Edinburgh Midmar Allotments Association

April 2016: Planners Find in Favour of Craigentinny Telferton allotments

The City of Edinburgh Council Planning Committee has rejected the application by Avant Homes to build on two thirds of Craigentinny Telferton Allotments. The decision was taken in front of a packed Council chamber - full of supporters of the 93 year old site. The builders' representatives were reported to look "sheepish" as the arguments against were made.

If allowed, the application would have been a departure from carefully designed Local Development Plans, in particular with regard to preservation of open space. It would have set a dangerous precedent.

FEDAGA estimates that Avant Homes has already spent £150K on working up arguments in favour of the development and are likely to appeal to the Scottish Government, so the end of the story has not yet been written.

It is heartening that the Council has accepted that the allotments represent "high value amenity". For further evidence, you can watch this short video featuring some of the allotment holders themselves. FEDAGA congratulates Craigentinny Telferton allotments for fighting successfully for the preservation of their site.

Council Provides More Allotments (and Raised Beds, too)

The Council Allotment Officer, Ian Woolard, has reported on recent additions to the city's allotment provision:

"At Stenhouse we have 17 whole/half plots on the east side and 15 raised beds with a further 3 beds still to installed on the west side making 35 units/plots.

"At Lochend Square we have 12 half plots and 5 raised beds. More to be installed during 2017, making 17 units/plots in all."

FEDAGA welcomes this development, which allows for more people to come off the waiting List and get started. The Stenhouse plots are long-awaited following the completion of the tramline and the creation of the Lochend Square plots are a complete surprise.

Quality Compost at an Unbeatable Price

Members are reminded that they can take advantage of a great discount on bulk orders of compost. FEDAGA secured a £5 discount on cubic metre bulk bags of fresh compost with Forth Rescource Management some years ago and the offer still stands.

The minimum order is 2 bags. Each bag will cost £25, which includes delivery to the site.

The compost is of good quality and the feedback received from participating allotments this year is that the standard is higher than ever. Now is the time to get your order in.

FEDAGA recommends that site committees or groups of plotholders get together to take advantage of this offer. Call 0131 339 5554. Visit their website here.

Calling Older Plotholders

Garden and Green Space Design student Timea Csakvari writes:

"I'm a forth year student at Scotland's Rural College (former Scottish Agricultural College), currently working on my dissertation; researching behavioral changes through the last seventy years towards green spaces (gardens, parks).

"I'm hoping to get help through FEDAGA, as I believe your members are my focus group. I'm looking for people over 60 to respond to a 3 minute survey.

Your help is really valuable for me."

To help Timea with her studies please click here.

It really is a quick and simple set of questions. Thanks for your help.

Bee Hive Offer

FEDAGA has received this interesting offer:

"Get yourself good bees and professional equipment in an exceptional bargain. I am closing down my commercial apiary for personal reasons. All must go by mid-May!"

For the full story and contact details click on the FEDAGA News page and scroll down.

Volunteers Required

Those lovely people from REMIN (of Rock Dust fame) require volunteers during the Gardening Scotland event from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th June.

Jennifer (of REMIN) says - "As well as talking to visitors to the stand there will be stints “on the trailers”. The idea is to have a trailer at both North and West Car Parks and to have someone on these at all times, or at least for the afternoons. When bags of rock dust or compost are sold at the stand the buyers are given a ticket which they take to their cars, then take their car to one of the two trailers where they are loaded up with their rock dust and or compost.

"Trailer stints could be just afternoons as and if somebody wants to take their rock dust away in the morning somebody can walk with them to the trailer and load them up and then come back to the stand – so that there are not spells sitting on the trailer with nothing happening.

"So – in return for
(a) FREE ENTRY TICKET
(b) one free 20kg bag of REMIN volcanic rock dust (or 2 x 10kg bags)
(c) free REMIN polo shirt
(d) free car parking

each volunteer does 5 hours = 3 hours on stand and 2 hours on trailer, in busy period ie 11am to 5pm. As show is open for 7 hours each day this will factor in time for lunch and to get around the show themselves."

If you would like to volunteer for a day out at the show, please contact Jennifer on jennifer@reminscotland.com

Fight Against Blight

Many members subscribe to Blightwatch for e-mail alerts to "Smith Periods", or times when potato or tomato blight is likely due to weather conditions and air temperature.

They say - "For the coming season the service will be using new weather feeds from the Met Office that provide forecast data so that Smith Period predictions will be for the coming 24 hours instead of the previous 24 hours. The service can also make a prediction out to 48 hours as well based on the forecasts for today and tomorrow.

"The service is sponsored by AHDB Potatoes together with several professional and commercial organisations and was originally built to serve professional growers. It has also, over the years, attracted a dedicated following of amateur gardeners and allotmenteers who are very welcome and we hope will find the new site easier to use and more informative.

"The service is set to begin as usual in early April and run as normal throughout the season. We will be delivering alerts via email as before together with alerts about confirmed outbreaks from the AHDB Potatoes 'Fight Against Blight' service. Later in the season we will be delivering a Blightwatch App for users to download and alerts will also be delivered via that route as 'notifications'."

If you'd like to sign up for this free service click here.

Potato Club News

With 60 different Heritage varieties on offer and nearly the same number of participants, the FEDAGA "Potato Club" is clicking into gear. The tubers will soon be picked up from SASA and distribution to participants has been arranged for before the end of April. A bonus for those signed up to the scheme is the opportunity to visit to SASA to see their facilities and learn about potato breeding and potato disease (lovely!). This has been arranged for 1st. July.