Dear Member,

🏡 Hut Opening This Weekend

The Hut normally opens at 9:30am, but this weekend:

• Martyn is on holiday, and
• I’m resting following an eye operation,

so please don’t expect the Hut to open much before 10am.

🌿 Looking Back on the Growing Year

This season has been a mixed bag:

• 🧅 Onions — A great success, all grown from seed. I prefer seeds as they produce larger bulbs and are less prone to bolting.
• 🥔 Potatoes — Charlotte potatoes were excellent; main crop disappointing, though we have a few stored.
• 🥕 Carrots — Far too many! Plenty in the freezer and many soups made.
• 🫘 Beans — Runner beans poor; Dwarf French beans much better.
• 🥦 Brassicas — Erratic. Brussels sprouts looked like they’d fail but have recovered.

Every year I tell myself: ONLY grow what you can eat!

Every year I fail.

Next year will be better — I promise.

🐞 Flea Beetles

Some cabbages planted in June struggled, so I bought replacements from a garden centre. After two weeks they looked awful — I’ve now pulled them up.

I believe flea beetles are the cause. These tiny insects have thrived with no rain or cool spells to interrupt their breeding. The damage to brassicas, especially young seedlings, has been formidable — the worst I’ve ever seen.

🏆 WHGAA Garden & Allotment Produce Show

Just ONE WEEK to go!

📍 Caroline Haslett Primary School, Faraday Drive, Shenley Lodge, MK5 7DF

📅 Saturday 5th September

• Entries accepted: 9:30am–12 noon (doors close for judging at 12)
• Viewing & socialising: From 2pm
• Prizegiving: 2:30pm by Kevin Whately
• Auction: Donated produce auctioned afterwards — all proceeds to charity

We hope to see you there!

🌸 Spring Flowering Bulbs – Now in Stock

Available this weekend:

• 🌺 Amaryllis — £7.25 per pack or 2 for £13.50
• 🌼 Hyacinths — £4.25 per pack or 2 for £7.50
• 🌷 Tulips — £4.40 per pack or 2 for £8
• 🌻 Narcissi — £3.75 per pack or 2 for £6.50

Plus Alliums, Crocus, and Fritillaria.

🧅 Autumn Planting Sets

Onion sets, shallots, and garlic will arrive from mid‑September onwards. Updates will follow in future newsletters.

🌱 Broad Beans

Our usual bagged varieties for autumn sowing are in stock:

• Bunyards Exhibition
• Aguadulce
• Longpod
• The Sutton

PLUS — for the first time — prepacked broad beans from Kings Seeds, including:

• Claudia
• Karmazn
• Masterpiece Green
• Witkiem Manita

A great chance to try something new.

🌸 Sweet Peas – 2027 Range

We have details of the 2027 Sweet Pea range:

27 varieties, including three new introductions.

Sow in autumn or wait until early next year.

🌬️ Planning Ahead – Weather Warning

A recent report suggests the El Niño event is strengthening in the Pacific, increasing the risk of extreme autumn and winter weather.

Please:

• Stake tall crops (Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting, etc.)
• Secure or remove loose items around your plot
• Prepare for strong winds and storms

📅 WHGAA AGM

Our 50th Annual General Meeting will take place at:

📍 River Valley Centre, White Horse Drive, Emerson Valley, MK4 2AS

📅 Friday 2nd October

Please add it to your diary.

🛒 August Sale

• 50% off selected lines
• Selected sunflower seed packets — 50p

🌻 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

Dear Member,

🥔 A Challenging Season for Some Crops

I recently decided to dig up all my maincrop potatoes as the ground was so dry it was becoming hard work to keep them watered. It has been a disappointing crop this year — many have holes and will not be of much use.

If yours are still in the ground, it may be worth checking them.

Runner beans are not producing the abundance seen in previous years, and the winter cabbage plants I recently planted were not looking good, so I discarded them.

This hot weather is proving difficult for some crops, but the squash and pumpkins are loving it — growing day by day. Overall, I decided to cut my losses, stop wasting water on struggling vegetables, and concentrate on those that are thriving. Something for us all to think about.

🥔 Maincrop Potatoes – Harvesting & Storing

• Harvest window: Late August to October, typically 15–20 weeks after planting.
• Top tip: Cut the tops off 10–14 days before lifting. Leaving 1–2 inches of stem helps toughen the skins and reduces bruising.

🔧 Harvesting

Push your fork 30 cm (1 ft) away from the main stem to avoid spearing potatoes.

We all spike the odd one — just use those quickly.

📦 Preparing for Storage

• Lay potatoes on a tray to dry for about 4 days.
• Check each one carefully. Any with cuts, bruises, or soft spots should be used quickly.
• One bad potato spoils the batch.
• Store in a potato sack in total darkness — light turns them green and toxic.

