Vegetable Talk

Peter in full flow

A well attended Worthing Horticultural Society AGM on Monday evening (8th March) featured a talk by Peter Webb on Growing Vegetables for Showing. You would not believe the lengths these guys go to to attain that Red Card: washing potatoes in milk, dusting onions, artificial lighting, growing carrots in tall containers and potatoes in huge sacks, etc. It was very entertaining and useful too with tips on good varieties and cultivation techniques. And let's face it - nice vegetables are good to eat too and there was much for the ordinary vegetable grower to take on board in terms of sowing/planting times, crop protection and the like. The talk was supplemented by an excellent slide presentaion showing many of Peter's successful show entries and vegetables growing in situ.

(09/03/10)

 

Rotary Hobbies and Leisure Fair

Saturday (6th March) was the Hobbies and Leisure Fair in Worthing's Town Hall buildings at which we had a stall manned by 2 committee stalwarts, Pete and Ken, for most of the day. Here they are displaying their wares.

             

The messsage for the day was you don't have to have an allotment to be a member and enjoy the benefits that membership brings. It must have worked because none of those who joined on the day actually has an allotment but from now on they can use our shops, go on our trips, attend the dinner, etc..etc. To find out more details of the advantages of becoming a member go to our Membership page.

Show Schedule

Sowing is very much in mind now and if you want to know what to sow to have a chance of winning a prize in our September show have a look at the 2010 show schedule which is now available from our stores. For those of you who don't want to move from your chairs you can download it by clicking here.

Association Dinner

The Windsor House Hotel hosted the Association Dinner on Friday, 19th February. 70 diners enjoyed a 3-course dinner + coffee and biscuits for the princely sum of £20. The evening started with a lucky ticket draw won by Mrs Humphreys and ended with a 747 competition, the bar finally closing after 11.00pm. After dinner there was a closely contested quiz, the winning team sneaking home by a mere ½ point from 2 other teams. The prize was 40 packets of seeds to be divided by the 8 team members - Happy Sowing. This was followed by a raffle where the prizes were somewhat more substantial including bottles of alcoholic beverages such as Scotch Whisky and wine. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly and thanks go to the Windsor House Hotel and the dinner organisers, Ken Willo and Jack Powis. For pictures of the event click here.

(21/02/10)

WHS Website Launch

Worthing Horticultural Society now has a website at http://www.worthinghorticulturalsociety.org.uk. It's still in the developmental stage but one to watch.

(19/02/10)

Seedy Sunday

Sunday, 7th February sees the country's biggest annual seed-swapping event at Hove town hall. As well as seeds there are talks and demonstrations and books and plants for sale. It costs £1.50 to get in and lasts from 10.00am until 4.30pm. For further details go to
www.seedysunday.org

(01/02/10)

Allotments lost in Hampshire

Eastleigh Borough Council has won outline planning permission to build 89 homes on an allotment site at Woodside Avenue, even though there is an allotment waiting list of 300. The council said: "The council has to balance between supporting allotments and providing good quality housing in sustainable locations like Woodside. The council has provided five new allotment sites with much improved facilities. By disposing of Woodside Avenue we will be able to improve facilities for the remaining 47 plots."
But the equivalent of 90 full-sized plots will be lost across the borough.
Tony Murrills of the Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Allotment Association admitted he was bitterly disappointed with the decision but said they would fight on. "We fought to try and save this site and two others in the town for the last seven years. This has been a very long and hard-fought campaign", he said.
Makes you wonder just how safe from developers allotments are, doesn't it?

(29/01/10)

The Dinner

I have been asked to advise any stragglers that most tickets for the Annual Association Dinner have now gone and the final date for bookings is the 23rd of this month (January!), the dinner itself on Friday 19th February. The venue and cost are the same as last year , £20 a head at the Windsor House Hotel. I think it's fair to say everyone had an excellent time last year which is probably why numbers are up this year. We have had to impose a cap of 72 so if you have not yet reserved click here for a booking form to send to Ken. All details of the dinner and the menu choices are on the form.

