Ashbourne Road District Allotment Association - Ardaa

Our Growing Academy is featured in the latest edition of Allotment & Leisure Gardener, the membership magazine for the National Allotment Society. Well Done to all involved 👏. There will be copies available in the Shop in due course.

Don’t forget to pop along to the Growing Academy to purchase top quality plants at great value prices. Currently available: Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillis and Aubergine - all 50p each Brassicas; Cabbage, Cauliflower, Calabrese, Brussel sprouts, Kale - all £1.50 per tray of 6
... ALSO COMING UP OVER NEXT FEW WEEKS Cucumbers - 50p Courgettes, Marrows, Squash and Pumpkins - 80p Flowers - Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, Sunflowers - from 50p Runner and French Beans (from mid May) - £2 per tray of 12 Sweetcorn (from mid May) - £1.50 per tray of 9
EVERYONE WELCOME - Friends, Family, Neighbours and Plotholders from other sites
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The Shop will not be open today due to the bad weather. We will be open again as usual tomorrow at 10am.

Join us to celebrate the Official Opening of our Growing Academy and Starter Plots on May 19th from 2pm to 5pm.
BBC Radio Derby's Andy Twigge and G F Tomlinson's Kevin Dodds will be cutting the ribbons.
There will be fantastic home-made cakes; refreshments; tours of our wonderful, nationally recognised allotment site; and great value, quality plants available for your allotment, garden or patio.

Our Allotment Shop will be open tomorrow (Good Friday) from 10am for 2 hours and as usual on Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 2pm.
We've got lots of plants available that have been grown by the wonderful team in our Academy. When they are gone, they are gone so hurry on down this weekend.

GROWING ACADEMY This Saturday and Wednesday (13th and 17th) we have decided to do 3 in 1 sessions! Looking at the timetable and the skills required we will be teaching Courgettes, Marrows, Pumpkin and Squash altogether. We will also be telling you all about Sweetcorn too! This means the classes for 20th, 24th, 27th and 1st will all be cancelled. The tutors and other volunteers will no doubt be around preparing plants for sale on these dates so if you need any advice please feel free to drop into the Academy. Apologies if this causes any problems. As this is our first year running the Academy we are learning too 😀

There's a buzz about the site and not only with our bees and our beekeeper Keith, but it is with great excitement and pleasure that we announce that BBC Gardeners World will be visiting our allotment site!
Over the past few weeks they have been in contact with The Potty Plotters after their recent debut in The Kitchen Garden Magazine and National Allotment Society Magazine.
... SO! Are you happy with how your plot is looking? Do you need to tidy and hoe? Does your shed need a spruce up? Let's get cracking and make this a site fit for the rest of the country to be envious of!
As soon as we have more details we will let you know. Meanwhile - happy digging!
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As the garden centres and diy shops start to fill their shelves with greenhouse and other vegetable plants please consider buying what you need from the Allotment Shop (supplied by the Growing Academy!). All monies raised go into allotment funds, so it’s win win😀 There is loads of choice and plants have been properly hardened off for planting. Very reasonable prices and grown with love and attention!!! As a guide; all tomato plants 50p, all trays (6 cell) of brassicas £1.50 ...Currently available at shop: Broad beans - £1.50 tray of 12 Cottage garden perennial flowers - £1.50 each Sweet peas - £1.00 per pot
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Have you ever had something for free off the ARDAA like mulch, wood, stone or similar? Have you had any help through the Growing Academy or committee? Well how about now returning the favour? We are in the latter stages now of the creation of the Starter Plots (old plot 11). Have you seen the transformation? ... All we ask of you is to give half an hour of your time before you go onto your own plots or before you leave your plots by helping a team pick up stones off the starter plots in order that they can be dug. Half an hour is all we ask on either Friday between 10am and 3pm or Saturday from 1pm See you there!
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GROWING ACADEMY Please note that the Growing Academy can no longer accept advance orders for plants. However the good news is that from this Saturday (30th March) plants will be available to purchase from outside the allotment shop. Please support our allotment by buying these quality plants, all at very reasonable prices!!

GROWING ACADEMY Please note this weeks classes (Saturday and Wednesday) will be postponed and incorporated into the classes planned for the following week beginning 23rd March. This means ‘Beetroot, Lettuce and Spinach’ will be covered with ‘Cucumbers and Kohl Rabi’. Thank you

Our Shop will be closed on Sunday (March 10th) morning but open again at midday until 2pm.

Work is starting tomorrow (6th March) to prepare for the installation of our new bridge.
Only access to the site on foot will be permitted on Wednesday 6th March 2019 and Thursday 7th March 2019.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause and the short notice.
... Please contact us if you require any further information.
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GROWING ACADEMY
There are still a few places available in tomorrow’s class. The class is ‘Planning your plot’ which was postponed due to bad weather last Wednesday.
So if you have a new plot or are struggling with your current one it will be worth attending!

Unfortunately, due to the cold weather our class tomorrow on Wednesday 30th January 2019 is cancelled.
We are arranging for heating in the academy to avoid this in the future.
Please see our timetable for more classes in the coming weeks https://araa.org.uk/growing-academy-timet able

The first of a programme of classes began yesterday in the new Growing Academy. Hear what the students thought by listening to the Andy Twigge show on BBC Radio Derby tomorrow afternoon (between 12-3). For anyone wanting to join the Academy please view the timetable on araa.org.uk You do not need to come to every class, just pick the ones you are interested in and reserve your place via email at academy@araa.org.uk

Well done to The Potty Plotters for their live appearance on BBC East Midlands Today this lunchtime talking about our new Growing Academy. They’ll be on again at 6:30 this evening.
Big Thank You to everyone who turned out this morning to help with the Growing Academy. If you are interested in getting involved don’t hesitate to contact us.

GROWING ACADEMY There are still a few places left on the ‘Planning your plot’ sessions this Saturday 26th and Wednesday 30th January. (Saturday classes are repeated on the Wednesday so you only need attend once). Sessions begin at 10am.
Attendance is FREE the only thing we ask is you donate volunteer time at some point in the future. This doesn’t need to be much, nor immediate, so if you can’t spare the time now don’t worry, you can still come along!!
... For the full academy timetable see the noticeboard on plot 3 or our website.
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All allotment associations must not only look at the needs of allotmenteers today but those of the future. We need younger generations to take up allotmenteering and have young people learn skills that are essential to the sustainability of the site. As peoples’ lives change, we need to be able to offer them allotment gardens that are manageable within the time they have available. Our Starter Plot Project combines all of these things.
As a volunteer-led organisation, project...s like this can take a long time to deliver without the work and support of partners from our local community.
We are extremely fortunate to be, once again, partnering with G F Tomlinson who helped us last year with our accessible Centenary Plot. Their ability and willingness to provide expert personnel, machinery and materials makes such a difference; it encourages more volunteers to get involved and further embeds the allotments into the local community.
With G F Tomlinson’s introduction to the DWP and Horizons School, our Starter Plot Project will give young people the opportunity to learn new skills and enjoy some of the benefits of allotment gardening.
ARDAA cannot thank G F Tomlinson and their staff enough for the help they have provided and continue to provide. We hope that our partnership with them will go on for many years to come.
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