We had a fantastic Open Day on Sunday 18th May.
We’d like to thank all our visitors who made the day so special – it was great to meet people who hadn’t visited the site before as well as say hello to our regulars.
A huge thanks go to all our members who helped get the site ready over the last few weeks as well as every who helped out at the Open Day – from playing music, singing, cooking food, running stalls and children’s activities, putting on a demos. It all made for an amazing day.
Our fabulous Open Day will return on Sunday 18th May.
We will have our usual plant sale with lots of lovely vegetables (tomatoes, courgettes, beans, sweetcorn, pumpkins and lots more).
There will also be tea/coffee and homemade cakes, a BBQ. Our shop will be open, there will be a stalls as well as a range of children’s activities.
This year will also have ‘Sing Along Together’ Beckenham performing at 11.30am and 12.30pm.
We hope you can come along, tour the site, view the allotment plots and enjoy the various stalls and activities.
In 2007 we created our popular Wildlife Garden with grant funding from the National Lottery Awards for All programme.
The garden was created on part of the site where bee orchids had been found, adjacent to the small river. You can find out more about how we created the garden here: Wildlife Garden » Dorset Road Allotments.
Every year the garden gets a little bit wilder and is host to lots of mammals, amphibians, lizards, insects and birds… not to mention a fox family that likes to sunbath next to the pond.
Unfortunately, after 18 years the wooden dipping platform is deteriorating and the pond needs a new liner. The interpretative signs have also faded in the sun and brambles are trying to take over!
Fortunately we have a team of Duke of Edinburgh volunteers who have started to tame the garden and make it more welcoming. On day one they have started to cut back brambles and lay new bark chipping on the paths.
We are also fundraising to build a new and bigger pond dipping platform as well as replace the liner and sub-liner. We plan to have new interpretative signs made and some additional benches. It’s also time for the native hedge around the perimeter to be ‘laid’.
There’s lots of work to do to reclaim the wildlife garden and ensure it can be safely used for the next 20 years! Watch this space for fundraising activities and progress reports.