A lot has changed since then. We’ve got married and have a little boy called Fenn for a start, and then last week, after a three and a half year wait we had a phone call letting us know that we had a half plot at the local allotment. To say this made us happy would be an understatement.
Saturday morning straight after Fenn’s swimming lesson we headed over to the allotments to meet Brian who was to show us around, and more importantly our new plot of land.Well we had struck gold. You hear of these horror stories of people inheriting a jungle of brambles, and shoulder high weeds when they take on an allotment. Well the gardening gods were shining on us, our plot was used up until the autumn, and pretty much just needs digging and some good compost added before we can start growing some goodies.
We have been itching to get our hands on an allotment for years now, and although the small patch of garden we had turned over to a veggie patch was great, it never really allowed us to grow more than a few spuds, courgettes and beans. We were hankering for more space, and finally we have it!
As we were marvelling at the newly acquired plot, and dreaming of fresh greens, chunky soups and eating fruit straight from the bush, the spirit of the allotment sprung into life. We met one of our neighbours, a veteran to the scene having worked his ground for the last 30 years. “A fool learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from other people’s mistakes” he said, “And I’ve made a few, so if there is anything you want to know just ask”, and that seemed to be the general spirit of the place. People were very friendly, and inviting to this new couple clutching a young baby, and I can see that the socialising will be as much a part of allotment life as the gardening will be.
We retuned the following day with our welly boots and forks after dropping Fenn off at his Granma’s house and digging commenced. Our plot roughly measured 60 by 20 feet and needed turning over and the grass and weeds removed. It gave us a good chance to take a look at what we really had inherited. There are three rhubarb plants that have been left behind which is superb as the one we had in the garden didn’t survive the snow of last year. There are what look like some fruit canes at one end of the plot, so hopefully one of our neighbours will be able to identify them.We also have a couple of homemade compost bins that have been made from wooden pallets. The compost in them is not actually compost yet, so we will have to see if we can get our hands on a lot of well-rotted horse manure over the next couple of weeks.
We managed to turn over about a third of the plot in a couple of hours. It was very quiet on the allotment today with just a few people showing their faces, mainly to harvest some winter vegetables before getting in their cars and going home. Hopefully that will be us next year!
We promise to update again soon!
Matt, Philly and Fenn
I'm so jealous you have an allotment.....Can't wait to see this grow.
ReplyDelete:)