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Advice & assistance available. We stock a variety of composts & fertilizers, lawn dressings for members, also many miscellaneous sundries, & a selection of seeds. Parking available at all sites. All ages. Membership fee: £1.00 pa, Over 60s 50p pa.
This website has been set up for gardeners and allotment holders in Bedford, so they can collaborate and exchange information about gardening.
Anyone interested in becoming an association member should simply come along during our opening hours and sign-up on the spot.
You don’t have to be a member of the association to become a community member of the website although we do recommend it as there are substantial savings on supplies.
Its quick and easy to become a community member : Register here
Saturday 17th September, 10am – 4pm
Plant and Produce sale at Michaelmas Market, St Paul’s Church, Bedford town centre
There will be herbs, perennial plants, jams & marmalades and produce for sale plus guess the weight of the pumpkin competition. The stall will be outside near the main gates near Bedford market. Indoor stalls include crafts, books, cakes, raffle, china, bric a brac and refreshments. Proceeds are in aid of the upkeep of St Paul’s Church.
Hello, my parents have recently moved from London to just south of Bedford, they now have a beautiful garden but do not have the knowledge, time or physical fitness to care for it, could anyone recommend a gardener that could look after it on a regular long term basis? I am asking as I would be paying for it myself. Thanks in advance.
Saturday 21st May, 10.30am – 3pm
Pavenham Nursery Plant Sale
At least 7 nurseries. Alpines, Bedding, Clematis, Hanging Baskets, Herbs, Perennials, Shrubs and Vegetables. In most cases the plants are raised by the nurseries selling them; keen prices and free,expert advice.
Also cards, home made cakes and and bacon butties featuring our village-reared bacon.
Entrance £1, plenty of parking, plant crèche, new playground equipment for children
(The sale is at the Village Hall, MK43 7PH. Pavenham is just off the A6, about 5 miles north of Bedford)
In aid of The Friends of St Peter’s Pavenham – caring for the structure of our church
Thank you
Spring it seems is about to be sprung at last. The willows are changing colour, the buds in the hedgerows are swelling fit to burst and the early bulbs and flowers are giving us a welcome show of colour. Now, the shrubs in our borders are forming leaves, so we know more of the damage the winter did and what to prune out to rectify it. Even the grass has started to grow in the early sun and will need a little TLC to restore it to it’s former glory.
I think the first thing to do is to spike the lawn. Take a fork and stick it into the lawn about six inches deep and rock it back and forth to create some slits. Do this every four inches until you have been over the hole lawn, and then with a dry fifty fifty mix of sharp sand and peat or grow bag compost fill the slits to improve drainage. Next give the grass a treatment of weed, feed and moss kill at the advised rate. Usually about four ounces to the square yard. When the moss turns black, rake off as much as you can. This can be put on the compost heap, as long as it stands for at least six months. By this time you will be ready to start cutting the grass.
When we feel the warmth of the sun we all want to rush out and start growing things and this is the time to do it. Lots of things can be sown now, such as carrots, beetroot, onion sets and some brassicas. As there is still time for the weather to turn a bit nasty, it is just as well to exercise a bit of caution and if you cannot provide a bit of shelter such as a cold frame, cloches or fleece, it does no harm to wait. Things sown when conditions are ideal will do better than stuff sown too early. As long as the soil is not too cold and wet potatoes can go in now and should come to no harm. If you have a greenhouse, heated or unheated, the world is your oyster almost and you can grow everything that is at least half hardy. Even things like tomatoes will germinate indoors now, so let’s get some dirt under our fingernails and get started.
Happy gardening, Richard Callaghan.
If you would like a copy of our stocklist it is available for download in pdf format:
Stock list for 2011
If nothing else, December’s spell of inclement weather was enough to keep all but the foolhardy out of the garden. There were however some bright spots to it. When we had the hard hoar frosts they made a fantastic display of the spiders webs on the wrought iron fencing, and enabled me to take some terrific black and white gothic like pictures. When we had the snow we put out food and drink for the birds and were rewarded with a succession of visitors. Most of them were fairly common, a variety of tits , starlings robins, and blackbirds. We even had a visit from a fieldfare. One morning I had to delay making the fires while a wren searched the wood pile for spiders and other creepy crawlies. I also had the good fortune to watch a tree creeper and a pair of goldcrests searching the yew trees for a bite of breakfast. On Christmas eve I went to the plot to get some vegetables but it was not a pretty sight. The Brussels were flat on the ground under a mound of snow and I didn’t bother scratching around to find my parsnips. Since then I have managed to prune, feed and tie in my soft fruit, and I have cleared the sorry things that should have been my purple and white sprouters. On the brighter side though, I have got a coldframe of Little gem lettuce that are doing very well. Any time now we will be buying our potato sets to start them sprouting prior to planting. For the past two years I have grown a row of Sarpo Mira potatoes. I bought a trial pack and set just fifteen tubers over a twenty foot row. They kept on growing and well into October they were still growing. They were as green as anything and the stems were six foot long and as hard as tree trunks. But they had to come out, and I got over a hundred weight from the one row and did as well this year from some that I saved from last year so I think they are worth a try.
Happy new year, Richard Callaghan
Hello, my name is Lara Curtayne and I am one of the Crime Reduction Officers with Bedfordshire Police. The area I work in is Bedford Borough and, along with my colleague Peter Spicer, our role covers all domestic, non-residential and commercial crime. Whilst based at Greyfriars police station, I am often out and about visiting residents and businesses in the suburbs and villages.
