Page 48 - ALG Issue 4 2018

Plotter’s Pumpkin Paradise
I would say we’ve got a good thing going down on Queensway Allotments. Our 140 plots are situated in Waterloo, north of Liverpool, backed onto the amazing green space of Rimrose Valley, and a mile away from Sefton’s coast and Anthony Gormley’s iron men installation.
Our steel grey railings are the façade
for many, tiny pieces of heaven. Our well attended social events (there were over 200 people at this year’s barbecue!) range from an Easter treasure hunt, afternoon teas,
hot pot suppers, and competitions such
as tallest sunflowers, longest carrots and heaviest pumpkins, all arouse discussion around the pavilion table on a Sunday morning.
We’re lucky enough to have a log cabin style pavilion containing a small shop, a library of gardening books, a toilet and a kitchen area for cuppas, open every Sunday from 11-12am. This was sourced in the
80s from European funding. As a self- managed site, we’ve secured an accessible loo, beehives, running water, car parks, an accessible plot, and we have a community plot run by Sefton Green Gym. Hence our waiting list is 6 years long at the moment!
One of our committee members sells pumpkin seedlings in the spring; you can buy one or chance your own. Then we get secretive coverings of bubble wrap, edged by glass or wrapped in fleece. Most of us
Queensway pumpkin growers 2016
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Pumpkin carved
Small crop 2015
Mike winning 2009
Front gate
Pumpkin in echo
have a little (or enormous) patch that we’re not showing off to visitors. Trying to water every day and feeding once a week with a homegrown comfrey or nettle tea... things start getting technical. Bearing in mind the largest is usually sought after by a local restaurant for display, the owner gets a meal for two in exchange. The local youth groups show an interest in the competition and usually end up with hours of fun climbing
in and out of a hollowed-out pumpkin. We’ve even had a few in the local press. The Sunday before Halloween is when it
all happens. The van drivers go around
the site collecting them all up; the scale is tested and a ton bag is ready for dangling off the porch rafter where the industrial- sized hook hangs all year, in wait. We have had a variety of stalwarts in winners with a few newbies thrown in the mix. It delighted me a few years ago when Val, a brand new plotholder in her first year of growing, turned up with the heaviest pumpkin. Deep voiced sighs of ‘Oh it’s not been a good year’, ‘It’s been too wet for pumpkins this year’ didn’t overshadow the trophy, slap-up meal and £30 prize money for Val, with a smile bigger than the pumpkins!
However, I think it might be a done deal again. The heaviest ever grown was by Billy ‘straight lines’ Nugent in 2016; it weighed almost 25 stone and his contender this year is looking like it’s on course for something
similar. We’ve got another month of growing and with the fine, warm weather it looks like we’ll have quite a few to test the strength of the porch this year – even mine has gone past the size of the supermarket ones! Pauline Gillett, plotholder at Queensway Allotments, Waterloo, L22