Taff's Well and Nantgarw Allotments and Community Garden Project

Taff's Well and Nantgarw Allotments and Community Garden Project | sitemap | log in

This is a free Spanglefish 1 website.

Report Back from meetings:

MAY 2010 UPDATE

Just thought I would update you on a few things, since there are so many emails going around and around! We have been working on resolving a number of the issues on site - so thanks for your help in doing this as well!

Culvert: Letter written to Jane Davidson AM & County Councillor Adrian Hobson. One of Jane’s advisors works with me and has assured me that she will be responding personally - so fingers crossed.

Land: I have written to Sustrans who have already gotten back to me saying they don’t think they own it, but will look into it. However, they have also said that they are also working to improve biodiversity and wildlife along the Taff Trail above us. They would like to arrange a meeting in July to discuss how we can do this together - this would be on the land above the Community Garden, which is looking rather messy!

Japanese Knotweed: Poster has gone up, and an email has gone out. We still need to fence it off though ( see news article)

Asbestos building: We were going to have a meeting on Saturday to discuss a programme for renovating this building, but this got a bit overshadowed by yet another water bill!! We do however need to get a bat survey done ASAP, as, if there are bats , then we still can’t touch it!

Water: We had a meeting on Saturday and we found that the serial number on the water bill does not match the serial number of the meter on our site, niether does it match the one just outside the site. In fact it matches the one outside the football club opposite Glan y Ffordd. So... we have a meeting with their engineer on Friday afternoon to discuss this however, we will not be needing to pay this bill. In fact, if you want to have a look at the previous bill, if the serial number ends in something similar to 04022 (it def ends in a double two!), then it is likely that these do not correspond to our site either!

Garden Funding: We are currently working on a large application to Environment Wales, it should be going in the next couple of weeks. If we get any of what we are asking for, we will be set for the rest of the year, as far as activities on the garden go!

Website: I will think about getting a few things to put on the website, it is obvious it is really working due to the number of enquiries we get from it. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know

Publicity: We will be having a stall at the Taffs Well Gardening Club Summer event in august - for awareness and also to sell whatever we will have hopefully grown. For this we will be wanting to get all sorts of publicity aspects sorted - posters / fliers / signs etc. So it will also be good to have the website all sorted and up to date for that. We could maybe think about more things to put on it, such as designs and so on.

Constitutions: I have emailed Katie at City Farms & Community Gardens, who we are members with, to see if she could send me any templates, particularly to show how she would recommend incorporating a garden into the association. However, if any of you can get hold of any sample Standing Orders, that would be great.

As you can see ... lots to be thinking about, however I think we are on top of it!

JANUARY 2010 UPDATE

I hope you are all looking forward to a very successful and productive 2010 down on the allotments and community garden.

I thought that a we are quickly approaching the new gardening season I would give an update for the New Year and explain where we are with planning.

Ploughing
Progress so far has been the commencing of ploughing the two fields, albeit a couple of lengths. This task is being carried out free of charge by Jeremy in Taffs Well, and so far the ground has proved too frozen to plough properly - it is supposedly not "turning over" properly! Therefore, i am sure this will continue to progress over the next few weeks as the ground thaws.

Store shed

Clive and Lynne Thomas have made great progress on fortifying the "store shed", and this is now good and secure - so many thanks there.

Funding
Further to this, applications are currently in the position of being sent, these include the following:

- EAGA Application, sent prior to Christmas, decision day was on Friday 8th Jan so w should hopefully hear from them - potential £1000 for fruit trees, wood for raised beds etc

- Env Wales Application - being finished now, significant potential for funds

- Keep Wales Tidy - £500, probably to be spent on insurances etc - fun!

Other large donations have been made from:
- £500 Ferris Coaches
- £250 Community Council

We will be budgeting this money and prioritising how it will be spent, this will be presented at the AGM.

Initially you may remember that Ii had mentioned having a meeting in January. However, as January is quickly passing and we have planned for our official AGM to be on February 14th, we have decided to merge these together.

