Hi everyone
 
As I’m sure most of you will have realised, on Sat. 1st May the Ashbourne Road District Allotment Association had the privilege of being the first Derby Council allotment site to open its gates to the general public under the National Garden Scheme. The day was well attended by the public with around 150 people coming through the gate which will have raised over £700 for the NGS charities, a most commendable figure for just 5 hours of opening.
 
Among the public during these 5 hours we had the pleasure of entertaining 4 officials of the NGS organisation including Jean and Peter Gardener who were our initial contacts. As they were leaving they had nothing but praise for our open day using words such as ‘absolutely fantastic’ and ‘brilliant’. This was then followed up by a most complimentary email to Elaine Crick which was most gratifying. It was also notable that most people, as they were leaving, were telling us how enjoyable their visit had been.
 
Of course none of this would have been possible without all the hard work and organisation done by our marvellous team of volunteers, all of whom had a part to play in the success of the day and it is to these people that I would like to say a big thank you. The first group of people tasked with moving the project forward are, of course, the organising committee headed by Elaine, ably assisted by Sarah Martin- Smith, Andy Culshaw, Kath Haywood, Liz Stafford, Gill Black and Cathy Hastie. Extra support on the day itself was provided by Mark Smith, Kevin Clark, Nicola Allen and her daughter, Helen Lintott, Alison and Martin Kent and Benita. I also would like to single out Dave Hancox (who opened and ran the shop for the day), Aiden (who did a great job with the plant sales), Glenys Gresham (a fantastic performance selling cakes, tea and coffee) and last but not least Mark Slater who spent all day welcoming the visiting public and our own members (not the easiest of jobs) along with providing IT support. Providing all the delicious cakes for Glenys to sell were Barbara Dawson, Jackie Lindley, Sarah Trouse, Helen Lintott, Carole McBride and Liz Stafford.
 
For giving more of an in-depth view of what we are about I would also like to thank all the 20 plot holders who were generous (and brave) enough to open their plots to visitors. A regular comment made by the visitors as they left was that everyone they had spoken to on the plots were so friendly and informative, so a big thank you and well done to all the plotholders.
 
Another group of important people who spent the preceding weeks ensuring the site looked at its best was our regular Tuesday volunteer group of Kevin, Martin, Gerry, Barry, Chris and Paul, so another big thanks to these guys.
 
If I have missed anyone out who helped to make the day such a huge success then please accept my apologies but rest assured you been included in my thank you’s. It is very encouraging to me to see so many of our plotholders coming together on projects such as this and I’m sure that our next NGS open day on 24th July will be an even better event (with a bit of luck it should also be a bit warmer) so once again a huge thank you to all who gave their time and effort on our first NGS day. Perhaps the first of many?
 
Eric Lindley
 
Chairman ARDAA

What a great Open Day we had today in supporting the National Garden Scheme.

Thank you to everyone who visited our allotments and helped raise funds for great charities.

A massive thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers for their time, effort and support.

We will be opening our gates to the wider community again on July 24th.

We are thrilled to announce that ARDAA has been invited to open its gate to paying members of the public to support the National Garden Scheme in 2021!
 
The open days will be between 10:30am and 3:30pm on Saturday 1st May and on Saturday 24th July 2021.

Admission is by pre-booked ticket only from https://ngs.org.uk/view-garden/42170

What is the National Garden Scheme?

The NGS is a charity that raises money for nursing and health charities by giving access to 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales. Money is raised via admissions, teas and cake.

Why are we participating?  

It’s an opportunity to raise money for a very good cause (and hopefully make a little bit for the Association) as well as dispel a few myths about allotments by showing what a modern, forward thinking site looks like. We think our site is something special and so do NGS!  

Please Note

if you are not a Member of ARDAA you will only be able to access the site on these days by purchasing a ticket from NGS. Stewards on the gate will have a list of Members.

Cars will not be permitted on site on either day. Parking will be available thanks to the University of Derby at their Britania Mill site, just next door to the allotments. Additional free parking is available on Mackworth Road at weekends.

For your benefit we now have facilities on site to collect:

• Unwanted scrap metal – please put in the trailer next to Community Room
• Broken glass – please put in the blue bin on hardstanding area
• Plastic bottles and cans – please put in the brown bin on hardstanding area

No items should ever be placed or removed from plot 131 without prior agreement from the Committee or authorised volunteer.   

Thank you

Good News!

Once again we are growing plants to sell and raise money for our Allotment Association!

We can promise you: 

• Great quality plants at very affordable prices
• We are growing all kinds of vegetable, greenhouse and flower plants
• They will only be put out for sale at the ‘right time to plant’ and where necessary, properly hardened off!

Look out for further information

It’s too early to sell you anything yet but please think about supporting your allotment community before you buy from garden centres and other retailers.

The Association has three types of Membership grade:

Member

As a Member you can:

• Vote at General Meetings of the Association and have your say in how the Association and the site is run
• Become a Tenant and rent an allotment plot from the Association
• Be considered to take on the Tenancy of a family member's plot in the event of their death
• Be issued with a site key - £25 deposit required
• Walk around the site unsupervised
• Purchase items from our Shop in person or online at https://shop.araa.org.uk

We would encourage anyone who is a regular visitor to site to become a Member.

The fee for this grade is £5 per calendar year. However, at the moment we are in the process of changing our Membership and Tenancy year to begin in October. Therefore, the membership fee is currently £3.75.

To get details of how to join please email secretary [at] araa.org.uk.

Associate

As an Associate you can:

• Purchase items from our Shop in person or online at https://shop.araa.org.uk

The fee for this grade is £1. Membership Agreement forms are available from the Shop.

Corporate Member

We are very lucky to have a number of local business partners without whom many of the projects the Association has completed in recent years would have taken longer, cost more or simply would have not started. If your organisation is interested in becoming a Corporate Member please email corporate [at] araa.org.uk.

We are very proud to see our Growing Academy feature in the latest publication of The Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux, a union of the national allotment and leisure garden federations from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The phenomenal contribution that G F Tomlinson have made to our allotment community has contributed to them being recognised as a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

CSR Accreditation is a nationally recognised body that awards Bronze, Silver and Gold accreditations to businesses that can demonstrate a positive impact on society through areas such as social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns.

Recognised as being on the highest end of the scale, G F Tomlinson was awarded the Gold standard in the CSR Accreditation’s judging criteria, and since 2013, G F Tomlinson has followed a refined social value policy, ensuring its activities are in accordance with the Social Value Act 2012.

For more details see http://www.gftomlinson.co.uk/g-f-tomlinson-secures-gold-csr-accreditation/.

Congratulations G F Tomlinson, so very well deserved.

To keep everyone as safe as possible during these difficult times, please follow these basic rules:

• When touching any community item such as the gate lock, toilet door handle, well pumps, etc – wash your hands or wear disposable gloves.
• Stay a safe distance from each other, a minimum of 2 metres.
• You can only visit your plot with members of your household, support bubble or one other person
• The same national lockdown rules apply inside these gates as outside.  Anyone caught in breach of these rules risk having their tenancy terminated.

We’re all in this together, let’s come out of it together.  Stay safe and stay well.