Transition Ashtead

Some good news…

Carrots and beetroot, with rhubarb and butternut squash in the background!

Onions, garlic and loads of spuds...

Parsnips galore...and last seasons leeks

After my last rant about garden pests, I thought I’d report the good news on the allotment – that is to say that most things are growing really well!

They have needed a fair amount of watering as it’s been so dry, but water plus sunshine plus a bit of warmth equals much growing!

The crops so far that are shooting up (we won’t mention the asparagus…) are the parsnips, red onions, garlic, potatoes (Cara and Charlotte), celeriac, carrots, beetroot and butternut squash.

On the soft fruit side, there are gooseberries, autumn raspberries and blackcurrants, with a transplanted rhubarb crown doing well for a first season. I’ve just put in a row of leeks and they are standing to attention nicely!

Today, as a little diversion, I collected all the old packets of flower seeds that have been in the shed for ages, (all out of date, most going back to 1997) and sprinkled them all on a rough bank by the compost heaps – if any of them germinate, it will be very pretty… and if they don’t, well, it was worth a try!

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 28th June for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Here is the much-anticipated result of the FREE raffle held at Ashtead Village Day and the Information Event at Ashtead Park Garden  Centre.

And the winners are, in the order drawn:
 
Ticket number 107 1st prize -  2 bottles of wine, from the local Denbies  vinyard               
Ticket number 136 2nd prize – 3 tomato plants, grow bag supports & Tomorite, kindly donated by Ashtead Park Garden Centre
Ticket number 110 3rd prize – 2 jars of locally-produced honey
Ticket number 117 4th prize – Fork & trowel set
Ticket number 194 5th prize – Opia Chrome Basket Bath Care set (basket with loofah, brush, nail brush etc
Ticket number 124 6th prize – Gardener’s Cuttings book and The Gardener’s Pocket Bible
Ticket number 106 7th prize – Long string necklace and bracelet by Moi Design, made from paper-beads (using recycled magazines) by craftswomen in Uganda
Ticket number 130 8th prize – Suttons children ‘Fun to grow’ Bugs Galore kit

How to claim your prize – contact Transition Ashtead at info@transitionashtead.org.uk or phone Derek our secretary on 01372 378914. We can arrange for collection or delivery of your prize. Or come to the next Transition Drinks on 28th June 8pm and collect your prize at The Brewery!

Thank you to all who participated. See below on the web page for the result of the Survey done alongside the raffle.

While  you are on the the Transition Ashtead website,  have a browse, check out the links and tell your friends about it!

Asparagus outrage!

I know I keep going on about my asparagus, but it’s all new and exciting as I’ve not grown it before…there I was, down at the allotment, doing a bit of general tidying, and I noticed the stalk of the asparagus nearest me was CRAWLING with little black caterpillars! The sauce!

They had striped the frondy leaves from the plant, which was looking pretty sad. Well, it would, wouldn’t it, being bereft of it’s frondy bits….I checked out all the other plants and they ALL had a posse of predatory munchers roaming about their foliage.

I spent quite a long time picking the pesky critters off, then Keith and Mo popped down to visit and Keith joined in the picking process too! It’s not a nice job, so thanks Keith. I Googled it when I got home and it seems it’s an Asparagus beetle larva.

There were also some adult beetles on the plants – I was hoping the beetle-y things would be eating the grubs, but no such luck! The web site said this about them:
“Sanitation is one of the principal preventative strategies for suppressing these pests. This usually involves autumn/winter burning of dried fronds and other “trash” to eliminate sites where the beetles overwinter.
(2) However, this may be undesirable if it leaves the soil vulnerable to erosion. On small acreages, enclosing the asparagus beds and letting hens (Hmm, lack of chickens for this method!) forage on the beetles is one possible strategy for control.
(3) Rotenone or rotenone-pyrethrum mixtures are an organic control measure for larger acreages. Natural predators include a chalcid wasp and lady beetle larvae.”

I’m a bit late for prevention, I think! I’ll have to keep an eye on the situation and see if it improves. Those greedy gobblers may have won the first skirmish but they haven’t won the war…

Come and ask us about Garden Sharing at Ashtead Park Garden Centre, on Wednesday 16th june, 6-8

Have you got a large garden with space to spare?

Do you want to grow your own food but have no garden?

