Grow Greener with Garthdee Field Allotments Association

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10 Smart Ways to Use Eggshells at Your Allotment

We have a routine supply of eggshells, egg boxes, and coffee grounds thanks to the lovely people from Café Connect at Mannofield. These are placed at our general recycling point located beside the Bothy and are being refreshed every two weeks. Feel free to use as much as you want, but please do not remove the plastic boxes we use to collect/rotate the items from Café Connect.

With a steady supply of eggshells coming our way, here are 10 smart ways to put them to good use at your allotment. From boosting your soil to keeping pests at bay, eggshells are a versatile and natural addition to your gardening toolkit. Let’s dive in and make the most of this fantastic resource!

  1. Pest Deterrent: Crushed eggshells around your plants can keep slugs and snails at bay. They don’t like crawling over the sharp bits—nature’s own barbed wire!
  2. Soil Booster: Mix crushed eggshells into your compost or directly into the soil. They add calcium, which is great for plants like tomatoes and peppers.
  3. Seed Starters: Use halved eggshells as tiny biodegradable pots. Fill them with soil and seeds, then plant the whole thing in the ground once the seedlings are ready.
  4. pH Balancer: If your soil is too acidic, eggshells can help neutralize it. Just crush them up and mix them in.
  5. Bird Food: Bake and crush eggshells to add to bird feed. It gives them a calcium boost, especially in nesting season.
  6. Blossom End Rot Fix: To prevent blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers, add crushed eggshells to the planting hole. This adds calcium directly where it’s needed.
  7. Natural Fertilizer: Make a calcium-rich fertilizer by soaking crushed eggshells in water for a few days. Use the liquid to water your plants.
  8. Compost Activator: Toss eggshells into your compost pile. They decompose slowly, helping to aerate the compost and add essential nutrients over time.
  9. Garden Mulch: Sprinkle crushed eggshells around your plants. It acts as a mulch, keeping the soil moist and deterring pests.
  10. Rooting Powder Substitute: Crushed eggshells can act as a natural rooting powder. Dip the cut ends of your plant cuttings in powdered eggshell before planting to encourage root growth.

Happy gardening!

Some Spring Surprises

Thanks to the continued generosity of Raymond (Plot 83) and Pete (Plot 33) and many other benefactors unknown, our Community Seed Swop area is now brimming full with viable seeds for the current growing season.

Thanks too are due to Bob of One Seed Forward who kindly donated two bags of seed potatoes for use by plotters and volunteers.

Feel free to help yourselves to seeds or potatoes from the Octagon. No need to be too greedy: hopefully there will be plenty to go around, but they are offered while stocks last and on a first come, first served basis.

If you don’t find what you are looking for, remember you can get a 40% discount on all seeds from Dobies online when you use the Code SUGD196X on checkout. Other orders attract a 5% discount if you use the same code.

We are much Re-leafed.

ACC delivered several loads of excellent leaves to us over the last few days. They are nicely dry and so easily handled. As the ground in the Southeast corner of the site was too wet and soft for the delivery trucks, they have been dropped off in the bay to the North of our site. Please feel free to help yourselves while stocks last – leaves were in short supply this year for some reason. It would be a great help if you could take from the western end of the pile: this will keep the car parking area free – and allow for more deliveries.

Discount Seed Purchase in 2024

New and existing GFAA Members please note that our Discount Scheme membership of the Dobies Group Scheme has a new discount code in place for 2024.

Well, it may seem that the wet and cold weather with endless named storms will never end, but in truth, Spring will come and the soil will warm up enough for seed sowing. In the meantime, it is almost time for windowsill sowings to get ahead as we wait.

Remember, if you are about to buy seeds, plants or gardening supplies, as a GFAA member or volunteer you will get a 40% discount on all seed purchases and 10% off other items – but you must use our unique discount code at the time of purchase. If you need the code, there are copies of the Dobies Catalogue with the code included in the Octagon, or just get in touch and I will be pleased to let you have it (gfaawebhelper@gmail.com). Once you have the code, this link will take you directly to the Dobies Website Store and Catalogue.

Note this is Dobies with one b and not the DOBBIES garden superstore here in the city.

Storm Gerrit Damage

I am sorry to report that our most recent storm has caused a good deal of damage on site. Plotters might want to visit ASAP to secure items and structures before the return of stormy weather forecast for this weekend.

These photos show only some of the damage done. Thanks go to Anna and Steve for passing on these photos. Sympathies go to all those who have suffered loss or damage.

Alert – Mains Water

A word to the wise: we plan to turn off the mains water supply to the site this coming Sunday, 12 November 2023. If a threat of frost is forecast before then, it will be turned off immediately.

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