The allotment’s been a real ongoing labour of love. It’s hard work keeping on top of the weeds, watering and general maintenance, but by God, when you sit down to a meal made of home grown veg, freshly picked and bursting with nutrients and flavour it’s so worth it.
When I took on the plot in the summer of 2013 it was an overgrown mess. The whole plot was covered in knee high grass and weeds, the hedges took up 6 feet of the available space and the shed was falling down. The ground was so hard and compacted that I spent days breaking it up with a pickaxe before I could even get a fork in it!
As I often say to people though, you don’t eat all the veg in one go, so you don’t have to dig the whole plot in one go. Over the winter of 2013 I finished the digging, laid paths and generally plodded on. In the new year of 2014, I managed to score a free 8’x 6’ greenhouse (I just had to go and remove it from someone’s garden) and get it reassembled prior to the growing season kicking off.
Since then there’s been no looking back. We’ve been pretty much self-sufficient in vegetables for most of the year. It’s still hard work, but so satisfying that it never seems like it. Somethings grow well, somethings don’t, some years the weathers good, other years its not, but overall, it’s all positive and I wouldn’t be without my plot!
August 2013 - That's going to take some digging!
March 2021, making use of the old slabs from "Project Patio" - I think you'll agree that it looks a bit different to 2013 - My little piece of heaven!
Relevant Blog Posts; There's too many to list here, although unfortunately most of the big jobs were Pre Blog. Most weeks post's have some reference to the Allotment in some way, shape or form though. Whether that be cooking allotment grown vegetables, sowing seeds, harvesting veg or just generally pottering around!