The Three Allotmenteers

More and more people are getting allotments – but how difficult is it for those starting out? Three novices have taken on a plot at the St Ann’s allotments, and have agreed to keep an online blog for the Evening Post. KATE BRUDENELL (left) explains how they are getting on

Allotments. They’re all the rage. If you’d told me five years ago that I’d be sharing 740 square yards of prime St Ann’s turf, I’d have tottered slightly, raised a quizzical brow and told you that it sounded a bit too much like hard work.

Indeed, when I told my supportive older brother that I was to write a blog about our allotment, he spluttered: “Blog? Blag more like!”
The first thing that happens when you get an allotment, is that people start buying you thermos flasks. I got two for Christmas and one for my birthday, so I now consider myself adequately tooled up in the keeping hot liquids hot department.

The second thing that happens when you get an allotment is that everyone asks you to grow their favourite vegetable.

The third thing that happens, is that it soon becomes clear that, in spite of your promise that you will indeed strive to grow their favourite vegetable, their enthusiasm for some hearty home-grown goodness does not extend to a reciprocal popping down to lend you a hand for the afternoon. You know who you are.

Three of us share “the land” (as we refer to our allotment; it makes us feel grand). I don’t think any of us were aware of one another’s allotment-related day dreaming before the silence was broken last October, when Katy and I both confessed to having a hankering for a bit on the horticultural side. When James said he was interested in taking on an allotment too, our fate was sealed.

Before any of us could change our minds, we swiftly held an Allotment Summit Meeting in the public house of our choice (the Golden Fleece), agreed that the faded glamour of Grade-II listed St Ann’s Allotments – the patchwork on the hill off Hungerhill Road – was our preferred choice and pored over the plans of the available plots.

After some highly technical discussions about which plot was the biggest and closest to the car park, we identified the fuzzy little patch on the map that we wanted, highlighted it and arranged to pay it a visit.

At this point in proceedings, my conscience tells me that we probably owe somebody an apology. It turned out that “our” plot was actually already taken, but we didn’t realise this minor setback until after we had scurried all over it, been excited by the quaintness of the little house/shed on it (oh, it had a lovely little chimney and everything) and planned exactly what we’d do with it. Sorry, comrades.

After a week or so of uncertainty as to which plot we could actually have, we ended up securing the patch it turned out we were looking for in the first place. Some of the allotments share the same number, depending on where they are on the site. We got there in the end.

Typically, we all reacted in our own special little way when we were handed the keys to the land. Katy consulted her allotment guru at work and immediately placed an order for organic seeds. Our very own little bonfire enthusiast James invested in some lighter fluid and matches, and I bought some wax crayons and nice paper so that we could draw a plan of our patch.

It can be a bit intimidating actually, St Ann’s Allotments, but in an inspiring way. It’s sobering seeing the neat compartments, raised beds and serious sheddage of the plots that belong to the people-who-know-what- they’re-doing. But, I guess they had to learn at some point too and that’s what we want to share with this blog.

Which all brings me around to wishing you a very warm welcome to the Allotment Blog, from Katy, James and I. We’re only just starting out as allotmenteers, so we’ll make mistakes, which you should feel free to laugh at. We will. But we also hope that you’ll enjoy reading about how we transform the said 740 square yards of overgrown, rubbish-strewn mess – anybody need two manky old bath tubs? - into something that we can be proud of. but produces some pretty big vegetables to boot!