Its time for another entry to the 500 Words A Day Community. I'm going to use this post as an opportunity to give a brief overview of our allotment, and hopefully I'll update this series weekly (or fortnightly at least) and share the progress of the allotment throughout the seasons.
For anyone who isnt aware (I know there is potentially an international audience), an allotment is an area of ground set asside for local communities to use to grow their own fruit and vegetables. They are dotted around all over the country and, depending on your location, there can be pretty lengthy waiting lists to get your own plot.
image taken today, currently a work in progress
We have lived in this village for 6 years now, and 3 years ago we looked into the local allotment to see if there were any empty plots available. The lady who ran the group said there were several available for the princely sum of £12.
"£12 per month? For our own plot of land, thats not bad..." I said.
"Er no, its £12 per year" She replied.
I couldn't believe how cheap it was!
There were a selection of plots available, all of which looked a bit ropey, and requiring a bit of work. We picked the one that looked the easiest to set-up and got to work.
The plot was a long (really, really long) strip of land, approx 5 metres wide and 30 metres long. In that first year we just cleared a small section on one end, and planted all sorts: tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans, potatoes and more.
In actuality, it turns out that maintaining an allotment is bloody hard work, and requires constant weeding, watering and general poking about. In short, in the first few years we struggled. The biggest problem was time. We both have nearly full time hours, so its hard to fit it in, let alone all the other stuff we want to do.
The other problem was storage. The plot of land we picked didn't have a Shed, and that became more and more frustrating as the time went on. Lack of storage meant we couldn't leave tools on site, and had to transport them back and forth. This resulted in unnecessary extra journeys to go back and pick up extra tools, and frustrations when we went to water the plants, and didn't have a hoe or secateurs to hand to deal with weeds or brambles.
That changed earlier this year.
We had heard a local resident wanted to get rid of her old shed. We had a quick look round it and decided it was in good enough condition to warrant taking apart and moving to our plot. It took 2 days of shouting and cursing with a hammer to carefully take it apart. We only needed to move the whole thing 500 yards... it doesn't sound that far does it?
Wrong!
Carrying a 6 foot by 8 foot shed panel feels like miles! An hour later we arrived at the allotment, in a puddle of sweat. This won't do. A quick phone call summoned a Man with a Van, who collected it and delivered it in 30 minutes. 25 quid, job done.
Next we laid slabs for the base, and my Dad came and helped us put it all back together (he does like to feel useful!) A quick coat of paint, and it looks good as new, and certainly better than some of the shacks passing for sheds on some of the other plots
And this means we now have a place to store a selection of basic tools, nothing expensive of course, the shed can be locked but its not that secure. That storage will make it easier to maintain the plot, and keep on top of the weeds, and hopefully turn it into something to be proud of.
Lets see what we have growing at the moment in amongst the weeds...
On the right side here (tied to the canes for support) are the tomatoes, on the ground in front of that are a variety of Pumpkins and Squash. The large bush on the left hand side are Raspberries, which are just beginning to ripen
On the other side is the first of many Pumpkins!
This large green thing is a Marrow...
...and this is one of the first tomato fruits, not ripe yet of course
The never ending and soul destroying task of watering...
my partner checking out some of the wildflowers on our plot
The plot of land we have is actually pretty big, so the plan is to manage one half to produce vegetables, and the other half will be managed for the benefit of wildlife, which means leaving the stinging nettles in, and some of the other wildflowers that are already established. There are Hedgehogs on the site, so we will leave a section overgrown so they have shelter if they need it.
But one of our first jobs is to take out most of these clump of brambles. The plant has a tendency to smother everything else and take over, so we need to drastically cut it back and allow other plants to shine. We know that buried in there is a very young tree and a Buddleia plant which we need to not damage in the process
I hope to turn these Allotment posts into a fairly regular thing on this blog, so fingers crossed I will be able to share the results of this soon. It will also help to motivate me to keep working on it, bit by bit, day by day... wish me luck!