Falcon Allotment update - August 2022

Well, this month has seen an abundance of fine to very hot weather which most of us have been able to enjoy.

Sadly, however, our beloved crops cannot pick themselves out of the ground and find shade or water so sadly we have lost some crops in terms of beans/peas/sweetcorn etc

We would like to encourage more volunteers to possibly give an hour or two a week to the allotment - training if and as required. to find out more about volunteering at the allotment, please contact the Falcon Support Services Volunteer Coordinator, Jacqueline Saxby-Smith, we also have Mick and Janet who are taking over the role that Stewart has done well in the past 3 years or so.

We are saddened that Stewart is off to do training elsewhere, but has stated he will be keeping his wellies close by. We wish Stewart the best of luck with his new undertakings, and hopefully will see him down here again at some point and thank him for his time and dedication to the allotment, overseeing and planning each and every year with varying degrees of success - especially during the times of covid and beyond. Thank you.

We are also in the process of rejuvenating the allotment and look forward to working closely with Jacqueline in her role and taking on board any suggestions she may have. but as always, this needs people who are active down here.

This August also saw the Allotment have yet another BBQ for service users, which was attended by around 30 people in total with some late arrivals and even later arrivals, but better late than never, as a few of us were actually wondering if to fire up the BBQ or not, but it was saved by everyone who came. Thank you.

Also, we would like to say a big thank you to the people that have sponsored the chickens. You are more than welcome to come and say hello to them whenever you're down or have 30 minutes in the course of the day.

As a reminder, The allotment can be a powerful tool in the mental health toolkit, bringing with it, a place to possibly vent frustration by removing weeds or digging holes for crops, to maintaining mental balance by walking around with a hose pipe and listening to the water nourishing the soil, and subsequently, providing sustenance to the people from the Falcon Support Services.

Recently there have been a few large bags of vegetables, including potatoes and onions, delivered to the centre, for the users.

As always, a project of this size needs support in terms of willing volunteers and materials, as now over the next few months, we will be looking at mending items or extending things - such as the chicken coop to make more room for the additional ones that we are looking to get in October time.

If you know of anyone who has old pallets, good quality wood, small buckets, canes, netting, wire mesh etc they don't need, please get in touch as these items provide the important framework for protecting the crops from animals.

Once again, the guys at the allotment can only help you, if you help us, what we do is largely dependent on both weather and volunteers, as such, we have had too much of one, and not enough of the other, so would like to invite people down, grab a tea/coffee and a spade or don a set of gloves and help us help you.