Author: A Place To Grow Your Own

It’s the start of a new allotment year, and so all tenants are amiably reminded that subs are due if they want full PPAA membership.

Only full membership entitles the tenant to the use of the manure and wood chippings in the pens at either end of the site, and more. (PPAA Committee have to pay for the manure, and so it’s reasonably their property. Consent for its taking costs a mere five pounds, which some sites charge per bag.)

All tenants are automatically basic members free of charge, which entitles them to vote at AGMs, and to be Committee members, however.

PPAA Website Team

The Council have asked PPAA Committee to publicise this.

Relevant information, and the on line Survey, can be found here.

(It’s a general Council questionnaire, not one produced by Allotments Office. The place for any comments is in the Survey therefore, and so they’re not open on this article.)

PPA Website Team

In addition to the fire, it appears that the criminals have used a power tool to saw through the padlock’s engaging lug on the Riverside Community Garden’s steel shipping container, and the doors were left open.

The newly-built shelter was in a certain amount of disarray, but there wasn’t any evidence seen of an attempt to burn it.

It’s possible that the criminals didn’t know the extent of the Community Garden, and perhaps burnt the chalet that they apparently did because it was a more elaborate structure, and which they wrongly attributed to it? However this is no more than speculation on the author’s part.

We’d urge all plot holders to inspect their plots for any theft or damage.

PPA Website Team

PPAA Committee members were awoken at around 0230 this morning by the police ‘phoning. They were with the fire services on site. A structure had been on fire and the gate had been forced.

Owing to the method used to force entry to the site, it seems that the intrusion was a determined act and not casual criminality. (The Western Avenue gate will be modified to avert this apparent method of entry in future.)

We lament the severe distress that this must cause to the plot holders concerned – whom, we understand, the police have notified – and express our sincere compassion to them.

We haven’t inspected the rest of the site for evidence of further crimes as yet.

PPA Website Team

PPAA Committee took delivery of two hundred mixed pyracantha on Thursday, and the planting of these is under way. This may take a few sessions over the next week or two.

There shouldn’t be any particular obstruction caused by this work, and if there were, then it should be of brief duration, but we thank drivers and everyone else for their understanding on this in advance. (We acknowledge that already shown during the previous work too.)

We also thank the six plot holders, who’ve offered help with this work, and for that already given with the preparation needed to bring us to this point.

PPA Website Team

The above picture shows the present state of the manure pen by the Western Avenue end gate.

Someone has improvised a causeway out of waste materials to enable access across the large puddle and the mud to the residual manure, which has now all been used.

Would the persons who did this therefore:

a) Please kindly remove all of this material from the pen.

b) Dispose of it responsibly off site if it isn’t required anywhere else.

(There’s no volunteer effort available to do this.)

Once both of these actions have been carried out – but not before – the PPAA volunteers will be able once again to authorise and to supervise deliveries of manure to this pen – as and when it might become available.

Kind thanks.

*Update – please see comment below.

PPA Site Volunteers.

Spine road hedge improvements

The removal of the unsuitable, fast-growing, thornless subjects is complete, and the build up of clippings etc. has all been raked out. This means that the new hedging – mixed berry colour pyracantha – can be ordered and planted.

This will result in a dense, very thorny, tough, evergreen hedge, with attractive and highly wildlife-beneficial berries. It will grow at a similar rate to the hawthorns, berberis, hollies, and other subjects, which remain from the original hedging. It will provide better, more secure nesting for birds, and only require cutting once a year, which can be done in autumn or winter. (In order to maintain access for vehicles – and to remove nuisance to pedestrians and cyclists – the former hedge needed three or even four trims a year.)

This not only reduces greatly the burden for volunteer effort and/or cost for paying for the work, but also preserves and enhances the future maintainability of the site. (PPAA Committee are required under their local management agreement with the Council to maintain hedges. Clearly, they have failed in this obligation if they allow such hedges to become unmaintainable by whatever volunteer effort or resources they might have.)

Communal poly tunnel bed draw

As previously announced, the draw for beds, for two growing years, is still open, and closes at midnight on the thirty-first of this month, January 2026.

It seems likely that the initial draws – including last year’s – attracted most of the people interested, which perhaps explains the relatively quiet response so far. So those already with beds subject to the draw, but who’d like to continue for another two years, are advised that if they applied too, then the signs so far are that there’s a real chance that some of them could do that.

Council bills

In principle, all plot holders who intend to continue with their plots from February this year onwards should have received a bill in November.

However, owing to the Council’s approach to introducing the new Orkastrate system for managing allotment tenancies, anyone who began their tenancy at any time since around June 2024 may very well not have received a bill for a second time. This is because the Council’s billing department – we understand – are still working from the previous, manually-updated file system, which, it appears, ceased to be updated by Allotments Office from the moment that the Orkastrate system introduction was begun. We emphasise that PPAA Committee have faithfully communicated to Allotments Office all details of every letting. This is everything that they’re required to do, and owing to budgetary and staffing matters at the Council, they’re unable to influence matters further. Notwithstanding, Sue spent a morning in person with Allotments Officer, on the understanding that the latter was updating the Orkastrate system from Sue’s personal records. This will still have no effect on billing, however, for the reason stated earlier in this paragraph. Another incidental effect – it seems possible – is that those who have resigned their tenancies may nevertheless continue to be billed by the Council.

