Welcome to the Autumn Newsletter.  We have had a good growing season this year, especially for soft fruit with the blackberries coming to fruit in early June and lasting through to October and there have been some spectacular sunflowers and pumpkins on plots. It’s well worth a walk round to see what otherplotholders are growing.

Best Allotment in Loughton 2017

This year our site had the Overall Winner. Many congratulations to Mr Yee Sek on Plot 42. A well deserved winner as he is on site 365 days of the year! The Judge said that although it was not a traditional plot, there was imaginative use of various recycled materials to build micro- environments that enable exotic fruits and vegetables to be grown, and that the resulting produce was of excellent quality. Plots 21, Bill Meeson, and 122, Lesley Ford, were both given Highly Commended certificates. Well done.

Rodent Control
In the past it has been usual practice for individual plot holders to deal with rodents when they are seen. Aplot holder complained to the Town Council after seeing a rat around their plot and the Association had to employ a company to put bait down. This is very expensive and we, and the Town Council, recommend that anyone who sees rodents use one of the treatments available in DIY stores and supermarkets. They are cheap, easy to use and completely safe if the instructions are followed.

Contacting the Committee
Having tried various contact methods for the Committee it seems the best way is just to have one point of contact so that any queries get directed to the correct place as quickly as possible. Please contact the Secretary, Diane Tong, either by phone (telephone number on the notice board on the garage) or by email and she will ensure the query goes to the correct Committee member or to the full Committee at the next meeting.

Chairman's Report
I was sorry to hear in the summer of the passing of Stan Goodwin. Stan was one of our longest standing allotment tenants, and in the past had been a member of the committee. My condolences to Stan's family.

Now is the time to be planning what you will be growing next season. We are members of a group discount scheme with Dobies, where we get a 50% discount on seeds and 15% off other products, so don't forget to get your new Dobies catalogue from the Association Secretary at the AGM.

I am very pleased to see a 20% reduction in our water bill this year. Water is the allotment's biggest outgoing, so it is good to see that members are using this resource carefully. Please do continue to use water carefully. Over-watering your crops can lead to less flavoursome produce and your plants becoming over reliant so that they cannot cope during dry spells, particularly if you go away on holiday. And of course, please do remember to make sure that you collect all the water you can from shed roofs, greenhouses etc. See you at the A.G.M.

Honeybees Swarming
For the honeybee colony to be successful it needs to reproduce, it does this by swarming. Successful swarming is the establishment of two or more colonies where there was one before and the survival of all those colonies through the winter. The urge to reproduce is very strong and that is why it is so hard to prevent.

As beekeepers we do our best but bees are wild insects and don’t read the same books as us and so do their own thing. The swarm is controlled by pheromones in the hive, the age of the queen and the worker bees, the swarm usually issues on a warm sunny morning, bad weather can delay the swarm. The old queen goes with the swarm, after making provision for a new queen to replace her, she also takes half of the worker bees with her, they fill their stomachs with honey, then usually land on a nearby tree, bush or shed, probably on your plot, and from there send out scout bees to find a suitable new nest site.

The swarm looks quite dramatic and to some quite scary but it is quite safe for us, they have just filled them-selves with honey and are quite content. Next time you see a swarm on your allotment, stop and look it’s quite amazing, oh and give me a ring I will collect them and give them a nice new home.

The beekeeper's telephone number is on the gate of the apiary, or you can contact the Secretary.

David will have a limited amount of honey for sale at the AGM.

Dogs on Leads
Please ensure your dog is kept on a lead or in a penned area on your plot.

AGM
The AGM will be held on Monday 4th December can be found with this newsletter. The
evening will include a talk from one of our plotholders, John Thompson, who is the Vice Chairman of Buckhurst Hill Horticultural Society.  Refreshments will again be provided by Waitrose under their Community Matters scheme.

The Mayor of Loughton presented the winners of the Best Allotments in Loughton 2017 with their awards at Willingale Allotments. Well done again to the winners from our allotments, including Mr Sec who won the top prize.

Four winners from Roding Road Allotments in this years awards. Well done all, especially Mr Sec on Plot 42 who is the proud winner of the Best Allotment in Loughton 2017. The awards presentation will take place in September.


Best Allotment in Loughton 2017
Results
OVERALL WINNER
Plot 42 – Roding Road


BEST NEWCOMER
(plot held for under two years)
Plot 48 Loughton Potato Ground


HIGHLY COMMENDED
Plots: 17, 20 and 47B – Loughton Potato Ground
Plots: 21 and 122 - Roding Road
Plots: 48 – Willingale Road


COMMENDED
Plots: 10, 50 and 79 – The Potato Ground
Plots: 98a – Roding Road
Plots: 3 and 53 – Willingale Road

Judge's comments:

Best Allotment
Roding Road – Plot 42

Not a traditional plot! Imaginative use of various recycled materials to build micro-environments that enable exotic fruits and vegetables to be grown, and excellent quality of the resulting produce.

Best Newcomer
Potato Ground – Plot 48
Stylish and productive, and very well maintained – a credit to a newcomer.

