Another successful Learning Day for Leeds Federation
In conjunction with the allotment section of Leeds City Council the Leeds Allotment Federation organised another hugely successful annual learning day – the third the Federation has organised. This one was fully booked within 2 weeks of being published. These events have been so successful the Federation are planning a second one for later this year.
It was opened by National Allotment Society President, Phil Gomersall who was extremely honoured to be asked. He gave a brief talk about his twenty odd years and his roles within the Leeds Allotments Federation.
Before the first speaker started his talk delegates were asked that if they had brought soil samples for testing could they hand them in to enable completion of testing by the end of the day.
Our first speaker was Joe Longthorne from RHS Harlow Carr talking about the RHS Harlow Carr Kitchen Garden and the various fruits and vegetables being grown. This young man has a huge amount of gardening knowledge.
Then the delegates split into three workshop groups for two separate sessions:
- Joe Lofthouse – ‘Pests and Diseases’
- Compost John – ‘Composting Advice’. Unfortunately John didn’t turn up and David Allison, RHS very kindly stepped into the breach.
- Liz Bunting – ‘Trustees v Limited Company Status’
Then we had a lovely buffet lunch. It was free, as was the Learning Day.
After lunch David Allison, as always, gave an extremely interesting and light hearted talk ‘A productive Allotment each month of the year’. This was followed by a Question and Answer session. His dynamic presentations never cease to amaze me and the audience was enthralled.
There were a hundred and twenty delegates in attendance plus helpers and speakers.
There were poster stands from Leeds Allotments Federation, National Allotment Society, Bee Keepers Association, Sheffield University and Leeds City Council’s nursery, The Arium, who very kindly supplied each delegate with a pot of tete-to-tete daffodils in flower. Kings Seeds also kindly donated 4 packs of seeds per delegate.
Delegates went home with the results of their soil samples and much more knowledge. Lots of networking took place with new acquaintances and alliances being formed. What great way to increase allotmenteers of Leeds Knowledge.
A very enlightening day was had by all according to the feedback.
Phil Gomersall
