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As part of my slide into being a non working person I have requested a village allotment. Much to my surprise there isn't a 12 year waiting list, small plots are available, and the very helpful lady is going to arrange a suitable plot for me in January.
It will either be a disaster or not, I will advise in due course, I plan spuds, greens, and easy stuff to start off, progressing to exotica later on.
Photos and narrative to follow.

When I was single, in the RAF I made one of them to my mother!

Allotments were fabulous places in my childhood time. Post WWII rationing still in place, but lots of fruit and vegies at minimal cost.

For those familiar with Nottingham. Idly wandering around Nottingham on Google Earth and I found where we had an allotment. It was off St Anns Well Road, some distance up to the left coming from Slab Square direction. They were known in the early '50's as Hungerhill Rd Allotments.

I specifically remember walking up there in late Autumn with a tea chest on a set of pram wheels and frame, where we would fill the chest with apples and pears. We had four or five fruit trees on the allotment which always had lots of fruit. We used to pass a large fresh produce market on the way back. Vague suspicion they were Sneinton markets, but not sure. Do remember trading with one of the stalls, some of our apples for some of their raspberries. I am sure they did much better out of the deal than we did. Hey we were just kids, but the raspberries were nice, and scoffed in their entirety before we got home.

The funny bit is, only a few days previous we had collected a tea chest full of coke from the gas works on London Road using the same perambulating tea chest. We wouldn't have cleaned it out afterwards either. The coke was probably sterile.

We used to get "Christmas pears" - Comis pears?, which, when just picked, were so hard you'd break your teeth trying to bite them. But put them in a bottom drawer for a couple of months and by Christmas they would be perfect. Having the allotment was one of the few occasions when as a kid we weren't always hungry.

Alison
PS. A bit of trivia. Hungerhill allotments have heritage status. Apparently they have been there for a very long time indeed.

Nottingham has a long history of allotment gardening. The St Anns Allotments are the oldest and largest detached town gardens in Britain, possibly the world. Their unique history and heritage has been recognised and it is a Grade 2* listed site.

Hungerhill Gardens, St Anns. This area has been used by people for more than 600 years. By the 1840s the site was established as ‘pleasure gardens’ to provide space and an opportunity for those who lived in the city to grow their own food and to escape the confines of urban life.

Although the size has changed slightly over time, the gardens are still in their original 1830s layout. There are 670 individual gardens on three connected sites: Hungerhill Gardens, Stonepit Coppice Gardens and Gorsey Close Gardens.

As a lad on Teesside, I remember the allotments besides producing the vegetables, they were the sites of all the pigeon coops.

I attended the AGM of the village allotment regiment this morning, objective to secure an available plot.
The meeting was very interesting, the allotmentees are in the main local Dorset working men, some cohabiting a plot with their wives, and the various pressing topics were of a business like nature concerning the upkeep of the site.
The interesting bit was a rather eccentric French lady introducing less practical matters to the agenda, this included a 25 minute lecture on the effects of using roundup including the destruction of our livers and the adverse effects on our urine, this based on research from various Calefornian universities.
Eventually a large man with a purple face told her to go and find an allotment somewhere else if she didn't like it, I did feel sorry for her.
Yet to be allocated a plot as there appears to be uncertainty about boundaries and which ones are in actual use, I think it will be interesting.

When I did sociology we used St Anne’s as a study case. Oooo er missus!!! Still, you made good

Stood in the driving rain with the allotment lady this morning, on her recommendation I think I have chosen well, a medium sized plot next to the edge of the site, close to the tap, but off the beaten track, superb view of the valley, discreetly screened by some raspberry canes.
The actual plot is under thick black rubber matting with old tyres and bits of wood on top, has been fallow for several years.
First job is get the strimmer out to trim a path way, then peel back the matting and see what we have.
Once the rain eases I shall take photos and post.
Can't wait to get stuck in.

Om, the soil should be superb once you get the matting off. Read a hundred years ago, that covering soil beds with thick black plastic weighed down by heavy objects and left for a while causes all the weed seeds to propagate from the induced heat and then they die off. Leaving completely weed-free beds ready for all your vegie plantings. Probably just need to turn the soil over.

Alison

And couch!

PN, is that coouch - the grass stuff that's a pain in the ... or cowch - the thing you lie on to watch others grafting in the garden.

Alison

Have you got an old railway carriage lined up?

We have all heard harrowing stories of the most strict allotment rules, no this, no that, you will be relieved to learn that the Allotment Association in my village hold no truck with any of that, as far as I can understand in the inexact terms of my tenancy I am expected not to annoy anybody, be advised that most neighbours don't really like the use of insecticides and if I had a dog make sure that it doesn't make a mess.