Highly Commended
Potato Ground – Plot 17
Interesting layout, wildlife interest, well managed.


Potato Ground – Plot 20
A productive and well laid out plot.


Potato Ground – Plot 47B
Very neat, nice flowers and fruit as well as the vegetables.


Roding Road – Plot 122
Good use of the space and an attractive and individual plot.


Roding Road – Plot 21
Impressive progress for a newcomer to an overgrown plot. Loved the carrot wheels!


Willingale Road – Plot 48
Interesting management of natural resources,
and little bit different from the run of the mill.


Judged by Roger Emmens 25th July 2017

Dear Member,

On the 10th and 11th April the allotments suffered two incidents of youths entering the site and causing significant criminal damage to a number of greenhouses and sheds. The police were called on both occasions, and the good news is that the culprits were all caught while still on the site.

The committee has contacted all plot holders who have been affected.  If you have not been contacted by us and you discover your plot has been affected by the recent vandalism please do report this to the police, otherwise the culprits, who have been caught, will not be charged with anything and the Police will be unable to take any further action.

You can report this by telephoning 101 (non-emergency policy number), or you can report it online using this link: https://report.police.uk/. Make sure you say that the damage occurred at Roding Road Allotments, Loughton, and give your name and plot number.  Please do confirm with the committee and share with us the crime number you are given. You can notify us that you have reported a crime, using the contact form on our website, or speak to a Committee member when you are on the site.

If you did not receive this message by email, and you would like to receive our "Allotment Watch " email bulletin, please provide / confirm your email address.

Celebrating local residents’ achievements was the order of the day at the prize giving event held at the Willingale Road Allotments site on Monday evening, 12 September 2016. The
presentations were made by the Town Mayor, Councillor Carol Davies who thanked
everyone who took part in the competition for their hard work and commitment in producing
wonderful gardens and produce of the highest standard.

Over 350 allotments at the Loughton Potato Ground, Roding Road, and Willingale Road
were inspected by representatives from the three allotment sites over three days and 46
plots were shortlisted. The final judging took place on Wednesday 27 July and the Town
Council is very thankful to Alec Hague, an allotment gardener with 40 plus years’ experience
from Ongar who carried out this task accompanied by the Deputy Town Clerk.

The Best Allotment in Loughton 2016 was awarded to Brian Smith, for plot 20 at the
Loughton Potato Ground. Brian received a large silver cup which he will hold for eleven
months, a smaller replica cup to keep, a £25 garden voucher and a certificate.

Alec Hague commented that Brian’s plot was ‘WOW – an enormous variety of crops, the only
plot to achieve maximum number of points for its crops’. Alec was unaware at the time that
Brian had previously won the Best Allotment in Loughton in both 2012 and 2013.

The Runner Up was Leslie Ford for plot 122 at the Roding Road allotments, who received a
silver salver to keep and a certificate. Alec commented the plot was “beautifully kept, brilliant
plot only second by the smallest of margins.

The Best Newcomer Award was awarded to Des Conor, plot 64 at the Roding Road
allotments, who received a large shield to keep for 11 months and a small replica to keep
with a certificate. Des had only been allotment gardening for 1 year and Alec commented
that his plot was “brilliant for only 1 year’s work”

Other winners were Teresa Witham, plot 53 and Emily Russell, plot 3 at the Willingale Road
Allotments, Jan Boucek, plot 17 and Rosie Partridge, plot 80 at the Loughton Potato Ground
and Dave Robinson, plot 5 and George Hartwell, plots 32a & 32a at the Roding Road Allotments who were highly commended. Five other allotment holders across the three allotments sites were commended for their efforts and received certificates.

Note to Editor:

This is the eighth year of the Best Allotment in Loughton to help raise the profile of allotments

and celebrate the work of the gardeners.

The Town Council is fully committed to the provision of allotment sites in Loughton with a

secure future. These should be affordable, fully tenanted, well appointed, well managed and

maintained, open to all, and valued by the communities they serve. Such sites also make a

positive contribution to the landscape and local biodiversity.

The competition, arranged by the Town Council, is for all allotment holders in Loughton. The

allotments in Loughton are The Potato Ground, Roding Road and Willingale Road.

Every month Waitrose local branches donate £1000 between three local good causes that their customers choose.

At the checkout customers receive a token, which they then place in the box of the good cause they would most like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the bigger the donation they receive.

So if you're shopping at Waitrose Buckhurst Hill please do drop your token in the Roding Road Allotments & Leisure Gardens box!

We will be operating a new seed scheme for 2017.  The scheme is still with Dobies and the committee will issue catalogues as before.

Individual members order from and pay Dobies direct using a unique code which will be sent with the catalogue. The code will give 50% discount on seeds and 15% on everything else the same as last year.

You may also receive special e/mail offers.  Catalogues will be available Sept/Oct .  Please let me know if you require a catalogue.

Diane Tong
Secretary (RRA&LGA)

Email: Rodingroadallotments@btinternet.com
Telephone: 0208 5080228
You can also use the committee contact web-form here.