Northern Moor Gardening Society is holding a neighbours day event at the allotment site on Stortford drive Northern Moor on Sunday 31st May 2009 11.00am till 2.00pm.

Come along and see how an allotment site works.

Have a chat to allotment holders about growing,

Share a free cup of Tea/coffee and light snack with us.

Come and see our site shop and maybe make a purchase. We stock a wide range of composts,fertilizers , wild bird food and other gardening/allotment requirements.

All are welcome to this open day, you may also join our Society if you wish.

Details of our 2009 flower show in August available at this event.

The allotment site is situated off Sale road in Stortford drive just near the Yew Tree Pub.

It will be signed from Sale road/ Fellpark Road corner.

Or look at the find a site section of the AMAS website.

The show this year will be on Saturday 6th September, at the site hut, at the bottom of Highfield Road, Levenshulme.

In addition to the usual classes of the competition, we have a brand new photography competition and we are taking requests for changes to the classes next year.

The show is open to the general public from 2.30pm, with a bring-your-grub barbeque, face painting and badge making from 3pm and the usual auction of produce from 5pm. Everyone is welcome!

The months of wet, wet weather may not have dampened our spirits - but they have slowed down work on the skip site at Levenshulme and District Allotments.

We snatched a dry day in November, and the New Year has started with two volunteer weekends in a row. So now that the clearance of the Skip and Recycling site is complete, the next step is to build the path that will lead to the recycling bays.

The finished area will allow waste from allotment plots to be separated into potentially re-usable materials. Green waste can rot down, and branches and bracken be shreaded into mulch; Timber can be re-used for minor repairs to plot sheds and fences.

We hope that an increase in recycling of materials will reduce the use of the skip, and limit the number of times it will need to be emptied.

The next day for action is 3rd February, meeting at 11am at the Skip Site - here marked with a “1″.

The presentation evening took place on the 29 th N0vember at the Oasis Suite, Platt Lane. The evening consisted of an opening address by Jeff Staniforth, head of Leisure Services, at which he announced that he would be leaving the post at the end of the year.

John Steadman, the competition judge, gave his comments on this year’s competition. The overall picture was of of well looked after set of allotments in spite of the very poor growing conditions. He also commented that they could tell what a site would be like by the quantity of green material in the skips as they walked into the site, all green material should be as compost to improve the soil.

Dave Hampsey of the National Vegeetable Society than gave a talk on growing vegetables and in particular potatoes. This year was the worst year for blight since the 1850’s but there is some hope on the horizon with introdustion of the Sarpo varieties which grow through the infection which only affects the lower leaves. He finished off by answering questions.

The evening then progressed to the presentation of the trophies and certificates won in the annual competition by the Lord Mayor, Glynn Evans

HDM PERPETUAL CHALLANGE CUP                          M Horton

H SHARPE PERPETUAL CHALLANGE CUP                V Murray and A Alaimo

ALDERMAN HILL CHALLANGE CUP                             R Hughes

NOEL TIMPSON CHALLANGE CUP                                P Dudley

COUNCILLOR RODGERS CUP                                           Broadhurst Park Allotments

DAVID TEAL TROPHY                                                         J & C Richards

MARGRET TAYLOR CUP                                                    R Hughes

JACK BENNET ROSE BOWL                                              J Richards

JIM BROWN MEMORIAL AWARD                                  G Bird

COUNCILLOR HUGH LEE CUP                                        Crumpsall & Cheetham

After the last of the presentations the enjoyable evening finished with a buffet provided by the council.

This is the time when the crops are finishing and the plot is starting to clear ready for digging. Once an area is cleared the soil is then dug over and either covered with manure or a green manure is sown.

The sweetcorn is finished in one bed so I have cut the tops down to let me get to the squash below. The carrots are out of the ground and the whole area has been dug over. The runner beans are finished and have been removed and so has the beetroot.

The brassica bed is nearly empty and will soon be cleared, ready for digging over.