Cheltenham & District Allotment Holders Association
Hooray, the elections done, and we are all excited at the prospect of a new and bright beginning, well those of us who garden are anyway. I love packing up the old year and preparing for new adventures. The tidying up is taking forever though, the weather having been a tad challenging. The wet hasRead More
The finishing post is once more in sight, another year flown away, a different mash of the same ingredients. Not a bad year overall, there were certainly plenty of leaves and those that are falling are making for a bumper compost heap and the winter greens look promising. The wet has been a bit tiresomeRead More
October quietly slips away, a funny month really. Ahead of the changing clocks a prelude of dark shortened days, punctuated by just enough sunshine to keep the summer borders alive. Indeed I saw some magnificent baskets and borders well into the month. The ground moved quickly from dry to wet too, with some very soggyRead More
What a joy September proved to be, with some delightful days and a real awareness of autumn knocking. I do love the low, chill watery sunrises and the smell of the changing season that sneaks across the land after dawn. The weather though hasn’t knocked out the summer crops and many things have just keptRead More
So, that was summer then? What a strange month August proved to be, a real mish mash of unpredictable weather, that knocked over and knocked out. It tucked into everything above three feet, pushing over canes and cages and tumbling immature fruit. Not that the fruit issue worried me too much as pests have beenRead More
Well, this year really is racing by. July has been an interesting month, the early weeks just a little too dry to bring out the best in things, but we may yet catch up. Certainly the warmth has been great for pests and when there has been a splash of rain all manner of thingsRead More
Mmmmmmm…so we waited for the rain and then it came, the perfect fillip for new plantings. The beans romped and everything puffed up and grew masses of leaves. The turn around was amazing, at the start of June, the message was that rainfall was at an all time low and then within days the newsRead More
May rolls away, a muddled month, disrupted by Bank holidays and frost. Gardening confidence stayed high and lively throughout though, whilst on a daily basis, we (growers) tripped in and out covering and protecting as the teatime news indicated another after dark crash of temperature. It was all very wearing, the tease of nature changingRead More
The sting was certainly in the tail of last month, my goodness there was some treachery, particularly around the middle of the month, when a watery sun offered thin disguise to a cruel wind, that cut through everything. Every other person drawn by the deception nursed a cold. The pollen was lively too, with HazelRead More
Another interesting month passes through, with days of extremes, biting wind, torrential rain, blistering sunshine and hail that lay like snow. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence and the gardeners twitched, hesitated and then did what they do and battled on, it being after all the start of another season. Certainly, you have had to haveRead More