Open Day 2023 – 19th August
Compost orders – by Friday afternoon
In case you’ve not seen the sign at the noticeboard yet, enough people have asked for more compost that we’re putting in another order. Let us know by Friday (17th June) before 5pm how much you want, and we’ll phone it in to their order system before they close for the weekend.
Delivery probably is about a week, so the sooner we can get the order in, the better!
Speak to Scott, or email your order to treasurer@sjsmallotments.co.uk
NB: Prices have gone up slightly since the last time we ordered
Gazebo project update
We have submitted Planning and Building Warrant applications to Glasgow City Council for the new gazebo. As we are in a Conservation Area, we are required to apply for planning consent for this permanent structure. The gazebo will be a great addition for members to enjoy socialising and will also be used for scheduled visits by local community groups to take refreshments following talks and tours of the plots. We received Area Development Funding towards this facility from the Council, along with the future conversion of Plot 3 into a wheelchair-accessible plot.
Progress for the Planning application, which normally takes around 2 months for decision, can be viewed online at the Glasgow City Council List of Planning Applications
If you have any questions, see Helen on plot 72, who’s managing the day-to-day parts of the project and who created the architectural drawings, and William on Plot 7, from the Committee.
AGM Agenda 2022
Sunday 8 May, 2pm
Tea and coffee outside pavilion from 1pm
Invitation
In case you’ve never been to the AGM before: it’s your chance to discuss how things are going, and how we could develop the site for the benefit of all. Everybody’s warmly encouraged to come along to the pavilion next weekend at 2.
We’ll have tea and coffee outside the pavilion from 1. Come along and meet some people you’ve never met, and have a chat about the points on the agenda (below) before we get started.
It’s also where the current Committee stands down and a new one is elected (4 office bearers, 1 groundskeeper, 2 auditors, plus up to 9 others). If you’d like to stand, you just first need to be proposed by a member and then seconded by another. It might be helpful if we know in advance who’s interested in standing, or if you just have questions about the job – contact us here. We’ve created some are role descriptions to help you think about it. Fresh perspectives are always welcome!
Each Member (i.e. the one single person who signed the membership form for your plot – contact us if you need to check who that is) has a right to vote on any resolutions. We’re happy in principle for plot-sharing partners to come along and listen / discuss their relevant experiences so we can feed that into the eventual votes by the Members. If we’re pushed for space inside the pavilion, though, we’ll need to ask that partners give up their seats. If it’s nice, we could even move out to the tarmac…
If you’re not coming to the AGM, I’ll take this chance with the last official message of the year from the secretary’s seat to say that I (and the whole committee) hope you’ve had a good growing year this past 12 months. It’s been good to meet even more of you than I did back when I was Treasurer. I’m excited by the new gazebo project taking shape as we wrap up the Committee year, and you can see the plans for that in this other post.
All the best
Scott
Acting Secretary (Plot 38)
Agenda
For a reminder of all Rules & Regulations / Constitution as they currently exist, see the Documents page.
- Chair’s opening remarks
- Minutes of last AGM (attached, below)
- Secretary’s report (to be tabled)
- Treasurer’s report (to be tabled)
- Auditor’s report (to be tabled)
- Spending decisions deferred from Committee meetings throughout the year
(Details of the following spending proposals are attached, below)
a. Defibrillator
b. Chemical toilet
c. Match funding for accessible plot / gazebo project
d. Removal of overgrown Leylandii (Plots 66 and 68b) - Motions
(Details of the following motions are attached, below)
a. Amendment to burning season (Proposer: Committee)
b. Increase of late levy (Constitution part 2 & Rule 5) (Proposer: Scott)
c. Plot-clearing deposit (Constitution part 2 & Rule 4) (Proposer: Scott)
d. Procedure for approval of £300+ spends (Constitution part 7 / New rule?) (Proposer: Scott)
e. Use of external pavilion power socket (Proposer: Marie)
f. Formal ratification of Constitution (Proposer: Scott) - AOCB
- Election of committee (see role descriptions, below)
- Vote of thanks
Waste cage for the Easter weekend
The council have kindly offered us this cage to help with waste disposal.
- Please, no hazardous materials (gas canisters, paint, solvents) – everything goes into a crusher and the staff don’t want to have to deal with injuries
- It’s just a small cage, so try to spread out heavy materials (slabs, concrete) between this one and the summer skip or they might not be able to lift it up again.
