Page 56 - ALG Issue 3 2014

Us and our allotment plot...
About five years or so ago my wife June casually mentioned that she would like to have an allotment. I agreed as I have always been very interested in gardening myself. We started the wheels in motion by putting our name down at three Coventry allotment sites.
After about a year we had a telephone call from Peter at the Spring Valley Allotment Society; he offered us a half plot, and after viewing it we accepted.
The allotment had been looked after quite nicely and had a nice fruit section; however, we decided to dig out quite a few fruits and replace them with our own choice. We also inherited a beautiful mature asparagus bed.
We purchased a 7x5 shed and also a small greenhouse and
erected it just in front of the
shed; with the addition of
We worked hard the first year, planting and labelling everything, the thinking being that if it didn’t have a label on it, it must be a weed.
Everyone at Spring Valley are so helpful; if we have a problem or a query we only have to ask and help is there. Whether it’s identifying an unknown creepy crawly or finding out what’s eating the cabbage leaf, nothing is too much trouble.
We planted the usual crops, potatoes, earlies, and main crop. Onions, runner beans, broad beans, peppers, cauliflower, shallots, sweetcorn, you name it we planted it, not forgetting the label complete with the variety.
There are some great energy saving tools out there and we found
and
lots
of other
produce.
We had so much
that we bought a new freezer to cope.
We found our friends started shunning us in case we offered them some tomatoes or runner beans; however, everyone wanted the asparagus; it really is beautiful.
As we passed the allotment notice board one morning we saw a new poster and stopped to read it.....................I nearly passed out to learn that June and
I had come first in the allotment half plot competition! (Now I understood who the mystery man with the clipboard was). It really was a surprise as we had only been on the site for about a year.
We found out later that the competition is judged twice a year and we had won both judgments, winning the outright prize of a trophy and a gift voucher.
So, not only had my wife and I enjoyed the company of all the wonderful helpful characters that make up our allotment at Spring Valley in Coventry, we had kept ourselves reasonably fit and saved a fortune by producing good wholesome and tasty produce.
June & John Miles Coventry
a polycarbonate porch, it makes a very nice relaxation area, especially when it rains.
It was time to start gathering the fruits of our labour
some at our local garden centre. My favourites being the soil-tiller and the ridger; they really do save our backs.
One morning we arrived at the allotment to see a gentleman with a clipboard wandering around; we didn’t pay much attention to him; I
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put it down to the usual health and safety inspection of the plots.
It was time to start gathering the fruits of our labour, and we were surprised how different the produce tasted compared
to the stuff in the supermarket that had travelled half way around the world to get to us.
We started saving jam jars like there was no tomorrow and when we had enough we started pickling our shallots and beetroot in with white vinegar, water with a few black peppercorns added. Runner beans were frozen as were the broad beans, cabbage