I am permitted/ encouraged to ignore all EU Directives applicable to allotments, have bonfires, grow anything I fancy, have piss-ups, erect sheds, greenhouses, compost heaps, have BBQs, be as untidy and organic as I choose.

Here is the Plot,



This is now mine for the annual rental of twelve pounds ten shillings, with an annual ten quid charge for as much water as I need.

If anyone can think of a better way to spend the summer than sitting on an old plastic chair reading motorbike magazines and drinking cider/lager/Badger with like minded individuals, let me know.
This is the location.

£12-10-00?

You might have trouble finding a ten bob note!

Best of luck.

Had a few hours digging this morning, will aim to do two hours a day, weather permitting, had an area of grass which was hard work, double dug laying the sod upside down at the bottom.
Was checked out by the old hands, my plans, make of spade, my background, all discreetly reviewed, but got some gen in return, the plot has been fallow for 3 years or so, prior to that a local thatcher used the plot to burn thatch. The soil is jet black, very workable and, good sign, full of massive worms, so early indications are that I am on to a winner.
Digging against the clock, aim to have the whole plot dug and lightly manured within 30 days.

Sounds as if you have some great soil there OM. And a nice view. Four years ago I (personally) took on the task of clearing our 1/2 acre area of bush land out the back to grow fruit and veg. I chopped down and burnt trees, bushes and high grass. It was snake city. It is just sand. The acacia tree leaves do put nitrogen into he ground though. Since I cleared it the gardeners have been doing most of the work. We dig in compost and cow dung, of which we have tons, into the beds and I buy fertiliser. From bare bush 4 years on we have, lemons, oranges (not producing yet), clementines (not producing yet), bananas, plantains, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, onions (failure), rape, marrows, courgettes, tomatoes (fantastic) and beans (just gone in). We have all sorts of problems with animals and bugs. Thus the shade netting. Constant watering of course, but fun.

Wish I had taken photographs of the 'before'.

That looks a task Ex A, different challenges to the UK I bet.
I have horse manure which I am digging in as I go, but I found that seaweed is pretty good, in the autumn the storms at sea tend to drag up seaweed along the Fleet and deposit around the shore line at Lyme Regis, although a pretty disgusting job and the aroma lingers in the car, it is good for the plants.
Onions don't like fresh rich manure, they should do well in poorish soil with a handful of feed, don't water once they start to swell.
I have just had another couple of hours up there, have now dug over about 50% of the plot, next bit is going to be more difficult, beneath the tyres, plastic and bits of wood there appear to be loads of dead, dormant, life expired fruit bushes that will need to be dug out and disposed of somehow.
Couldn't see if your gardeners fancy a bit of overtime at weekends maybe.

Bit of a shortage of seaweed here. Used to do really well with onion sets in the UK but can't get them here so had to use seeds. The estate manager was planting them about 6' under. After he left I got the gardener to plant extremely shallow and they grew but he keeps watering with a jet like a fire hose and has washed them out of the ground. These guys only have two settings for anything, off or full blast. Just like their music.

No probs with the labour. How many to you want. 10, 20,100? Bit expensive at 75p an hour though. And, that is double the minimum wage.

That's very civil Ex A, problem is it is rather pricy on my pension, and the spectacle of a dozen Botswanans toiling on my plot may cause distress to the fellow allotementees, who I am beginning to think may be confirmed traditionalists.
I have sweet corn, peppers, cucumbers seeds in the airing cupboard, red onions, shallots, garlic and onions to go in later on at the end of the month.
First earlies, second earlies and main crop spuds are lying about on my workbench covered in sawdust, old paint brushes and so on, instructed to chit ready for March planting.

Bought what we thought were marrow seeds. It had a photo of marrows but said squash. Though that perhaps the SAs called anything of this sort squashes. They are producing both, on different plants of course.

Right, going to have a bash at carrots. Supposed to be sandy soil. We are in the desert. Supposed to be cool. We are in the desert. No compost or nitrogen. Our beds are under acacia trees the leaves of which are rich in nitrogen. Well we will see. We will put the seeds in, in the winter. Just harvested three huge marrows. The squashes are doing well. Toms and peppers just about over. With the rains the sweet pots are spreading like mad. Bought a new small spade for the gardener today. No jokes please. He is very pleased. They sold spades separately or paired up with a fork. It says 'camping spade'. Who takes a garden fork camping?