As well as dealing with day-to-day incidents, the Crime Reduction Officers look at seasonal trends and communicate pro-active advice to potential victims. Some seasons are obvious like summer holidays, where houses are left empty for long periods of time and are at greater risk of burglary.
However, there are other trends which are not so apparent. This is usually due to singular incidents occurring over a wide area over a few days or weeks, as opposed to – say – half a dozen cars being broken into in the same street on the same night.
During Spring, we see an upturn of theft from gardens and allotments as gardeners get to grips with tidying up winter growth and preparing for the new growing season. Tools and lawnmowers are often the target but, even if nothing is stolen, damage is caused and is inconvenient and expensive for the victim.
However, as all experienced gardeners know, there is just as much work to be done when Autumn approaches and, again, all your tools will be in constant use. Unfortunately, for the allotment holder, nature is against them as the days rapidly get shorter, the weather worsens and the allotments are less frequented over the winter. This leaves your tools and equipment unattended for long periods of time and the gap between the crime and its discovery can be anything between a day and a fortnight.
Shed and container security is all important, therefore. It is worthwhile giving your allotment a “health check”:
• Check your locks and bolts – replace any rusty items, ensure all padlocks and hasps bear the British Standard kite mark and are made of hardened steel.
• Don’t forget the hinges on your doors – if a burglar can’t breach the lock, they may attempt to unscrew the hinges. Use coach bolts, non-return screws or simply damage the screw head; you don’t need to do every screw, just a couple on the hanging plate and a couple on the door plate.
• Remember to secure outbuilding windows – even the ones that don’t open can be vulnerable. Consider obscuring the window with an opaque window film (the type used to obscure bathroom windows) as this will reduce the temptation. Alternatively, fit a grille or a couple of bars across the inside of the window to reduce the window aperture.
• Consider using a battery-operated siren alarm in your outbuildings – they often cost less than £20 and are simple to install and use. Unfortunately, these are not so appropriate for allotments that are in remote areas.
• Get into the good habit of putting everything away when you have finished with it. Your own tools can be used to break into your storage.
Have you thought about security marking your tools? This is simply done by putting your house number and postcode on your property. Whilst property marking cannot prevent your goods from being stolen by itself, it is a very good deterrent as it is difficult to sell on stolen property that has been marked. It also allows the police to return recovered stolen goods to their rightful owner and secure a charge.
Items you don’t mind spoiling the look of (ie, garden furniture and heaters) can be marked by etching or scratching your postcode on to them, or with a permanent marker pen. Alternatively, there are DNA-based marking products such as RedWeb, SelectaDNA and SmartWater. Display signs that all property is marked and traceable.
And finally, add security onto the agenda at your committee meetings. Encourage members to report any breaches in the boundaries immediately and, if there is lighting, check it is working properly. It does no harm to remind people to be a little more vigilant and that security measures are in place for their own benefit.
Just so that we are clear on the extent of the problem, allotment crime is relatively low but Bedfordshire Police would still like to see less of it. During the past 12 months, there have been 35 crimes on allotments in Bedford Borough, peaking in April and May. However, we are starting to see a slight rise again the in last couple of weeks.
Of these 35 crimes, 18 were shed burglaries, 4 were criminal damage incidents, 4 were incidents of arson and the rest were classed as miscellaneous thefts. No particular allotment site seems to have been targeted in particular.
I hope that this information is of use to you. I will be posting some PDF documents for your perusal. If you have any questions, or need specific advice, please do not hesitate to contact either Pete or myself at Greyfriars on 01234 275273 or by email: bedford.cro@bedfordshire.pnn.police.uk
If a question is submitted that is of interest to everyone, we will post it on this forum.
Happy Harvesting!
2484 Lara CURTAYNE
Crime Reduction Officer
Bedfordshire Police
The following leaflets are available to download just click on the link:
Beds ‘n’ Sheds leaflet (bedford phone) and Rural Crime Arson Advice Leaflet
Tuesday 2nd March at the Guild House, Harpur Street at 7.30pm. Refreshments and speaker on “Organic Small Holding”.
Hello,
I was wondering if members would be interested in well rotted horse manure?
We have two bays of well rotten manure from our horses. It has been coverd with carpet and has a high worm content. We have run out of space and we were about to have it taken away when i thought of alerting gardeners in the area if they would like to have it, as unfortunatly now because of EU regulations farmers have a whole lot of paper work if they want to import manure so it costs them too much and the companies that take muck away quite often take it to land fill as a result.
We do need the space very quickly really within the next couple of weeks. It would be free to self pick up all we ask is that people mind the horses and shut gates etc. it is has easy access (on yard not in field) I know some of your members maybe elderly or disabled od not have transport we do have a horse trailer which we could deliver sacks of it. but unfortunaly would need to charge for time and fuel.
we are in radwell just a short way from milton ernest garden centre.
Please feel free to contact me on 07872628268
Manure is available all year however these two bays are needed so we will be making arrangements to have them removed very shortly so plese contact me asap if you know of anyone interested.
ps the manure hsa a high dropping content, and the bedding used was wood shavings and flax which makes really good mulch according to our neighbours (who are full to the brim already!)
Many thanks
Tess
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