I remember, about 20 years ago, a friend of ours announced that he was 'just off to tend the allotment...' Showing a decidedly shallow side of our nature both my Man and I howled with laughter... 'An allotment??!!' It conjured up images of old geezers in flat caps, with sheds and nicely polished garden forks.As, at the time, we were all working in casinos still and leading the life of fast living, champagne drinking singletons, it was hard for us to understand the appeal of... veg growing.
So it is quite ironic that this afternoon I am heading off to sign the paperwork on my own allotment. I am not going to be wearing tweed in future and, to be honest, the chances of me having highly polished tools is about as likely as my son tidying his bedroom.
In my head I have a vision of a nice neat plot of chocolate coloured soil, separated by lovely wicker fencelets. In a corner of the plot I imagine a shed painted duck egg blue, in which I will sit and drink tea.There will be no weeds on my allotment, obviously.I may occasionally take a cast iron skillet along and fry garlicky potatoes to eat there and then with freshly picked salad leaves...
In reality I can see myself cursing the day I signed up for the thing.I would imagine there will be huge amounts of weeds and any veg will be small and infested with ghastly bugs that you just don't get in Waitrose produce... I can see the boys groaning as I try to persuade them to come and spend an afternoon digging and weeding with me. If they moan too much I can see them ending up buried up there along with the veg.
Why am I getting an allotment? Well, I could tell you that I want to live off the land in an organic paradise. I could tell you that I want to bond with my family and share the delights of gardening with them.Unfortunately the only truth I can tell you is that it seemed like a good idea at the time...
6 comments:
I can picture you now, eating your veggies with the gusto of Jamie Oliver at his farm. I think you needto journal it with pretty pictures like he does.!
Have a great weeekend.
You shall now learn why fresh vegtables are so expensive.
You will learn why the food tastes so good when grown by you.
You will also learn, gardening is never easy but there is a contentment and peacefullness in the doing.
You will hear the pride and the triumph ring in your voice when you say, I grew it myself.
Being from the states I had no idea what an allotment is, thanks for explaining. I'm thinking it might be similar to a community garden here but I could be wrong.
You may be surprised at your gardening abilities. I kill every household plant I've ever had but I could grow some kick butt vegies. My garden is what I miss most about moving back into an apartment after owning my own home.
Hi! I have set up a new page just about my allotment. I can't tell you how excited I am!! Allotments are areas of public land set aside for local people. You pay a small rent to have the plot and you must maintain it. You can grow fruit and veg and they are generally used by townsfolk who don't have land of their own for growing food.They are growing ( no pun intended! ) more & more popular over here. xx
Yes, you can wear lip gloss while gardening! And nail polish, too! Just wear garden gloves! It's funny how we change as we get older. I would have NEVER wanted to grow vegtables when I was 20!
~Lynn
Hi Lynn - love the name of your blog!! I plan on being a very glamorous allotment holder... well, maybe not, but lip gloss is de rigeuer in my house! Thanks for coming over and commenting! S
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