(09/01/10)

Update from our Recent Meeting with the Council

If you have an allotment by now you will have received your invoice for next year - £30.45. You will also have received:

The council says the tenancy agreements will be posted out with copies of the rules as soon as possible (in all probability early in the New Year, we think). Chris Bradley (Worthing Borough Council) confirmed that there were three ways of tenants returning agreement forms, via post or hand to Continental Landscapes offices, or to return them to Andy Collins on the designated site days. These "site dates" appear in the material you were sent but as we understand it the rules and agreements are not actually ready yet (22/12/09).

One weekend only, in the spring there may be rubbish skips on the three large sites.

Pallets - concerns were aired that pallets were being used as fences and not for their intended use. These have been provided free of charge to you for the making of compost bins, etc. not fences.

Path at West Tarring - Chris Bradley is going to look in to whether there is any budget left to make permanent a dodgy path, near to the Canterbury Road entrance (I hope this is right).

(22/12/09)

Well supported AGM

Yet again a very decent turnout for our AGM even though it was hardly the sort of night you might want to go out. And the evening was very upbeat with favourable reports from the treasurer, the chairman and the secretary. (To view a copy of the secretary's report click here) There was also encouraging participation from the floor but details of the meeting and all discussion will appear later in the official minutes. However, we must mention here the two presentations made at the AGM by our president, Arthur Burt. Both were firsts of a kind. The President's Cup for services to the Association over the past year went to Peter Everett, who thus became the first person ever to receive the trophy more than once. Peter has done sterling work managing our stores for more years than he cares to remember yet still mainains his acumen and enthusiasm.

The second first, if that makes sense, was achieved by Paula Jowett who became the first lady ever to receive the trophy for the Best Kept Allotment. Below is a picture of her receiving her trophy from president, Arthur Burt, along with a photo of her winning allotment.

           

                                                                                                                                                                           (26/10/09)

 

Trip to Southern Water

10 members visited Southern Water's Wastewater Treatment Works at Ford aerodrome today (Thursday). I don't know what we expected but I think everyone found the visit interesting and instructive. On arrival we were met by liaison officer, Annette Dewey, and her team and welcomed with tea and coffee and cakes and biscuits - a good start. A Powerpoint type presentation was followed by a very lively discussion and a couple of customer problems were put on the schedule to be looked at forthwith. Impressive. The site manager then took us on a tour, inside and out, and explained the various processes involved in the treatment. A couple of enclosed areas were rather malodorous but the entire site was very clean and looked as though it could have been built yesterday. It was fascinating to learn what happens to all that stuff we flush away; we just imagine it disappears but an awful lot happens to it before the cleaned liquid remains are flushed into the sea and the solid remains are heat-treated and dried out into 2mm - 4mm pellets which are then sold to farmers for their land. Unfortunately they were not allowed to give away samples or sell it to us for our allotments. Even the methane produced during the treatment process is put to good use as the onsite gas, thus avoiding huge gas bills. All questions were answered readily at any point and the staff were obviously very proud of what they were doing. Before we left, a couple of hours after our arrival, we were treated to another round of refreshments, so a good ending as well.

(21/10/09)

No Pumpkin Parade

Unfortunately we have had to abandon Pumpkin Parade this November as we no longer have anywhere to hold it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                (12/10/09)

Peter does it again!

             

Peter was at it again this weekend at Lancing's show with three winning entries in the Chrysanthemum section (silver medal) and winning the Top Tray competition. Is the man unstoppable??

(08/10/09)

The Show

THE GREAT VILLAGE SHOW 2009

Saturday 5th September was the day of the show, again at the Offington Park Methodist Church Halls working side by side with our friends in the Worthing Horticultural Society. The team of willing helpers did the setting-up like magic on Friday evening and come the morning the sun shone and we were all set for a great day, and that is what we got. New entrants as well as regulars filled the tables with their efforts and kept the judges busy all morning.

