East Ward Allotment Association

A limited supply of mushroom compost is now available in the shop at £4 per bag. Each bag is 50lb (approx 100 litres), and contains wood-free compost which has been used to grow organically produced mushrooms. Spent mushroom compost is one of the best soil conditioners going. It is rich in nutrients and adds humus to the soil, making it much more easily worked.

Message from Oxford and District Federation of Allotment Associations:

You are invited to an O&DFAA talk:

Soil Organic Matter: Why is it so important for your crops? Its sources, actions & reactions

by Chris Bird, M. Hort (RHS)

Lecturer in Horticulture, Sparsholt College, Hampshire

On Tuesday 15 November at 7.00pm in the Old Library at Oxford Town Hall

Admission free, all welcome

You can now see our typical stock and prices on the website before you venture down on a Sunday morning to buy. Seeds, onions sets, garlic and seed potatoes are all available in season. Canes, mypex (black plastic to cover those weeds), slug pellets and all manner of gardening bits and bobs are available year round. Sunday morning in the shop is the best chance to catch up with a member of the committee if you need to bring something up, or just say Hi.

This years rent days are coming up on the 9th and 16th of October, in the shop on Sunday morning. The rent will be agreed at the AGM on the 29th September and plotholders can come along either day to pay their rent, or if necessary we can arrange for payment by BACs.

There will also be a plot inspection this Sunday, 25th September. Please make sure your plot is numbered, as required by the association rules and so that we can tell yours from your neighbours’. A few ready made signs (paint your own number on) will be available in the shop that morning for bargain prices.

The long-standing veg show at Elder Stubbs Festival, on 20th August this year, has been opened up to allotment holders from other sites. If your peas are perfect, your beans beautiful, or your leeks lovely, get yourself an entry form and take them along for the chance to win cash prizes and everlasting glory. See here for more info on times/dates/parking/entry requirements.

Thanks to everyone who turned out today in spite of the rain! Many plants were swapped and we raised quite a bit for Garden Organic too.

Meet at the allotment shop at 10.30

Plant swap at the allotment shop, Sunday 12th June, 11-12.

Bring your spare plants, take something new home.

Make a donation to charity instead if you don’t have anything to swap!

This week in the EWAA shop (10-12 on Sunday), as well as the chance to buy your seed potatoes, onions sets, seeds and garden paraphernalia, you can participate in mapping Oxford’s food production history. We will be asking everyone to tell us about their memories of orchards, bakeries, breweries, farms, mills, eel-trapping grounds and anything else you can think of so we can map it all together. This is a trial run for what will hopefully be a much bigger community local history project later on running city-wide with interviews, research skills training for volunteers and events, leading to an exhibition at the museum and creation of various maps showing Oxford’s history of providing for itself.