🫘 Beans & Courgettes

It seems that however often you pick beans and courgettes, there are always more a day or two later (if you’re lucky). What a lovely position to be in.

Keep picking them, removing any oversized pods or courgettes with marrow ambitions — unless you want the larger ones for cooking with mince and veg.

🎄 Christmas Potatoes

We will not have seed potatoes for Christmas available at The Hut this year.

If you already have some:

• Use a large pot
• Fill the bottom 9 inches with soil
• Place 3–4 potatoes on top
• Cover with more soil and water

With luck, you’ll have potatoes from November onwards.

🍽️ Recipes to Try

Last week I mentioned our new Plot to Plate recipe page on the website (whgaa.org).

One member has already sent in two marrow recipes, which will be added this week.

This page is for ALL members to share their favourite recipes — please send yours in – whgaa2801@gmail.com

🏆 WHGAA Garden & Allotment Produce Show

📍 Caroline Haslett Primary School, Faraday Drive, Shenley Lodge, MK5 7DF

📅 Saturday 5th September

All class details were included in the recent newsletter or can be found on the website (whgaa.org).

We still believe that Kevin Whately will be attending and presenting prizes to the winning members.

📰 WHGAA August Newsletter – Groundwork

This has now been emailed, delivered, or posted to every member.

Some email providers may mark attachments as spam, so if you haven’t received it, there are plenty of copies available in The Hut.

🏷️ August Sale

• 50% off selected lines
• Selected sunflower seed packets – 50p

🌼 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

🥕 Using the Whole Vegetable

I’ve been listening to the BBC food programmes recently, and they keep highlighting how much of a vegetable we throw away without realising it can be eaten. I grow lots of carrots and beetroot, yet the green tops often end up in the compost — but they’re delicious and versatile.

Using the whole vegetable means cooking parts like stems, leaves and peels that are normally discarded. Popular examples include carrot tops, beet greens, and broccoli stems. It reduces food waste, saves money, and adds new flavours to your meals.

🌿 Ideas for Using Every Part

🥕 Carrot Tops

Blend into a fresh herb pesto or chimichurri.

🥦 Broccoli & Kale Stems

Chop and add to stir‑fries, soups or slaws.

🍃 Beet & Radish Greens

Sauté like spinach or use raw in salads.

🧅 Vegetable Peels & Ends

Save onion skins, carrot peels and herb stalks in a freezer bag to make a rich homemade stock.

🎃 Pumpkin & Squash Seeds

Clean, roast and enjoy as a protein‑rich snack. A great way to use more of the crop.

🍅 Dehydrating Your Harvest

Dehydrating tomatoes is an excellent way to store the summer glut for winter use. Tomatoes with a high pulp content work best, but all types can be dehydrated.

Dehydrators start from around £100, though many air fryers now include a dehydration setting.

🥣 Got Too Many?

We all try to grow just enough veg, but somehow we end up with mountains of carrots, courgettes and tomatoes. Freezing is always an option, but soups are a brilliant way to use them too.

At this time of year, I make courgette and tomato soup, and having grown a bumper crop of carrots, I’ve just tried carrot soup with great success.

If you’d like the recipes for Tomato, Courgette & Dolcelatte or Carrot & Coriander soup, visit our website:

🌐 whgga.org → Plot to Plate

You can download them directly from the page.

📬 Share Your Recipes

If you have a great idea for using a glut of fruit or veg, or simply a favourite chutney recipe, email it to:

📧 whgaa2801@gmail.com

It may be added to the website for others to enjoy.

🫐 Protect Your Fruit

Cover fruit bushes as they ripen — pigeons and blackbirds will happily help themselves.

Raspberries are usually safe, but strawberries, currants and blueberries will be guzzled if left uncovered.

🌸 Flowers in August

🌼 Sweet Peas

At their peak now. Pick regularly and remove spent flowers and seed pods.

🌺 Gladioli

At their best from mid‑July through August. Excellent for allotments and superb as cut flowers.

✂️ Deadheading

Continue deadheading all flowering plants to keep things tidy and prolong the season.

🏷️ August Sale

• 50% off selected lines
• Sunflower seed packets — 50p

🌻 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

Dear Member,

🍂 Planning for Autumn

One of the most important jobs in August is preparing for the autumn season.

Buy your spring‑flowering bulbs, amaryllis, or hyacinths for Christmas flowering — these are due into The Hut around the end of August.

Plan where you intend to plant your overwintering onion sets, shallots, or garlic (arriving mid‑September), and make notes about what has performed well this season.

Your allotment year does not end when summer does — a little planning now sets you up for productive harvests throughout autumn, winter, and next spring.

💧 Keep Watering

• Tomatoes need consistent watering. Erratic watering may cause splitting or blossom end rot.

Split tomatoes are still fine to eat — just use them quickly.