- It’s shared between 127 plots so please be considerate to your fellow plotholders in how you fill it.
- There’ll still be another chance to dispose of bulky, non-recyclabe, non-compostable waste later in the year as usual.
- The lane will need to be kept clear of cars on the day they take it away (TBA – keep an eye out for more posts here / on Facebook / on the notice board).
Happy Easter Weekend! 
Mini Potato-Day Fire Sale
One last chance to get your hands on some of the stock from this year’s online Potato Day from the Glasgow Allotments Forum!
Everything will be out on tables this weekend 2-5pm both days, outside the pavilion. Everything is reduced from original prices. 2kg bags are £3.50, and everything smaller is £2.50. Onions are £2 for 50 sets, and shallots are £3 for 12. Flower and veg seeds are individually priced – usually between £1 and £1.50.
If you prefer to pay online first, put your order through on the GAF webshop and just head over to the plots to pick it up!
Spring update: gate now in use, car permits, rent collection, and seed potatoes / onions for sale!
New road gate and parking permits
We wrote to everyone in November about the new gate the council gave us to help manage traffic with the Burrell Collection opening this week. We’ve already had a few days this month when it’s been difficult to get past general park visitors parking at the end of the lane, so we’re going to try closing the gate over for a few weeks. It doesn’t have a padlock yet, and the committee are looking at whether we can get one made to fit the same gate key we already all use.
In the meantime, if the gate’s closed over when you arrive, please push it closed behind you again once you’ve gone through. It’s not heavy at all.
Wardens are also about to start giving tickets to anyone who’s parked without paying at a meter, so we’ve agreed with them that we’ll start handing out new SJSM permits to our members again to keep us from getting any and then having to bother with an appeal.
If you come to the plots in a car, just contact us online or speak to Scott (plot 38, Acting Secretary), Marie (plot 1A, Chair) or Angela (plot 27, Acting Treasurer) and we’ll get you sorted with a new permit to put in your window.
Rent collection
Rent is due by the AGM on the second Sunday of May, and Angela (Acting Treasurer) is ready to start taking payments. Details have been sent out by email and posted on the notice board. Please send any rent questions direct by email to Angela, or drop by plot 27 to see her.
We get some resignations every year at the end of rent season when the deadline comes around. If you’re thinking this might be the year you hand back your key, we’d be sorry to see you go, but get in touch early and we can help save you the effort of turning over the soil for an extra few weeks. We’ll help you get the plot handed on to someone on our waiting list so they can do the work (and they can get a good crack at things from the start of the season), and we can sort out an early refund for you. Just reply to this email and we’ll be in touch to help you see if it sounds right for you.
Seed potatoes / onion sets / seeds for sale
We’ve taken in a lot of stock for the Glasgow Allotments Forum who were looking for a place to store their seed potatoes from their annual Potato Day Sale. There’s loads left to be sold, from something like 40 varieties.
Since it’s sitting right in our pavilion, you might as well save yourself a trip to the shops. The onion sets are desperate to get in the ground right now too.
- Just pay for it through the GAF website first – glasgowallotments.org/shop
- You’ll get an automatic email back with a link to choose a time to come by the pavilion and pick up your stuff.
If it doesn’t get sold by next week, it’ll go off to local growing charities and food groups to use in schools.
Any questions, just ask Scott!
Need some inspiration?
Winter update: road closures, water supply, and Christmas wreath-making social event (RSVP)
Temporary road closures
The council have put up a sign at the park entrance letting everyone know the road is being dug up from Monday 15th November to Friday 10th December. It’s being totally rebuilt all the way from the bridge entrance right through to the gatehouse/archway. That means this Sunday will be our last chance to bring any cars up the lane for the next few weeks until the road works are finished.
Due to the length of the stretch being worked on, we’ve been told we won’t be able to cut across past the grass in front of the cottages, so there’ll be no pedestrian access via the bottom of the lane at all, except hopefully on Sundays when the road crew aren’t working and they might be able to leave us a path open.
You’ll still be able to reach your plot on foot any time by coming across the playing fields. The shortest route is from the Nether Pollok Playing Fields entrance (click here).