This problem affects all sites in Cardiff. Allotments Officer has, we infer, indicated that when the system is properly updated, those tenants who have so far not been billed will receive backdated bills to cover the whole unpaid period, and so we advise everyone affected to prepare for any possible financial impact of such. We await further clarification on this point, however.

PPA Website Team

The PPAA communal poly tunnel, at the southeast end of site, has twelve beds, of several square metres each, for the use of tenants. They’re filled with Council compost, and this may have been supplemented by their gardeners.

Each of these is available for two continuous seasons (that is, two whole growing years), beginning on March 1st, so the next allocation will start 1st March 2026.

The twelve beds are split into two groups of six, and the respective sets of tenancies are staggered by a year. So each year, in February, a draw is held to select six tenants. (There are often more people wanting beds than beds.) Entry to the coming draw will close at midnight, 31st January 2026.

Current bed holders reaching the end of their two year term are more than welcome to enter the draw for a bed for a further two years. However, if the number of new applicants equals or exceeds the available beds, then priority’s given to the new applicants.

The beds will be allocated for the two growing seasons 1st March 2026 to 31st January 2028, to align broadly with plot tenancies (2nd Feb to 1st Feb), and to allow bed holders to maximise their use of the beds over the winter.

Conditions for entering the draw:

Entrants must be PPAA plot holders, with a valid Council Tenancy Agreement for the coming year, and be paid-up full current members of the PPAA (five pounds annual subscription.) Only plot holders named on the tenancy can apply, and only one application per holding is allowed. Successful candidates can’t sublet or transfer their grow bed to other plot holders.

Successful applicants will need to pay a further five pounds a year, towards the poly tunnel’s upkeep.

Should a successful candidate stop being a tenancy holder, then their grow bed will be given up, and reallocated (if there’s a reasonable period left to run.)

PPAA plot holders, who fulfil the above conditions, are cordially invited to enter the draw.

The draw’s open from now on, but as mentioned, it closes at midnight on 31st January 2026, so those interested should email PPAA Committee before then. Please state clearly:

Name (required)

Plot number (required)

Full PPAA subscriber for 2025/26 (required)

Council Tenancy Fees paid for 2025/26 (*required, but we understand that owing to the Council’s backlog of updating records, some haven’t yet been billed. Due account will be taken of these facts on a case-by-case basis.)

Whether able to join poly tunnel working party? (Not essential)

The draw will be held by 8th February, and beds will be allocated for use from 1st March next year.

PPA Website Team

The Council have sent out the email below, along with the attachments shown as files on this page. We’re publishing it in case any tenant whose contact particulars are either missing from, or not up-to-date in the Council’s records might happen to see this here when they wouldn’t otherwise. Tenants who don’t use email will be contacted by paper letter.

We would clarify, that many, perhaps most, of the changes in the new Agreement, and which were considered by the Working Group, were proposed by the Council themselves. The Working Group also included Allotments Officer, her line manager, Head Of Parks, Ecology Officer, and other Council management.

We’d also emphasise that – as the email says – plot holders need do nothing at this stage. We’d further remind everyone that the Consultation is now closed, and so our understanding is that no further change will be made to the document in response to any representation.

PPA Website Team

Under Schedule 3, (4) of the Local Management Agreement between PPAA and the Council, PPAA are responsible for cutting hedges:

“4. Grounds maintenance
Hedge cutting, grass cutting, and strimming of uncultivated areas throughout the allotment site.”

In recent years, PPAA have dutifully done this, either by their own volunteer effort, or by paying to have this done, and this year’s been no exception. As a result there was no need for any further work until the hedge grew again. Notwithstanding, an operative has recently done this again, apparently using an agricultural flail cutter. This has happened repeatedly, over several years now, and we assume that some Council department arranges this, but despite now numerous enquiries as to who arranges this and why, no reply has ever been received on the matter. There does seem to be a pattern however, where if PPAA cut the hedge, then so does the Council, but if for some reason they don’t, then nor does the Council either, though perhaps that’s just coincidence.

The beech section of the hedge has now been cut quite rigorously, but little difference has been made to the rest, for obvious reasons.

The purpose of this post is simply to let anyone know who might have wondered why on Earth this had happened, that – as ever – it was nothing whatsoever to do with PPAA Committee.

(We read that Cardiff Council has been running a large budgetary deficit for some time, and so would appreciate it, on behalf of all Council Tax payers, if some sort of explanation as to this apparent waste of resources would finally be given.)

PPA Website Team