Hello, my name is Linda Peppin and I have the honour of building the new website for Ashfield Allotments.
I built my first website in 2005; the website is The Gardening Register and I offer free gardening advice and provide lots of interesting gardening articles. I have a couple of other websites but The Gardening Register is the one which takes most of my time.
Ashfield Allotments is just round the corner from my mum’s house. My brother, Allan, has wanted an allotment for quite some time and was extremely pleased when Ashfield offered him the half plot, no. 12, back in June 2009. It took quite some time to begin growing produce but once the greenhouse and raised beds were built we were able to begin planting and this year we have had potatoes, broadbeans, sprouts, onions, carrots and more. We’ve still got a lot to do but we’re pleased with progress so far. Here are a few photos I’ve taken over the months up to July 2010:
When Allan heard that Ashfield needed a new website building he told me and I got in touch with Lol who gave me the go ahead. Here’s how it was done.
First the techie bit; the website is hosted by Netcetera who also host my other websites, they are a reliable host and the websites are rarely down. It has been built using WordPress which is a free web software built by hundreds of volunteers and runs with the help of themes and plugins.
I use the Lifestyle Theme from StudioPress by Brian Gardner. I love this theme because it is simple to use and customise and it incorporates Featured Content Gallery for rotating photographs.
My first job in building the website was to get all the information off the old site before the domain was lost forever, this done I was able to give some thought to the colours and layout. I think the colours I have chosen fit in well as they are earthy but cheerful and the layout is easy to follow, showing off the site photographs very well.
Once the design was done I then began to produce the pages and add the photographs. All the photographs are in the Gallery section and these will be added too throughout the coming months and years. If you have any photographs of the allotments send them through by emailing ashfieldallotments@gmail.com and once they are approved by the committee I will load them to the site.
Documents including Newsletters and Committee Minutes can be found in the righthand column and can be downloaded with Adobe.
I hope you enjoy the new website and feel free to leave me your comments below.