We have finally had some rain after a very strange (and dry!) summer. The Autumn brings some beautiful colours and the rainfall is helping our six-plot allotment thrive again. Things we have planted are growing beautifully, we are harvesting our crops, and are doing a much-needed tidy to prepare for the rest of Autumn and the pending Winter.

Here are a few things we have been up to:

Bee keeping

Our bees are still thriving, thanks to support from Darren at Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Association and our co-workers! We are now registered with the Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Association as a registered site, and as part of this, we are now receiving regular health checks and beekeeping talks with Darren. We look forward to seeing how our beekeeping site continues over the coming months, taking us into the new year.

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Clearing plots

Some great teamwork from our co-workers, who have cleared the veg plots ready for the winter. Thanks, folks!

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Cleaning and painting

Now we're able to dig again with softer soil thanks to this rainfall, we're all getting stuck in with weeding, tidying up the site and preparing for the colder months. We're also painting and treating all of our woodwork and benches, choosing a vibrant blue colour for our benches to add some much-welcomed colour to our site.

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Planning for the year ahead

We're now planning for the year ahead, taking time to map out our planting calendar and work on some plans for how we want to develop our plots in the coming year. Watch this space for further updates soon!

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Join us!

We run the seasonal gardening and forest skills sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays at our community garden on 6 allotment plots at the Whitehill Allotment site, off Newmarket Road. Our small groups are usually made up of about 6 to 10 people on both days.

If you would like to talk to our coordinator about joining the groups and have experience of homelessness, please get in contact, or speak to your project worker about it and we can arrange to meet you.

Contact: kevin@cambridgecyrenians.org.uk

You can also follow further regular updates on our allotment Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/our_community_allotment/

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