AGM – February 14^th am, Rugby Club
We shall be having a Committee Meeting on Wednesday this week to plan for the AGM. Letters/emails will be sent out in due course. If there are specific items which you want discussed at this AGM, please send these requests to myself.

The main point of this AGM will be to discuss the successes and potential problems that may have arisen during the last year. However, in addition to this, we will be discussing exactly how we will move forward in the next year. This also forms the start of a new financial year, and therefore, we aim to be handing out the plots officially to coincide with this new financial year. This obviously is on the basis that the ground has thawed enough to plough, and we have dividing the ground out equally.

You may all remember i emphasised that we will be allocating 5 perch plots only (approx 9 * 14m). This is on the basis that the point of this project is to encourage more people to grow vegetables and set up a growing and thriving community; rather than encouraging fewer people to grow more produce.

Community Garden
The community garden is to hopefully really take off this year. In less than a month we will have a perfectly ploughed, empty field to fill with whatever you want. On the basis that we do get the £1000 from the EAGA application, we will be purchasing all the initial raw materials to start building raised beds etc. However in the mean time, the field will be ploughed and rough ground level beds will be marked out, along with pathways. Therefore, planting can start as soon as the weather and seasons permit. However ...

... we will need some vegetables to grow! If you wall look on our website, you will see a vegetable planner, highlighting many of the important vegetables, there sowing time, sow outside time, cropping time. We would all be grateful if everyone who wants to be involved in this adopt a vegetable, let me know, and please go about growing them. I know this is extra cost up front (in the future we hope to have funding for the likes of seeds, or even better learn how to save seeds).

Educational Talks
You will have previously received an invite to the first of the monthly talks. This project has joined with the Taffs Well Gardening Club to help educate everyone on growing produce and all the horticultural extras that go along with this. The Gardening Club have successfully contacted their extensive contacts list and brought in some great speakers. This is an ideal opportunity to learn more and become enthused and inspired by what growing produce really involves.

Extra Projects
a: Pond
This will be an ongoing project. We will be contacting Ben Williams from Keep Wales Tidy to arrange a Pond Specific Meeting to design and plan the pond. However, initially what we would hope to produce is a natural wildlife area that will be both attractive and practical.

b: Stables
Again, on ongoing project, depending on funding and materials. Results from the Env Wales Application will have a great effect on this, unless free materials can be sought, or alternative funding materialise.

c: Access
It has been highlighted that the access to the site is not ideal. On this note, the Committee has been working to make all padlocks across the site the same. Therefore the car park that was built, and subsequently become overgrown, needs to be utilised before additional parking is built. However, hardcore will be sought to make the pathway to the fields less boggy. It also goes without saying that in the future when this project is at a point where the likes of disabled charities will be invited down, we will work with these charities to design the pathways to suit. They will also bring specific needs and requirements, and particular funding to make this happen.

d: Water
This is obviously going to become more of an issue as the months warm up, however, with the help of everyone’s scrounging skills, we hope to get all the water butts to source enough water for everyone’s needs!

e: Mayday Open Day
Just an idea that has been developing and we can talk about this further at a later date!

Ok, so that is a lot of writing, i hope you haven’t given up reading by this point. However i do hope i have gotten across how much there is going on! We invite you all to the Feb 14ths AGM, and look forward to seeing you all there. I appreciate there are two groups of interests : Allotments & Comm Garden. We hope we can full fill all aspects and needs for this project over the forthcoming months.

If anyone wants to contact me, my details are below. Please keep your eyes on our website, http://www.taffswellcommunityallotments.com.

