Anne Akers continues her bi-monthly column capturing life on her Calverley allotment.
Having an allotment isn’t just about the digging, growing, harvesting and, of course, weeding, it’s about being part of a community.
Sometimes as I walk down the main carriageway to my plot, it can take me a while to get there because I bump into so many people and there’s so much to talk about, whether it’s leaf-chomping slugs, seed-stealing mice or the weather being too warm/cold, wet/dry (never just right!).
There’s a lot of kindness goes on, whether it’s giving a helping hand to a neighbour who’s struggling to get a massive net over their soft fruits that the birds are eyeing, or carrying a couple of bags of compost, which get heavier the further down the hill you go.
Plants are swapped, I over-planted on red cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli and was able to give plants to others.
People even send thank you cards – and gifts! I’ve benefitted from others’ surpluses when the mice ate all my broad beans.
Then there’s social events. We have a summer barbecue when we can eat produce with zero food miles (there’s usually a lot of courgettes), and Calverley Show when we can enter our prize potatoes, peas and petunias, but more importantly can meet up with our fellow plotholders, it’s a lovely community.
And just in case you’re wondering how my potatoes are doing after I experimented with no digging and the use of a bulb planter….well, see for yourselves! I’ll be doing that again!
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