbers refer to the bed numbers.

In the herb bed we have:

• Coriander
• Chives
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Black mint
• Hyssop
• French tarragon
• Bay leaves
• Lemon balm
• Borage
• Parsley
• Lavender
• Salad leaves
• Sage

We’ve had our first crop of potatoes, lettuce, beetroot & strawberries. We are currently watering the greenhouse & pots several times a week.

April-May 2022

This was another April where Horsham decided to steal someone elses semi-arid climate. A very dry month, but not as dry as last year, and without the punishing frosts.

This was the season for planting out broad beans to add to the ones we had planted in the autumn. They are nearly ready for picking. The sweetcorn is in two raised beds – we will need to protect it later. We have lots of beans – runner beans, french beans and broad beans which are now being harvested. Some of them are in the bean bed, some of them are climbing up the frame, and some are in large tubs.

The Mangetout got hammered by a brief cold snap in early April, but have recovered well. The Apple trees are growing well and we have strawberries! Unfortunately something has managed to get through the netting to eat the strawberries before we could, so the netting has been heavily reinforced. Also lots of beetroot.

The plants around the pond are also growing our new paths now have paving stones and will have more wood chip. The flowers are on the way – Sweet Peas and Dahlias. At the Unitarian garden we have laid a bark path, cleared some brambles and sedge and planted some wild plants.

As we head into June and the start of the meteorological summer, the jet stream seems to have done its summer killing thing of diving south and steering cloudy damp Atlantic weather over the southern counties (again!). Three hours of sunshine in the first two days. 12℃ daytime temperatures and overcast is very poor for SE England at the beginning of June. Please can the Shetland islands take its climate back.

March-April 2022

We welcomed some new volunteers, Jessika and her young daughter Imogen, and have started cultivation with preparing a new bed and planting potatoes, and potting on some brassica seedlings which are now hardening off and will be ready to plant out in May. Damaged greenhouse panels have been repaired, although they are not in a good state and it will be desirable to replace them fairly soon. New paths have been constructed on bed 14 and space has been allocated for flowers. Peas, beetroot, lettuce, rocket have been sown in the greenhouse. Carrots, parsnips and chard have been sown in the raised beds. Rhubarb has been harvested.

At the Unitarian church garden we have cleared some of the wild garlic, picked up the litter, removed brambles, and started building bark chip paths.

February 2022

Allotment is in good condition and it won't be too difficult to start cultivation when Spring arrives, which does not feel far away with the spring bulbs flowering and blossom appearing on a few trees around Horsham. Windstorm Eunice, one of the strongest to hit the region for 20 years, fortunately caused only minor damage to a few of the greenhouse panels, which were in a poor state and needed replacing anyway.

Winter 2021/22

This year (2021) the Friday work party only stopped for 1 week over christmas. We also worked on the Unitarian Church garden. The weather didn’t stop us.

What we have done?

• We moved the fruit cage and installed edging to help keep the weeds out.
• We put plants around the pond & stones to help frogs and other creatures get in & out.
• We tidied up and added manure which we collected from a kindly donar
• We replaced 1 rotten raised bed with 3 new ones and transplanted the strawberries.
• We cut hazel sticks to use as canes this year (2022).
• We planted 3 Apple trees. They are all local varieties.
• They are cordens so we can keep them pruned so they don’t take light.
• At the Unitarians we have cleared some brambles and sedge and put in some new paths.
• We also had a plaque made out of slate for our shed made by Rose.

A good winter's work!