Ashtead Garden Share aims to put people who have spare garden space in touch with people who want to grow their own food. The idea is very simple – people with gardens they cannot manage, offer to share them with people who would like to grow food but have nowhere to grow.

The grower gets a free allotment, and the owner gets a share of the tasty produce grown in their garden.

Come along to Ashtead Park Garden Centre on Wednesday 16th June between 6 and 8pm and ask us all about Garden Sharing! Participate in the FREE RAFFLE - prizes on show at this event.  There will also be local honey for sale and a honey bee expert there who would love to chat to you about bees and bee hosting. Don’t know what bee hosting is? Come along and find out!

We hope to see you there!

Ashtead Village Day was a really enjoyable day – the sun shone, there was  great community feel and we met lots of lovely people!

We have now emailed everyone who left us an email address, so if you haven’t had the invitation to Transition Drinks tomorrow, (Monday 14th June, 8pm at The Brewery),  we may not have your correct email address, so please just add your name and email address on our newsletter page or get in contact and we’ll put that right!

The results of the little survey we did alongside the free raffle were very interesting. Watch this space on 20th June to see if you have won  a prize! 40 people took part and a whopping 83% of you say you recycle as much as possible! Nearly 70% say their loft is well insualted and 65% are interested in saving energy in the home. See the table below for the full results.

There was a good number of people interested in The Garden Share Scheme too.

If you would like to get involved in a Transition Action Group focusing on any of these issues, let us know!

Contact us here info@ transitionashtead.org.uk

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm Monday 14th June for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat!

Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Under the campaign slogan ‘Spring into composting at home’ all councils in Surrey are promoting composting and providing subsidised plastic compost bins.  The remainder of this blog is based on material provided by the Surrey Waste Partnership, slightly edited by me

Derek Smith

Did you know that 1/3 of your household waste can be composted? Composting is a natural process that transforms your kitchen and garden waste into valuable and nutrient rich food for your garden, for free.  Anyone with outside space can compost at home, and it’s easy to make and use.

All you need to do is provide the right ingredients and let nature do the rest.  The Surrey Waste Partnership (which is made up of Surrey County Council and the 11 district and borough councils in the county) is offering home composting bins at fantastic prices, starting from £14.00 (RRP £39.00), to encourage more residents to compost at home.

Even if you do compost already, there may be a few extra things you could put in. For example: empty cereal packets and egg boxes; fruit scraps and vegetable peelings; tea bags and coffee grounds; vacuum bag contents and even vegetarian pet bedding, are in fact great ingredients to make compost. Mix this in with garden waste such as old flowers and nettles; wood chippings and straw; twigs and dried leaves, and you have the perfect recipe. When it is finished the compost will be like a fine soil, ready to use.

Use it on your flower beds and vegetable plots, patio planters, hanging baskets and even window boxes.  Compost keeps your plants growing healthily, by improving soil structure and fertility, maintaining moisture levels and keeping your soil’s PH balance in place.

Composting is good for the environment.  By putting less household waste out for collection, less energy is required as there are fewer vehicle movements, waste handling and industrial processes involved, and less waste going to landfill.  And composting means you are putting carbon back into the soil, making it more fertile and helping tackle climate change too.

Spring into composting at home and make the most of the waste you throw away.

To buy a bin or get more advice on how to turn your table scraps and garden waste into compost, visit www.surreycc.gov.uk/getcomposting or call 0844 571 4444.

We hope you can come to The Brewery 8pm tonight Monday 24th May for Transition drinks.

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share, how to save money on home energy and all things Sustainable!

An informal evening – a glass of wine, a few beers… no presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat! Hope to see you there.

We hold Transition Drinks on the second and forth Mondays of every month – so make a note in your diaries!

Olympic Asparagus.

new asparagus shoot...

Tall and willowy...

The asparagus has survived the recent cold nights without incident…hurrah!

All the plants have now emerged from the soil and I’ve back-filled the trenches, so they are growing away now at their final level.

One has been tunneling along underground and has come up right next to it’s neighbour, about 20cm from where I had planted it but it has come up! The plants are now quite tall and willowy, but when they first come up there are quite hard to spot – see the pic with my finger pointing to the newly-emerged tip.

This is a crop for the long haul – they can’t be cut for the first two years, it’s a game of hoeing, watering and mulching, the reward coming in the third season…it should be ready for the London Olympics!