Newsletter survey

Here’s the result of the survey from the Autumn newsletter. The majority of supplies were bought from the new HRAA scheme with Kings Seeds and supplementary purchases being made here and there as the fancy takes.

We’ll run another survey next Autumn to ask those who bought Kings Seeds what they thought of them… were they better than those normally bought, just the same or not as good?

If you’re one of the members who bought Kings Seeds please prepare to give some feedback… maybe keep a record.

The survey for this newsletter is about how GREEN you are in running your plot. There’s always a big debate about the pros and cons of being ‘environmentally friendly’ and I suppose we all fall somewhere between the following two extremes…

‘I believe getting the most out of my allotment is the key aim and the faster and greater I can produce from my plot is what I’m here for. The less I buy from the supermarket has got to be beneficial in lots of ways, so I use chemicals to achieve that.’

‘I believe I can achieve good results without the use of chemicals and finding alternatives is interesting. Somehow organically raised produce seems to taste better and I get a kick out of knowing I’m also caring for the thousands of creatures who consider my plot home. I never use anything which isn’t natural.’

So where do you come out on the question ‘How green are you?’ Definitions of the choices are shown below to help you decide where you land. The survey is completely anonymous so please be honest. It’ll be interesting to find out how our allotments score. The choices are…

1. I’ve never done anything that may be harmful to wildlife on my plot and never use anything that’s not natural.

2. I avoid doing anything harmful but may have done things in the past that can be harmful, such as burning rubbish.

3. I try not to harm wildlife and avoid doing things that are obviously harmful, but very occasionally have used chemicals since there’s no alternative.

4. I do use chemicals and will burn rubbish. I try not to do anything too harmful.

5. I’m here to grow as much produce as quickly as I can so will use whatever helps me to do that.