Completing Our Community Garden
Our receipt of one of the £500 ADA awards for 2018 from GAF was a fantastic achievement for South Western Allotments on several levels. First and foremost, it allowed us to complete our Community Garden. This had previously been a piece of wasteground, almost a “dump site” behind our Community Hut.
One of our members designed the garden which was built using old pallets, recycled slabs and voluntary hard work. The raised beds contain easy to maintain perennials, all bee-friendly, and are available to older plotholders who feel unable to continue with a full plot but wish to retain their connection with the Association. We have also set aside 2 small beds for children (a suggestion we received on the night of the presentations). The whole garden is wheelchair friendly (though we are still working on main gate access). We use the area for coffee mornings and our Family and Friends Day as well as a meeting point for members.
On another level , the award was a further step in our efforts towards becoming a more inclusive and diverse community. Allotments are changing and our ADA could be seen as an acknowledgement that the challenges faced by the Committee in moving towards developing a more welcoming and holistic ethos were well worth it. The £500 was greatly appreciated and, as the photos show, well used.
Doreen Grainger & Celia Bonner
The Bloomin’ Marvellous Awards
We have been thinking about a way of recognising the contribution that individual plotholders make to their allotment sites. We came up with the idea of the Bloomin’ Marvellous Awards for Glasgow allomenteers who have added something exceptional to the experience of their fellow plotholders and others through the way they go about their gardening and associated activities.
The proposal is that next season allotment associations should be able to nominate candidates whom they think have made an exceptional contribution to their community. All the nominees would be visited and their stories would be written up and put forward to a external panel of judges for confirmation of the awards.
In order to sort out the criteria and the title for the awards we are putting out a short survey to find out what GAF members think about the proposal. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete so we do hope you’ll all get back to us with your views on the matter. Survey
Please check Events – the Autumn Celebration will be on Saturday 28th September (not October 5th) and the Open Day table has been updated (don’t forget to let us know when your Open Day is happening).