Cripley Meadow Allotments Association

February

On Sunday 1 February 25 members made short work of removing the bramble and posts between Plots 6 and 7 to widen and clear the path to the river. Members can access water from Castle Mill Stream from here but primarily it is to allow machinery access when pollarding the willows.  We removed the stakes and metal that prevented machines using this path. Previously machinery had to go over plots.  We then moved to Cripley island to stack and burn willow logs left by the previous pollarding. We completed the burning pile by the Association Shed.  We continued this work on 1 March and have now stacked most of the logs away from Fiddler's Drain.  We managed some heavy work for a member on Plot 104 and burned some of the weed/wood pile at the back of Plot 106.

March 

On March 30th a group from St Clare's accompanied by Caroline Crook (plot 160) made short work of clearing up plot 83, back of 126 and started clearing rubbish to make a new plot 9a.  It was a great day with good team work and spirit.  Many thanks to St Clare's. They are a great crew to work with.

April

On April 5th 19 members raked up willow debris from pollarding, filled holes, demolished the shed and cleared rubbish.  We removed and recycled corrugated sheeting and agreed plans for an installation with found metal objects at a later date. We had our first mow to take back the nettles.  These grew to some 10 ft last year with partially increased light.  Now there is more we did not want to watch how hight they would go this time. We will leave some of course and the grass is now growing much better and in more areas.  This will show the best areas for the glades that will be prepared for planting.  

May

In May we cleared the stream, burnt wormy rubbish, raked wood chip and cleared nettles from the flags in the pond.  There is more wood chip to move so that it rots down and can be used around the  tumps and paths.

June

June saw us clearing around the new bridge entrances and removing the hard core bast to the shed, as well as burning more rubbish. The Island is now available to members outside of working party times for quiet walks, taking careful note of the notices about safety.  Children must never be allowed on the island unsupervised.  The fire pits are for working parties only. Members must not light fires here. 

July

July brought another 25 hours of voluntary members work and meant the path was levelled, some tree stumps and three more large heaps of rubbish burned. We continued stacking wood chip, cutting comfrey and trimming back overhanging shrubs. 

Even with the 25% increase in subscription in March 2009 we will always have problems managing such a large site without continued support from our members with back up from OCC for jobs we cannot manage.  Our unusual number of boundary trees are extremely expensive to maintain and we aim to have them pollarded so we can manage more ourselves as in the present financial climate OCC support is getting much harder to obtain.  Your committee members are most generous in their commitment to working parties ...and everyone needs to do their bit.

August

On the island: Removed sprouting willow twigs. Removed and burnt toilet and filled in hole. Filled holes left by stump grinder.  Cut and stripped willow rods for marking out.  Removed bricks from edge of old shed and started levelling.

Allotments: Some mowing for members who are s sick or in difficulty

September 

Allotments:Members of the committee carried out the September plot audit On the island.

On the island

Cutting nettles on edge of path  and Cutting willow overhanging path. Marking out for apple trees. The majority built "tumps" for the apple trees. We built 13 tumps which will now need to settle through the winter ready for planting in February.

Cleared and marked out 9 beds on a new communal plot (number 146)

October

Allotments

Emptying glass into skip

On the island

More tumps ( another 10) After a dry September the ground was very hard and dry.  Also did further cutting nettles on edge of path  and willow overhanging path.