Page 53 - ALG 1.21

I let the earthworms do my digging
words of a song, that sings of an ancient hope:
“Everyone ‘neath their vine and fig tree, shall live in peace and unafraid.”
Flourishing global allotments in Leicester, of people and plants from all over the world, make this hope real.
Andrew Bolton
Bamboozle at Rowley Fields
We at Rowley Fields have enabled Bamboozle, an arts group, working with children and young people who might be described as having profound and multiple learning disabilities
and their families, to deliver a pilot project of socially distanced outdoor performances of their production Down to Earth. They utilised an under- used outside area of the site and made use of
our large building/shed which has been used as a venue for school and groups for education and social use to provide comfort facilities.
The Down to Earth show evokes the atmosphere of a WWII allotment site using multi-sensory mix of live music, puppetry, and movement. Family groups are welcomed warmly by allotment keeper Arthur, and Land Girls Betty, Doris and Mavis who proudly show you their vegetable garden. The families help the Land Girls on
the allotment packing food boxes with fruit, vegetables and herbs and get to take them home!
After the work is done the children are invited to dance from their wheelchairs as Betty dreams of being a star on the silver screen! A mischievous mole arrives, who causes mess and mayhem, and when the air raid siren sounds, all move
into a magical forest to shelter. In the forest we encounter bees buzzing around their hives, and can taste the honey they have produced. For the adventurous, there’s also the opportunity to get stuck in and have hands or feet buried in compost!
'No dig' Julie
and a half years. She mulches paths with wood chips and planting areas with straw to keep the weeds down. She is inspired by ‘No Dig’ Charles Dowding
– an organic vegetable growing guru.
“It looks good!” I admit. She says with a grin: “I let the earthworms do my digging.”
Belgrave Allotment Society has gardeners from many nations as well as those born and bred in Leicester. Gardeners are from all over, cultivating plants from the global garden. I think of where our garden plants come from originally – they are all immigrants to these islands:
Sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes, French and runner beans, sunflowers, marigolds and dahlias from the Americas.
From the Mediterranean, Middle East
Julia's plot – white maize sunflowers
and N. Africa: leeks, beetroots, Swiss chard, broad beans, peas, lettuce, and spinach.
Raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, parsnips, carrots, brassicas, and pansies from nearer home in Europe but stretching to Asia. Apples, pears, plums, cherries come from East European mountains, Kazakhstan, and China.
Cucumbers are a gift from India. Chrysanthemums are a beautiful present originally from China, but with also the contributions of over a thousand years of breeding in Japan. Comfrey is given to us with love from Russia.
Allotment gardening is a language spoken, in different dialects, on a common earth. It’s a language that brings us together, brings us home, wherever we come from. I think of the
Rhoda
Soni
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 53