Quick August Update
Aug 11th, 2009 by Matthew
Everyday has been another working day… Hardly any allotment time although it doesn’t look too bad!
We’re starting to get a few runner beans on the plants, not many sadly but that teaches me for buying seed from a man in a shed! I’ve learnt and will buy seed from a garden centre next year.
The carrots I’ve planted haven’t come up as of yet. I’ve kept them weeded and watered this time and they still won’t grow. The beetroot are now starting to show their little leaves – we’ll use these for christmas pickling!
Lots of spring cabbage, sprouting brocolli, etc have been planted. Leeks are growing well and we’ve dug up all of the early spuds. We’ve a few tomatoes in the greenhouse – not as many as I’d hoped for but never to worry. It just leaves maincrop potatoes and tomatoes to harvest in the near future.
We have also eaten one of our 4 garden cockerels. Very nice! 3 more to go 
I might fire up the incubator again soon and see if we can get some more chicks hatch.
Things haven’t been awfully productive this year. With all the hassle of attacked chickens and the shed being broken into – I’d much rather plough my time into something that I know will work out for me – work
Sorry that this is probably not the best place for these but I couldn’t find a contact address.
I’m sure you must be aware of the problems experienced by allotment holders last year due to the use of manure contaminated by a persitent herbicide called aminopyralid. Information has been collated about this problem from the links on this page http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml
Just to update on the latest re aminopyralid contamination in case you would like to provide updates on your website or to allotment holders in your area.
The latest infomation re manure contamination is posted on my website here http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_herbicide_latest.ikml
I have also sent out a email for circulation by everyone I know that has been affected which is here http://www.glallotments.btik.com/attachments/contaminated_manure_alert.pdf which you may find useful to circulate to allotment holders in your area.
It is particularly important that gardeners be aware of the need for caution when obtaining manure in light of the fact that the government are now considering reinstating the licence that was temporarily suspended last year. As this is a concern to many gardeners you may wish to publicise an a epetition that has been started here http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/aminopyralidban/
I am posting updates as I get them on my blog http://glallotments.blogspot.com/ just on case you want to keep a watching brief.
I have heard about this somewhere and it sounds like it has caused problems all over!
I’d hate to have to deal with the aftermath!