Community Garden Meeting 23rd November 09

• Thanks given to all those who helped last weekend on the new site.
• Site is now cleared by KWT. They will help with further work if required.
• A pond specific meeting will be arranged in March to which we will invite Ben Williams as he has expertise in making ponds & wetland areas.
• In the New Year we will re publicise the Community Garden. As Christmas is on the horizon we will make a new start then on a more official level and start collecting fees etc.
• In January a meeting will be arranged to allocate plots. This will be done by drawing names from a hat.
• Richard Bennett has delivered ballast onto the path leading up to the garden. L.P stated that it would be best to scrape the path first before putting scalping down. It was suggested that kerb stones would contain the pathway but this would be too expensive. Parle skip hire can deliver recycled hard core. S.A will contact them. We will have to have them dropped by the wood yard due to the bridge.
• Japanese Knotweed Has come through the car parking area at bottom of current allotments. Derek Allinson said there is an “Invasive Species Officer” funded by the Welsh Assembly. C.C will contact him/her this week.
• L.P has access to metal sheeting which could be of use on the site but needs transport to bring it to the garden,, preferably a flat bed vehicle.
• AGM will be booked as soon as possible in the Rugby Club if possible. The meeting will include both sites.
• Keys for site will be sorted out in New Year.
• Stables/ shelter Richard Makin has plans for these. There are old posts lying around on the allotment which could be used to make the shelter.
• Forestry Commission There is a lot of wood lying around in forests and woods so we will contact them to see if we can have it for our projects. There may be possible funding from them.
• An application has gone off to EGA for £500 funding to purchase seeds, tools and trees for the proposed orchard.
• Derek Allinson suggested we get companies involved with the project. They may sponsor us in return for advertising. Steve will look into this in the New Year. Also garden centres may give us some discount on compost, plants etc. Derek also said he would put a “children’s Corner” on the web site. The school curriculum has to include an outdoor activities and this would be a good opportunity to get them involved early on.
• Taffs Well Gardening Club have said they will schedule monthly talks on various aspects of growing starting with the basics. £3 will be the cost or £10 for a year’s membership. Also City Farms would fund the cost of transport for a trip to the RHS gardens. This is included in our membership fee.
• May Day Festival/ Open Day We will aim to hold an event at the C.G site on or around this date. Schools and other groups will be invited.
• Water Derek Allinson has sent two letters to the water company concerning supply to the C.G but has had no reply as yet. He will keep pursuing this.
• Funding/ Policies Environment Wales who have already visited the site and pledged to help with funding insist that certain policies are in place. Steve will be working on these i.e. health & safety etc.
• Adopt a seed Rebecca will put together a plan of planting on the web site. People can elect to grow a specific plant/vegetable ready for planting when ground is ready.
• Next meeting will be arranged after Christmas now.
• Meeting concluded.

Community Garden Meeting held on 19 October 2009

Following a successful second meeting at the Rugby Club, we have established that there could be various groups that are interested in different projects within the community garden. Initially there is a lot of interest in helping clear out the stables and look to make this, and the second building on the site, more structurally sound and useable.

If there are other projects which people are interested in helping with, please contact us, as we would be interested in discussing this with you.
There are also various concerns, mainly including water supply. We can assure everyone that this will be at the forefront of discussions with the council over the next few months.
At this meeting we also agreed that to be a part of the Community Garden, a £5 fee to be a ‘Friend of’ would be an acceptable amount. This fee would generally help towards meeting room and expenses cost to keep the project going.

In addition to all of this, we had a very fortunate visit from Ben Williams of Keep Wales Tidy, who has said that the community project will get his full support, and he will bid to help with clearing & building as well as advice/support on insurance and public liability queries. The project will also be applying for the funding available from them.

There have also been a few meeting dates that have been agreed over the following months. Please look at the calendar page for details:

24th October: 9:30am Site inspection ‘reckie’ – come in your gardening clothes and be ready to delve into the corners of the site to see what we have got!

14/15th November: Weekend building and clearing project on stables and surrounding areas. Any help that people can provide for this will be very welcome (tea and cake also very gratefully received!)

23rd November – Next meeting in Taffs Well Rugby Club to discuss design and implementation. We hope to also start an “Adopt a Seed” project for getting vegetables going over winter ready for the exciting bit of planting in the New Year!