What is the Growing Academy?

The aim of the Academy is to teach and support anyone wanting to learn about growing fruit, vegetables and traditional allotment flowers. We welcome beginners, as well as more experienced gardeners, in sharing the process from sowing seed right the way through to harvest. We will also advise and guide on all things allotment and growing related, as well as providing guest speakers and classes for local community groups.

How will it benefit our allotment site?

With the right knowledge anyone can be a productive grower, be that at home on the garden or on an allotment. Having a Growing Academy will offer our members the best possible opportunity of success; this should improve plot retention rates as well as an in increase personal satisfaction levels. Having a plot should not be overwhelming or a chore!

Whilst we learn in the Academy, we will be producing numerous plants which will be sold on through the ARDAA shop to raise funds for our site. Plants will be available to purchase as and when they are ready, so they will be in optimum planting condition! There will be no ‘Plant Sale’ as such, instead keep an eye on the shop or place an order with the academy volunteers for plants. Please encourage your friends, family and neighbours to come and buy from us!

Finally, the Academy is groundbreaking stuff. To the best of our knowledge no other site in the country has anything like this! Alongside other recent improvements to our site, this work will help attract people to the waiting list of the site and as you know, having a healthy waiting list is good for any site.

The Academy is a mark of how forward thinking and community focused our site is and continues to attract funding and engagement in local partnership working.

Who can attend?

Anyone who is a Member of Ashbourne Road District Allotment Association can attend The Growing Academy. You do not need to be a plot holder to be a Member of the Association.

If you want to learn how to grow, we can teach you! You can attend every class or select specific areas you’d like to join in with. The classes will be relaxed and informal so a great opportunity to meet and get to make new friends and get to know more people in the growing community.

How much will it cost?

Being a student of the Academy is free - but in return, we will ask for some of your time. The tutors and guest speakers will all be volunteers so all we ask is that you continue to support our allotment community by giving volunteer hours. A site the size of ours needs many hands so please take a look at our guide to ‘volunteer roles’ where we are positive you will find is something to suit your needs.

For further information

• Speak to either Elaine (Plot 35) or Julia (Plot 33)

• Email: academy@araa.org.uk

• Call on 01332 485 018 option 6

• Or leave a message in the postbox on the side of the Mundy Community Room

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, projects 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.

This can be a three part gift and a perfect way to recycle plastic plant pots, paper, string, bags…

Part 1 – A Christmas Plant-Pot ‘Advent type’ Present  

Part 2 – The Potty Plotters Plant- Pot Ping-Pong Game

Part 3 - Re-use the plant pots again in the garden etc

How to make

What you need:

• 25 Plant pots – any size – all the same or all different odd ones
• An apple or potato crate or any box large enough to hold all the pots together in a small area
• A small pot of paint and a small brush, or 25 stick on labels numbered 1 – 25, or a marker pen
• 6 or more ping pong balls (can be different colours to identify teams)
• Piece of string or ribbon– about 4 ft long  
• Piece of paper and a pencil (for scoring)
• List of the rules! Or copy the ones we have prepared on our website as below

Part 1:

• To make this “Plant Pot Advent Type of Present” wash all 25 pots thoroughly & pop a wrapped present in each of the empty pots (though they don’t have to follow a theme – they could just be sweets and chocolates or miniature drinks).

• Number each pot 1 to 25.

• Now set them all into the crate, together with a copy of the rules, a bag of ping pong balls and the scoring sheet with pencil/pen in plant pot number 25.
• On Christmas Day all pots will have been opened except day 25 which will contain the pieces for the ping-pong game!

Now Part 2:

1. Set the empty pots all together in the crate or box or as individual pots on a large table
2. Put your friends/friends into teams -though they can play as individuals
3. Place a piece of string across the floor about 4 foot away from the plant plots. Each player has to stand behind this line to then throw a ping-pong-ball at the pots one at a time
4. If a ball lands in a pot, they score according to the number painted on the outside of the pot.
5.  Each player has 5 goes and the highest score wins!
6. Give a gift to the winner (or one of those you were given in the advent calendar)!
7. Follow the rules of the game and enjoy

Now Part 3:

Reuse the plant pots in the spring by planting up seeds or making them into your own plant pot scarecrow or use again and again for the Ping Pong game to keep people amused at any school, garden or home event or even raise money for funds/charities!

Do you have fruit on your plot that is going to waste?

Why not donate it to the Darley Abbey Cider Man who will pick it and give you 5% of what he has had off you as bottled cider!

All apples, pears and soft fruit wanted

If you would like Simon the Darley Abbey Cider Man to harvest from your plot please speak to Elaine Crick on Plot 35, or drop her a note in the Mundy Room letterbox or email her on elaine.crick@araa.org.uk.

Harvesting begins in September

IF SHE DOES NOT HEAR FROM YOU SHE WILL NOT PERMIT PICKING FROM YOUR PLOT

It is with great pride that we can now share with you the news that Ashbourne Road District Allotments has been awarded Green Flag Community Award.

This is a national award that recognises high quality green spaces that are managed by voluntary and community groups. The Award is part of the Green Flag Award Scheme, the national standard for parks and green spaces.  

This year there were only 20 allotment sites in the whole of the UK who received this Award, so it really is something special. Judging was undertaken during a very wet and windy day in April and the following factors were considered: A Welcoming Place; Healthy, Safe and Secure; Well Maintained and Clean; Environmental Management; Biodiversity, Landscape and Heritage; Community Involvement; Management and Achievements.

On July 17th a delegation of Committee members collected the Award on behalf of the Association at a ceremony in Walsall and the Judge’s feedback could not have been more positive. His comments re-inforce what visitors have been telling us for a while now, that our site is a community asset and a shining example for others to follow.

So to each and every one of you who make our site what it is…

Thank you for putting the ‘Community’ into this Award

We have been very lucky to have the help and support of these organisations to assist us in improving our site to benefit our members and our local community. Thank you all.

Ashbourne Road and District Allotments Derby is recognised as one of the UK’s very best green spaces 

Today, a record number of parks and green spaces collect a Green Flag Award  
 

Ashbourne Road and District Allotments in Derby has been recognised by the Green Flag Award Scheme as one of the very best in the world. They join other green spaces awarded recognition in the region. 

The allotments are among a record-breaking 1,970 UK parks and green spaces and 131 in thirteen other countries around the world, that will today receive a prestigious Green Flag Community Award – the mark of a quality park or green space.

This international award, now into its third decade, is a sign to the public that the space boasts the highest possible environmental standards, is beautifully maintained and has excellent visitor facilities.

Ian Stewart (ARDAA chairman) said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a Green Flag Award for the second year.

“We know how much quality green spaces matter to residents and visitors, and this award celebrates the dedication that goes into maintaining Ashbourne Road Allotments to such a high standard”.

Elaine Crick and Julia Slater (the resident ‘Potty Plotters’ from BBC Radio Derby) said “We are thrilled at being part of the group who have received the award for the second year. Volunteers on site have worked really hard to keep the allotments looking amazing. We have engaged with the allotment and wider West End community and just continue to show people what kind of a life they can have whilst growing their own on an allotment. What’s not to like?”  

International Green Flag Award scheme manager Paul Todd said: “It’s fantastic that we have more Green Flag Awards in the UK than ever before, joined this year by 131 International winners. Each flag honours the thousands of staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award. We congratulate each and every winner on their fantastic achievement.”