yorkhannah

Hi, This thread seems linked (sort of) to a thread I've posted about a project I'd like to organise (it's called Regional Growing Information Collection and is posted here but I'm a newbie in terms of posting, so I can't link to it). Basically, the social bit of information sharing would stay in places like this - why duplicate, I have a full time job to do when I'm not volunteering for things like this! But, I'd like to organise information such as your garden blooms into an easily searchable place, so that gardeners looking for information on what grows well in their region can find it in a quick, organised fashion. If you'd like to submit information similar to what's been submitted here to me that'd be great, I'm more than happy to come back on Monday and post what we managed to get done at the meeting I'm attending on Saturday. Kind regards, Hannah

This happened to my mum. She found chickens on site when she went to the site she was offered. She checked with the allotment office then left a note and included her number to say contact if they'd been told it was their site. Didn't hear anything, went back a week later and it was all cleared. Think it's a leagacy issue from so many years under-use or lack of caretaking which meant people just sought forgiveness over permission, you just need to ask politely or leave a polite note and it should be okay.

Hi, I'm the Chair of the GIST Foundation. We organise events for people who want to learn about technology and put it to good social use. I'm interested in 'open data'. That is, organisations, making available any information they hold that isn't confidential or sensitive. Specifically, I'd like to mix public sector 'data' such as the information from Sheffield City Council on allotments, with information from community groups like Grow Sheffield, and information from allotment societies and individual growers. The end product would be a publicly available, free information resource on what grows well in different parts of South Yorkshire. Eventually we might be able to add information to it for really committed gardeners (e.g. lunar cycle, rainfall, climate and micro-climate information). Initially however we need as much information as possible on what is growing where in South Yorkshire. If you are a the kind of committed grower that spreadsheets everything you plant and when and would be willing to share that, it would be great. My email is: hannah.york@thegistfoundation.org If you don't keep records that way but have it in paper form, we could potentially scan it in. Or if you fancy taking part but haven't got a lot of time you could just email an account of what happened in your garden this year. For example: Last year, in my garden at S2, Highfields, I grew: - purple podded beans - apples - family tree variety - one is a cox, unsure of other two. Tree has been planted for 3 years, increasing fruit eacy year. This year, in my garden S2, Manor, I grew: - Runner beans - unsure of variety - Purple sprouting broccoli - Leeks (no variety given on the packet, have over-wintered and grown to 1 meter tall though) - Rose - variety wedding rose If any of the forum have comments on what information they'd search for, have a database that contains more general stuff we could use to make the site quicker to use and add information to (e.g. common and latin names of plants, seed descriptions, plant descriptions etc) again that would be really useful. I'll be at an event we're running on Saturday in Sheffield town centre (indoors, not in the snowy, snowy outdoors) If anyone would like to join us to help input information or contribute information or find out more, they'd be more than welcome, email me for details. Kind regards, Hannah

Boiler repairs: I was recommended Exgas by a friend and would like to recommend them here, they were prompt and helpful. They fixed a problem in 30 minutes for £80 that we were told would require a whole new boiler and a whole lot more money.