This week is allotment week. It is particularly apposite for the Trust because finally after several years of waiting our allotments /growing patches are going to become a reality. There are no allotments for the people of Maghull at a time when growing your own has soared. The patches will be ready for the start of the next growing cycle. The project is being led by Richard Ayres our horticultural therapy manager.
A patch of land 75m x 50m has now been fenced and weeded (see picture below). It will soon be sown with clover to suppress further weed growth and create good growing conditions. There are 29 individual plots to be laid out, to around half the size of a standard allotment, either 100m2 or 130m2: they’re to be called ‘Growing patches’, to emphasise that they are not ordinary allotments. These plots have been allocated to the first 28 names on the waiting list: the 29th plot will be offered to a local charity. Two meetings with potential plotholders have been held.
Each plot will come equipped with a 2m x 2m potting shed, 2 compost bins, a water butt and shared use of a gravelled path: the intention is to create an orderly, well-equipped site with excellent growing conditions, landscaped with mixed native hedging and fruit trees. There will be a water supply (6 taps) and a composting toilet. Rules for plotholders which we discussed at the meetings will reinforce the maintenance of a peaceful, orderly environment, appropriate to the nature of the site.
This development is part of the Trust’s commitment to working with our local community. It will help promote the physical and mental health, diet and social inclusion of the people who live locally.
Hilary Rowland
Chief executive
11.8.11
