I hope you are all enjoying the spring weather now and the opportunity to finally get your allotments and gardens in order after the long winter. I mention gardens, because I can now to take the opportunity to welcome all our new associate members to HRAA, as we now have a gardening club in St Ives. Thank you everyone who has shown an interest in supporting this new initiative which has been driven forward by Robin Bletsoe.
It is important that our membership is as strong as possible, because it means we have a more powerful voice when negotiating with the council, and this can also extend to comments and views on topics such as St Ives in Bloom and maintenance of parks and other areas in the town.
Those of you who have been members since October, I hope are feeling the benefits of being a HRAA member - particularly from a financial point of view. We organised delivery of seven lorry loads of wood chips in January, a volume of roughly 85 cubic metres. and thanks to Ray for being on site on the day, and directing the lorry driver with each load. A quick glance at one of the gardening catalogues which came through our door this week suggests that bark from a local garden costs approx. £6.00 for 100 litres. This means we probably saved allotment tenants of the order of £5,000 at retail value. We let anyone on site take this, and you will notice that some people got more than others - and many of those who got most, were not HRAA members - but we hope that this will act as an advertisement for HRAA in encouraging new members to join. If anyone says to you that the membership fee is too high, just remind them that they can get their cash back very quickly by taking up the discounts at local garden centres, and if they had taken a few barrow loads of woodchips, they would have easily got their money back there as well.
We have arranged three excellent evening events over the winter; on the National Association (NSALG), Practical bee keeping and Vegetable varieties today. I would particularly like to thank Allan Lewis, one of our own members for giving the talk on bee keeping. However, it has been a bit disappointing how so few people have attended some of our evening talks. It is important that you tell us what you do and don't want the committee to organise for you. I hope that the setting up of a gardening club in the town will means a more active series of evening talks, which standard allotment members will also be able to attend, but we do still need to know what you want.
Plans are pushing on with the Produce Show which is going to be bigger and better this year. Recent news, hot off the press, is that we have been awarded a £250 competitive grant by St Ives Town Council, which will help cover some of the costs of the expanded show we will put on this year, particularly the extra costs which we will incur for booking rooms over an extended period in the Corn Exchange. Make sure you have the date in your diary - 3rd September - the draft schedule is available on the HRAA web site listing all the classes, so you can plan your winning campaign now ! Fruit curd is on the schedule, so I hope some of you will give Colin a run for his money..... he seems to think his lemon curd is something special. Not that I want to worry any of you, but certain members have also got mammoth onions on the go, and pot leek seedlings for showing are reputed to have been imported from a special supplier in the North West.....
Finally, we are planning a social event on site in early June, date to be confirmed. This is likely to centre around a plant sale, tea and cakes and games for the kids. And the annual balloon race will again be hotly contested… assuming there’s enough wind #;0). Further details in due course. I hope as many of you as possible can make it, including our new members in the gardening club. We look forward to seeing you there.
Richard
May 2011
