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Community Spruce – Spring Clean

On Sunday 14 March our members cleaned, tidied and decorated the communal facilities as part of our Community Spruce programme.

The external walls of the toilets were painted (the doors still need to be finished).

The internal walls and ceilings the both toilets were scraped, primed and painted (the floors still need to be painted).

The Clubhouse kitchen cupboards were emptied and the contents sorted.   A professional cleaning company will be along shortly to give the Clubhouse a deep clean ready for upcoming events including our AGM and Open Day.

The communal poly tunnel and greenhouse were cleared and tidied.  Unfortunately a lot of potted plants had to be disposed of because they were infested with vine weevil.

A skip was available for site and members’ use as some plotholders had inherited a lot of rubbish and rubble when taking on their plots.

There was also a litter pick of the site and surroundings.

Thank you to everybody who helped out on the day and to those who have been helping with the site improvements at other times.

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Seedy Sunday – 24th March 2019

When we were consulting on what people wanted to see at Dorset Road Allotments,  members frequently asked for opportunities to come together as a community to do something to benefit the site as well as get to know each other.  Our first community day was in February when we planted new hedging and seed bombed the wildlife garden.  Seedy Sunday on 24th March is our second community day.

Come along to the Clubhouse to swap any spare seeds or plants with your fellow plotholders, help sow seeds to sell at the open day and learn from experts.  You can also have a cup of tea or coffee with your fellow allotmenteers.

The shop will also be open so that  you can stock up on any gardening equipment or buy some seeds at a discounted price.

We look forward to seeing you on the 24th March.

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Community Spruce – hedge planting and wildflowers

Thank you for the members who helped out at our first community spruce event – hedge planting and seed bombing the wildlife garden.  Members made seed bombs that will help improve the diversity of wildflowers in the wildlife garden providing more forage for bees and insects and enhancing the biodiversity of the area.

The trees members planted will, in a few short years, provide a habitat and food for wildlife as well as foraging for plot holders.   The new hedge is made of 50% buckthorn (sloe berries) as well as wild native fruit trees including crab apple, plum, cherry, pear and juneberry.  It also includes various native roses such as dog rose, sweet briar rose and Rosa rugosa.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts from the 19th Bromley Scout Group who came along to help.   They had a tour of the allotments, learnt about what we grow on site and planted the first trees in the new hedge.  They also had fun throwing the seed bombs they’d brought with them into the wildlife garden.

Finally, thank you to the committee members who made lunch for the young people.

Our next Community Spruce event is Seedy Sunday on 24th March between 1-3pm.  There will be a community seed swap, seed sowing demonstrations and advice as well as activity for children.