Mother Natures' bounty

Here folks, are some pics of our allotment. We actually have 1 and a half one, but technically the half is mine.

We took over our allotment about 5 years ago now, and this is how it looked when we enthusiastically started work on it.


As you can see, it was BIG! It SEEMED endless when we rolled up, unloaded the spade, fork etc and stood looking at it, wondering what on EARTH we were doing!

It had been used as a dumping ground for a while, as you can see from the redundant pond left there.


THAT proved very useful for covering areas to get them weed free and ready to dig. But pond shaped beds don't really work too well, so we needed to sort that out. Eventually, we did, and soon our first bed appeared, helped along by the wonderful Adrian, who dug and dug and dug.




THE most useful piece of information we were given by established allotmenteeres, was to take it slowly, dig a bit at a time, plant SOMETHING in it, and then move onto the next. It is VERY VERY daunting to see all that space waiting to be cleared and dug, and over the years we have seen SO many people come along like we did, unload all the tools, dig and weed furiously for a whole weekend, and then not come back for a few weeks, take one look at the weeds, and walk off despondently, never to be seen again.

THAT is so sad, as the allotment is one of the joys in our life. It is also one of the pains, the flaming weeds just grow and grow, as does the grass, and you HAVE to keep on top of it. The end rewards though, FRESH, untainted, no food miles fruit and veg...well once you try it you'll never want to eat supermarket stuff again!

The other tip that we always pass on, is only grow things you KNOW you'll eat, no point in growing a whole bed of celery if you hate the stuff.

The weather can be frustrating too, this year we got our spuds in late, mid way through April, because it was just too wet, the lottie is slightly below the water table, and though dry on top, it was mud city 6 inches down, can't plant anything in that.

They are coming along nicely now though, and this year we hope to keep ourselves in fresh fruit and veg all year. I have a poly tunnel on my plot and we are hoping to keep quite a few things going throughout the year in there as well.

This pic isn't from this season, but it DOES show the plot about 3 months after the pic of Adrian wielding his spade!



Having watched The 11th Hour last night, I am even more convinced that growing our own veg is the only way to go. IF we had more land, we'd have animals as well, and YES for food. We have the chooks in the garden, but we REALLY do want to be self sufficient in everything.

Until then, we will continue to work on the lottie, to grow our food, to dig and get backache, watch the weeds grow, and est THE best tasting veg we have EVER eaten!