Down on the allotment

Recently I have taken on an allotment. It’s in the small town next to us, about a five minute drive away – I put my name down on for all the allotments in our town, and the next, because I was told it would be about a three year wait (!!!) for allotments here. Back in February, when I’d given up all hope on the allotment front, I received an email from the council and went to visit a couple of allotments that had become available. For a start, the plots were a lot larger than I imagined the would be – a full plot is 250 square metres!! The first plot I was shown was overgrown and had been unloved for over a year – this one filled me with fear, I just didn’t have the time to sort it out. The next looked more manageable, so I signed up and I now have an additional 125 square metres in which to grow.

my new allotment

There are a lot of raspberry canes at the bottom of the plot, in amongst the rubbish.

raspberry canes and rubbish

And quite a lot of rubarb. It’s quite exciting to be given a plot that already has things growing on it.

rubarb coming through the weeds

A couple of weeks after I’d taken it on and still hadn’t been down to do any digging, I was beginning to think I’d taken on too much. I finally managed to spend a couple of hours there on Monday last week and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

freshly dug raised bed

I dug over a number of the raised beds that were left by the previous owner, and put in all my garlic and shallots, and half the onions I’d bought.

rows of garlic, shallots and onions

N dropped in on his way home from work on Friday afternoon to check that they hadn’t been decimated by some naughty bunnies (wild ones, not the cheeky pets this time), birds or mice. They were fine – thank goodness! – and still sat neatly in their lines. I’ve never grown shallots or onions before, so I shall keep you posted with how they go. I adore all things onion-ey and couldn’t live without them in my kitchen, so I am looking forward to the day in autumn when I can (hopefully!) cook some of them. Garlic I haven’t had much luck with in the past, so fingers-crossed I’ll do better this year. If anybody has any garlic growing tips – please leave me a message in the comments as I would love any help I can get!