The halls looked wonderful, a blaze of colour, glorious produce and flowers everywhere and home cooked goodies to die for. The few new items in this year's schedule proved a big success with the whole of the end table full of trugs of vegetables and baskets of fruit that had a real "wow" factor. People were clearly amazed that we "plotters" can produce so much lovely grub and when you put it all together, "wow". The flower arrangement in a teapot, judged by the public, was another new hit and the public really enjoyed getting involved. Over 160 votes were cast for both the teapots and the photographs of "Sunny Worthing". The children's marigold competition was set up outside in the sunshine where they made a lovely show and the winners of the two age groups were Jack Roberts and Orchard Chamberland. She also took the trophies for the other children's classes. Sadly she was the only entrant but her success was fully deserved.

The raffle was well supported with some really excellent donated prizes and very happy lucky winners. The cake stall was superbly stocked with a vast array of lovely things so many thanks to so many members for their hard work and generosity. Over on the white elephant stall were bargains to be had all afternoon. One lady, much to her surprise, went home with a small vacuum cleaner and a little lad bought some pretty jewellery for his mum's birthday. I bet she will shed a tear or two.

As if this was not enough in the hall next door was the Horticultural Society's show with all that had to offer, particularly the flowers which were just stunning, and the chance to sit down with a cup of tea and a slice of homemade cake.

And then it was time for the prize giving. We had to explain that the Best Allotment winner is still a secret until the Worthing in Bloom presentation later in September, so our cup will be presented at the AGM in November.

The best front garden was won by Jim Short for the second year running. Then the trophy winners for the show classes were announced and it was clear that we had an outstanding showman in Peter Webb who won Best Exhibit of Fruit, Most Points For Vegetables, Best Exhibit of vegetables, Most Points for Flowers, Best Collection of Vegetables, Top Tray and Best in Show for his beautiful trug of vegetables. Congratulations Peter and thanks for a superb contribution to the show. Bernie Broad won Best Exhibit of flowers for his asters, Arthur Burt took the trophy for the rose classes and the Banksian Medal, Margo Hollingdale won the Floral Art cup and the Novice Collection of Vegetables award went to W. Scrace. The Cookery cup was won by Celia Powis and the public voted Anita Nutt's photograph the best. Your humble Show Secretary beat off all opposition to win the Men Only Cheese Straws. They were delicious and are all gone now!

Class Winners.

Fruit 1. J Shambrook, 2. J. Shambrook, 3. J Powis, 4. P Webb, 5. R Bingham, 6. J Powis, 7. C Brown.
Vegetables 10. P Webb, 11. P Webb, 12. P Webb, 13. R Bingham, 14. P Webb, 15. P Webb, 16. P Webb, 17. A Burt,
18. P Webb, 19. P Webb, 20. P Webb, 21. P Webb, 22. P Webb, 23. E Cornfield, 24. P Webb, 25. P Webb, 26. R Bingham,
27. P Webb, 28. J Shambrook, 29. R Bingham, 30. P Webb, 27. P Webb, 28. J Shambrook, 29. R Bingham, 30. P Webb,
31. P Webb, 32. P Webb, 33. P Webb, 34. P Webb, 35. P Webb, 36. D Richardson, 37. P Webb.
Flowers 40. C Powis, 41. A Nutt, 42. B Broad, 43. B Broad, 44. A Burt, 45. A Burt, 46. A Burt, 48. P Webb, 49. P Webb,
50. P Webb, 51. A Burt, 52. P Webb, 53. P Webb, 54. J Slater, 55. B Cox, 57. P Webb, 58. J Shambrook, 59. J Shambrook,
60. J Shambrook, 61. J Slater, 62. A Burt, 63. J Shambrook, 64. J Shambrook.
Floral Arrangements 70. M Hollingdale, 71. P Webb, 72. B Cox
Photograph 75. A Nutt.
Cookery 80. S Scrace, 82. C Buckland, 83. J Robins, 84. L Spencer, 85. J Powis, 86. D Richardson, 87. C Powis,
88. C Powis.
Collections 100. P Webb, 101. W Scrace, 104. J Shambrook, 105. P Webb, 106. P Webb.
Children 110. O Chamberland & J Roberts, 111. O Chamberland, 112. O Chamberland, 113. O Chamberland.

Congratulations to you all and many thanks to everyone who took part and everyone who helped. Finally to all of you who missed this event, you missed a real treat. But there is always next year!

Jack Powis, Show Secretary.
(08/09/09)

 

For older stories click here