Our Allotment

 After a cold, grotty winter, it was time to return to the allotment, assess the beds and decide how to progress. After last years bumper crop of beautifully sweet, juicy strawberries, they were most definitely a priority. Same for early and late cropping potatoes and onions. Broad beans were a success too, as were peas, beetroot, leeks, beans, kale. The failures (ones to work on this year) were cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, broccolli. Better get a move on then!

Potatoes in the forground, and onions.

 First mammoth task: Weeding. I actually love this part. Pulling up all the old dead plants, removing the twitch root, turning the soil over and then looking back at what you've achieved. Then we sowed onions and garlic. Not such a great task - pretty back-breaking and because there's no immediate visual achievement, not such a great reward. But over the weeks they have been sprouting beautifully, so there's a lesson in patience. We have five large beds, four of which are active, so the weeding is pretty constant. More crops have been planted and we have to hope that the frost has gone for good and that we get equal quantities of rain and glorious sunshine now!


 The allotment is a beautiful oasis in our city habitat. On a slope over-looking much of the city, on the edge of a peaceful estate, it gives us a sense of space and tranquility.


 We had erected a shed towards the end of last year and on our return in the spring, it was a case of furnishing it with useful storage. It has all the necessary equipment for a clean existence in a muddy den where kids are concerned (soap, towels, running water), a camping stove & kettle (essential) and organised chaos for the various gardening implements, oh, and chairs of course. The weekend paper always makes it down for when the weeding has beaten me and the odd cheeky bottle of beer makes it a very pleasant place to escape to. There is a communal area with fruit trees and a bench where the kids can sit and play and it being an enclosed, private place, they can run about to their hearts content.

 We are all happy at the allotment!