Community Allotmenting – War or Peace?
One of the plots adjacent to mine is run on a community basis and I find it fascinating to see how well it flourishes. I would expect utter chaos but it’s a very well ordered plot. I haven’t spotted a Gantt chart pinned up on the shed wall with tasks and timelines allocated to individuals and I’ve never seen them huddled round a cuppa holding secretive planning meetings.
Last weekend though, G wandered over to my plot with a half eaten tuber in her hand. She was digging over an empty bed and unearthed what she thought was a Jerusalem artichoke, after rubbing it on her trousers she popped it in her mouth and gnawed off half it. It’s at that point she discovered it wasn’t actually edible so wandered over to seek my help in its identification. Turns out she was trying to enjoy M’s Dahlia collection.
She quickly went back and reburied the tuber and patted down the evidence of the freshly turned over soil but I have an inkling that she’ll be caught out when M gets back from his holidays.
As you know my parents visited a fortnight ago, after tea on Sunday, Dad and I cycled over to the lotty to see what we could achieve in the last remaining hour of daylight. Working in the same tiny section of the plot (a 4m row), we set off almost shoulder to shoulder, planting our respective crops. Dad stuck in a load of sweetcorn seeds and I popped in 3 tomato plants and just in front of these went the 3 heritage potatoes that we’d saved from lunch (prior to cooking of course).
I marked the spuds with 3 quite impressive hillocks but yesterday while I was down there, I could find no sign of my potato mounds. Instead though, I found a scattering of swede seedlings. Under interrogation my Dad admitted to seeing the potato hillocks but assumed they were just evidence of poor cultivation. He had flattened them out and sown his seed on top!
I will forgive him this once as he also put in a row of carrots and these have actually germinated, which is great news as my most expensive carrot in the world appears to have disappeared.
While on the subject of my Dad, I have to sneak in a photo of his rather substantial cauliflower. He dug this up before he came down and it fed 4 of us for 3 days.
That is my kind of vegetable, so I’ve been quick to gets some seeds in.
Ah…the perils of not labelling.
Perhaps your carrot has been kidnapped and held to ransom.
What has happened to the carrot? Surely not a gourmet eating rabbit…?
Still at least you have your dad to, hopefully, save the day. Just keep those carrot seedlings away from the root fly and you should be ok.
Fingers crossed!
Where did the carrot go???
That Cauli looks good….I was given two from my friends allotment, and they were really tasty.
Cauliflower cheese is a favourite of mine, esp as I don’t eat meat.
I haven’t sent out a search party yet, but I’ll remove the meshing during the week and look for clues.
Will keep you informed.
Allotment life looks like a lot of fun. Plus all the space to grow loads of different things! That cauliflower looks incredible, might try to grow one next year (don’t have space this year unfortunately). I’m with Cheryl on this one, cauliflower cheese rocks.