You might also have noticed the new gate at the bottom of the lane. It’s been donated by the council to help us avoid the lane getting used by public visitors when the Burrell Collection reopens. (The park renovation has involved a big reduction in the number of parking spaces in the park, and the council are putting on an electric bus service from the city centre. They’ve also made more bike paths through the South Side.) They’ve advised that we try closing it for a few weeks when the Burrell Collection opens again in the Spring, so we’ll probably do that and then open it again and see if we have any problems. They’ll be fitting a combination lock so we can open and close it ourselves if we need to without everyone needing keys. They’ll also install some signs in the Spring to let drivers know it’s a private lane for permit-holders only.
Water being turned off for winter
We turn the water off every year in mid-November as the first frost approaches so that ice doesn’t burst the pipes. We’ll be turning it off and draining the system after this weekend (Sunday 14th November), so the toilets will be out of use from then until the risk of ice expanding in them has passed in the spring.
If you use a water butt and you’ll need it over the winter, now’s a good time to make sure it’s filled!
Christmas wreath-making & social – RSVP for numbers
A few plotholders have offered to hold a social event and demonstrate their skills in wreath-making and table-top decorations. It’ll be a good chance to say hi to people and get a hot drink on a cold day.
The pavilion obviously has a limited size and we want to make sure people have the ability to manage how close they get to each other, so if you’re keen on coming along, please let us know so we can keep an eye on it.
Please either email the secretary or click here to let us know:
- if you are able to come along for refreshments and/or
- if you’d like to help with the organisation and/or
- if you would like to learn to make a wreath or table decoration (more info to follow on suggested materials to bring for this, e.g. acorns, pine cones, willow branches, old Christmas decorations, old artificial tree branches, etc.)
We’re keeping it as a plotholder-only event in the first instance, so we can make sure places go to our own group before anyone from outside.
Pumpkins and straw free to a good home
There are some untouched pumpkins left over from the recent Hallowe’en event (click here for photos), so help yourself from the usual table outside the pavilion.
There are also 3 bales of straw that were donated for Hallowe’en by a local farm as decorations. They might be useful as a mulch, compost fodder, or as kindling in a burning bin now that we’re in the burning season (October to April).
You could also use them to expand your growing space – here’s a clip from Mansewood allotments, where they wet down straw bales with nitrogen fertiliser until they start decomposing, then pot seedlings on straight into them.
Let us know if you want any. Since we’ve been using Vegware plant-based cups for the past couple of events, we also have a small bag of separated compostable waste from the Hallowe’en party. Let us know if you’re a composter and you want to help us put our waste back into the ground for the good of the plots!
The skip has arrived!
The skip showed up unexpectedly late this afternoon. The driver arranged to pick it back up on Friday so we can have the lane clear again for Open Day on Saturday.
Sorry for the short notice – we had already told the company that we were going to go with someone else, but news about the cancellation obviously didn’t reach the transportation department who send out the trucks.
If you need to get in touch, email us, message us on Facebook, or phone someone on the committee. I won’t put my personal phone number up on an open website for obvious reasons, but it’s on the noticeboard!
Scott
Acting Secretary
Skip update
We’ve been let down again by Enva (formerly William Tracy), the skip company we’ve used for years. They’ve told us this time that the company is 1 skip down because of a fault, and that all the others are on their way to other sites. Both of the last times it was blamed on driver shortages.
Trust us when we say we’ve told them how angry we are and how unacceptable this is, and that they’re interfering with people making plans around their work and childcare schedules for over 120 plots.
I didn’t let them off the phone until they promised to phone back before 08:30 with an update every day until it gets delivered. I’ll post here, and on Facebook, as well as at the noticeboard at the gate when the news changes.
I don’t want to spam anyone with emails, but we don’t want you leaving the house without knowing that the skip’s on-site. I’ll send one more email on the day we get absolute confirmation. Keep an eye on your spam folder and mark us as a trusted sender or put us in your contacts to make sure you get any future ones (secretary@sjsmallotments.co.uk and treasurer@sjsmallotments.co.uk are the two allotment addresses we use).
If anyone has any recommendations on other skip companies with large roll-on/roll-off skips that could fit under the bridge any faster, let us know and we’ll see if it’s worth cancelling this order and changing company.
Scott
Acting Secretary