A plot

First of all, the club allows the member to use a plot to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers.

At the beginning, as a new member, the club offers 25 m². Then, if this plot is fully used and well maintained as well as the path attached to it (the committee checks it), the member can ask to occupy more space. An extra plot or a larger one can be offered to the member, but, of course, only if there is a plot available (otherwise,  the member is put on the waiting list).

On the other hand,, if you are not maintaining the plot in a good condition, you will be asked to reduce the size of your garden or abandon it completely. Of course, you will be contacted several times before that happens. But it happens!

Please note that you are not renting a plot, and the plot is not becoming your property for the year. It is already the property of ESTEC that makes the site available to the club. The club lets you using this plot, according to the rules.

 

 

Some plants

When a plot is allocated, it is often planted of several perenial plants as bushes of berries, rhubarber, strawberries, and sometime a tree. If you want to have more, before buying it you can always ask to our secretary because she can help you to find one from an other member or free plot.

If you want to remove a plant, please also inform the secretary because maybe an other member can be happy to have it in his plot (and so can help you in this work ...). Or please put it on the table outside the hut. So an other member can use it for himself.

The club also provide a lot of varieties of vegetable plants from the nursery. Just be reasonable: if you want to have a lot of them, please make your proper seedling.

 

 

 

Tools

Several types of tools are made available to the members, as forks, rakes, spades, hoes, watering cans, wheelbarrows, etc.... For the small individual tools, the club cannot provide them to its members because it will be too difficult to store and manage them. It is also a too big budget. Each member as to buy his proper small tools.

Some big electrical devices are also available. Some of them, for security reason, are kept locked. Please contact the committee if you want to use them.

If a tool is damaged, please put it in the corner close to the fridge and contact the committee. We will repair it if possible, otherwise we will buy a new tool.

To avoid damaging tools, please use the correct one. The forks and spades are not strong enough if you want to dig up roots (bushes, small trees). For that, it is more convenient to use a pick-axe or a mattock.

If you have a suggestion for a specific tool, contact the committee. One of the tool officers will analyse your request and send you a reply.

To contact the Committee, you can use this link.



Cow’s manure

Each year, around October, two deliveries of manure are provided for members who responded to the call made in September.

To comply with the environment requirements, it is asked to empty the manure pile within 1 week after each delivery. Please ask for help to move the manure to your plot if none of the two dates suits you. If you are not coming during those weeks, or do not answer to the general call, you will not be able to have manure for this season anymore.

Recommended amount: as we have a sandy soil,  it is recommended to dig in 3-4 wheelbarrows of manure (preferably well rotten if available) per 25m2, almost every year. Beware that not all vegetables like being cultivated in freshly manured soil .This is the case of root vegetables (carrot, beetroot, ...) and onions.

You can always let a little quantity of manure in a corner of your garden (or put it in your compost) to let it mature (under cover) during one season for those crops the next year.

 

 

Shells

They are stored near the hut, near the green waste container.  These shells are normally reserved for the maintenance of the main paths and the creation of drainage.

Please avoid using shells to create paths within the plots, since it is difficult afterwards to remove when the member leaves the club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soil

Some plots are flooded during heavy rain. From the 2014 season on, and in order to raise the level of those plots, some soil will be ordered over several years. It will be delivered next to the shells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Straw

The straw can replace the use of black plastic in the garden, under which snails and mice like to hide, and also help to enrich the soil at the end of the season.

Recommended use: to put under strawberries and courgettes when the plants are large enough to hold the straw otherwise the wind will blow it away, and at the base of tomato plants and artichokes.

It is stored at the back if the hut.

 

 

 

 

 

Fertilizer

Granule of fertilizer are stored in bags under the plastic shed on garden 43N, near the entrance of the gardens.

Recommended amount: 1 handful per m², early in the season, raked in, and again in summer, before growing a new crop. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lime mix

There is also a bag of lime mix to make the soil more alkaline for all sorts of cabbages. It is stored in the metallic container behind the hut.

It is recommended to make a pH test before using it.

 

 

 

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Wood chips

Since 2016, the club has also provided wood chips to cover areas under bushes . This mulch helps to keep the weeds down where it is difficult to remove them. They also can be used to mark a few paths on the garden, as the wood chips can be composted if the paths are no longer needed. Wood chips should be used for that, and not the shells which don’t degrade and are costing twice as much”.

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Books to borrow at the Book Club

Since beginning of 2015, there are several gardening books, in French, English and Dutch, available for borrowing from the Estec Gardening Club.
Sorry, no books in Spanish or Italian, because  the books relating to gardening in France , Holland or England are more relevant as far as the climate is concerned.
People wishing to borrow one of the books listed on the website could, till they are finally displayed in the hut, contact Paolo who has them.
There are only a few books, so please read the books as rapidly as possible.
 

 

 

Cut flowers

On the plot 41NW and alongside the south fence, facing plots 48, 15 and 5E, there are flowers grown for cutting. Members are allowed to cut small bunches of them ; bunches of flowers will also be offered on the table in front of the hut.