🌬️ Keep Damping Down

• Raise humidity in your greenhouse by spraying water on the floor, especially if growing chillies or melons.
• Open vents and doors to improve ventilation.

🪴 Growing in Containers

• On hot days, water mature courgette and tomato plants daily, or even twice daily, now that their root systems are fully established.

🥔 Your Potatoes

Lift maincrop potatoes during dry weather and leave them on the soil for a day to help set their skins.

Store in paper or hessian sacks.

🫘 Runner Beans

“I keep looking at the runner and climbing beans for any signs of pods but there are very few. The hot weather is the problem! I’m hoping the ones I planted later will produce more.

Some of you have no problems and are probably picking them now. If you are, then picking them will encourage more beans to set, giving a longer cropping time.

The dwarf beans I planted not so long ago are producing nicely.”

🎃 Squashes & Pumpkins

Help your winter squashes and pumpkins ripen by cutting off any leaves that shade their fruits from the sun.

🏆 Garden & Allotment Produce Show

With less than a month to go, you should be looking after your prize produce — flowers or vegetables.

Details of the rules and categories can be found on our website: whgaa.org (follow the link to the show).

🧅 Onion & Shallot Sets + Garlic

Due into The Hut mid‑September. Expected varieties:

• Onion sets: Senshyu, Yellow Winter, Autumn Champion, Blood Red
• Shallot sets: Golden Gourmet, Red Sun
• Garlic: Autumn Pink, Elephant garlic cloves

📰 August Newsletter

The latest edition of Groundwork has been emailed to you.

If you do not receive a copy by the end of this month, please let Mick know: whgaa2801@gmail.com

🛒 New Products

• 2Kw greenhouse heater – £42.50
• Lawn fertiliser spreader – £4.50

🏷️ August Sale

50% off selected lines

🌼 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

Dear Member,

August is usually a more relaxed month on the allotment, filled with pleasurable hours of gathering harvest — the reward for all that early preparation work. This year, however, much more time has been taken up with watering due to the lack of rain. We are almost at the stage of knocking on neighbours’ doors to see if they would like any runner beans or courgettes! 😄

❄️ Freeze Your Veg

You can freeze almost any vegetable.

• Best for freezing: broccoli, peas, carrots, sweetcorn (low‑water veg).
• Blanch first: boil 1–5 minutes, then cool in ice water to preserve colour and nutrients.
• Avoid freezing: lettuce, cucumber, radishes — they turn mushy.

Our freezer is full of runner beans, carrots, and broad beans well into the winter.

🧅 Onions – Drying & Stringing

Stringing onions is a great way to store them, keeping many bulbs in a small space.

• Hang in a cool, dry, frost‑free place (shed, garage).
• Dry thoroughly by laying them in the sun for a few days.
• If it’s raining, use trays in a warm, dry place.
• Choose only the best bulbs for storage.
• Trim the roots — last year mine weren’t trimmed and some went rotten, likely due to moisture absorption.

🥔 Potatoes – Storing Correctly

Store potatoes in a cool (5–10°C), dark, dry place with good ventilation.

• Do not wash before storing — just brush off loose soil.
• Keep out of direct light to prevent greening.
• Remove any soft or sprouting potatoes.
• We sell paper potato sacks for just 85p.

🎃 Squash & Pumpkins

Store in a cool, dry, well‑ventilated space (10–15°C).

• Keep in single layers so they don’t touch.
• Store away from ripening fruit (apples, pears) to avoid ethylene‑gas spoilage.
• Properly prepared, they can last 2–6 months.

🐛 Watch Out for Pests

Warm conditions encourage pests and diseases. Keep an eye out for:

• 🍅 Tomato blight (warm, humid weather)
• 🌱 Powdery mildew (squashes, courgettes)
• 🐜 Aphids (young shoots)
• 🕷️ Red spider mite (greenhouses)
• 🦋 Cabbage white caterpillars (brassicas)

Regular inspection helps catch problems early.

🌱 Time to Start Again

August is the month to sow Senshyu onion seeds for a crop next June.

• Sprinkle a few seeds into a pot.
• Pot on individually once large enough.
• Look after them until February/March.
• Plant out in March/April for a July harvest.

🏡 Coming Up at The Hut

• 🌷 Spring‑flowering bulbs arriving late August
• 🎁 Amaryllis & Hyacinths for Christmas
• 🏆 Garden & Allotment Produce Show – Saturday 5th September
• 🧄 Autumn onion & shallot sets, plus garlic arriving late September

🌐 WHGAA Website

If you’ve ever wanted to keep information from these emails but accidentally deleted them, don’t worry.

Visit: https://www.whgaa.org

Go to WHGAA Weekly Newsletter to view recent emails and archived editions.

There is now much more information online, including details of the Garden and Allotment Produce Show.

💸 August Discounts

Up to 50% off selected sale items.

Happy Gardening,

🌻 Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary