Friday, May 20, 2011

West Bridgford Summer Gathering 14th May 2011



The Great Green Garden at the Summer Gathering


Volunteers of The Great Green Garden and Transition West Bridgford were in attendance at the 5th annual Summer Gathering on the 14th May 2011.

There were many local businesses, community projects and green initiatives like ours. We signed up over 30 interested people to our mailing list and spoke to many local people who were interested in the project and in local food!





Other members of the project and local communities visited our stall and we were given lots of really useful tips and advice - some people had equipment we could borrow, others had fruit in their back gardens we could harvest!

The Summer Gathering is a great community event run by volunteers.
Please see the blog for more information - http://wbsummergathering.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Saving you money every week!!



An interesting article in the Daily Telegraph was given to me by a member of the GGG yesterday and I felt it important to let you know some statistics.

As a grower of my own food, I feel the amount I save in the summer is far more than specified in the piece below because I have so little need to go to the supermarkets - once in there it is difficult to stay to a budget - with all those offers and shiny packaging!

See the The Daily Mail article below:

Grow your own and save £26 a week By A Daily Telegraph Reporter

ALLOTMENT holders save almost £1,400 a year by growing their own fruit and vegetables, research claims.

Amateur gardeners grow 1,642lb of produce a year, which could be sold for £1,564.

On average they spend £202 renting their plot and sowing crops, giving a profit or saving of £1,362. This equates to a saving of about £26 from an average family's weekly supermarket shopping bill.

The study was carried out by the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners. The prices of the home-grown fruit and vegetables were compared with the cheapest supermarket produce so the true saving could be much more.

The survey was based on a 300 sq yd plot. The £202 annual running cost included renting the land and buying seeds, tools and fertilisers but did not take into account the amount of labour.

The study showed that the average allotment owner spends 203 hours a year on their plot although that includes relaxation and chatting with neighbours as well as hard graft. There are approximately 330,000 allotments in Britain with 100,000 people on waiting lists.

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It's a pity so few people can take advantage of the benefits of allotments now with urban areas around Rushcliffe borough ranging from no waiting time (Keyworth) to up to 7 years (Ruddington and Radcliffe on Trent) and two years for West Bridgford.