The main project for this summer was to reduce the maintenance requirements around the public areas in the allotments. It has been getting harder and harder to cut the grass round the perimeter road due to overgrown bushes and trees growing out of control next to the road. It was limiting the car parking spaces available next to people’s plots and shading some plots.
So over the course of a two week period with the mini digger on rental, the committee got together most nights and weekends over the two weeks to get the work done. Here is a collection of photos from the from work done – quite a lot done in two weeks thanks to the hard work of those involved.
It started with the removal of the old, diseased cooking apple tree. It’s removal would make more space available for delivery lorries. In it’s place we are re-planting two new apple trees to take it’s place in the communal area. Sad to see it go but since we had removed the containers beside it a couple of years ago, it was looking decidedly worse for wear.
Next up it was the removal of the trees outside the plot at the south east corner of the allotments which was rendering a large part of the plot there unworkable due to shade. It also gave us the chance to re-align the road and take the sharp bend out of the corner. We re-instated the fence and gave the plotter an extra couple of metres onto their plot at the other side and re-instated the posts and netting.
Finally we dug out the bottom of an old sleeper that had formed the gate post for one of the original gates into the allotments but which had become exposed on the road over time. It must have been in the ground for over 60 years – those creosoted railway sleepers certainly didn’t rot in a hurry! A quick re-instatement and levelling of the road surface again finished the job off.
Over the years, a lot of the verges along the south perimeter fence had become overgrown and encroaching on the verge where plotters park their cars. There were also areas where some of the spoil had been dumped when the road was created initially and we took the chance to level these out and make even more car park spaces. Our pile of branches to burn was getting bigger by the minute!
By the time we were finished, this skip was full right to the top! Every year we get a skip in and every year we say that surely we have got rid of most of the rubbish but it never ceases to amaze us the amount of rubbish that we collect. Rules have been put in place to stop plotters bringing material onto their plots such as carpet but we are still dealing with a legacy from years of lax rules. One day we will get there!
Our final task with the digger was to remove an old fence from a plot that the plotter had been wanting to demolish for a while so we took the opportunity. We also removed a hedge and embankment alongside the road at the east end of the plots to remove a pinch point and narrow road to make it easier to get large vehicles round the plots.
A long couple of weeks and late nights taking advantage of the light summer nights up here in Aberdeen but it has been worth it.
Heathryfold Allotments 