AllotmentPickings

Hot News In and Out of AllotmentPickings

2010-11-12T09:30:00.040Z

Hot news from the Garden Museum: due to popular demand, Edwina Sassoon's photographic exhibition, London Allotments: A City Harvest has been extended and will now be showing until December 12, 2010. Don't miss it - and catch up on Christmas shopping at the Museum shop while you are there!

Hot news from AllotmentPickings! Although still alive and well

AP now has a sister blog on the Reader's Digest website. To catch

up on dahlia tips from the plot; how I finally ripened my delicious

Gourmet pepper; ate the sweetest, finest carrots ever grown and

came across a 'living' sheep on Iona, go to

www.readersdigest.co.uk/blog2/rdgardening/

London Allotments: A City Harvest exhibition at the Garden Museum

2010-09-28T11:38:00.016+01:00

Back from holiday to the next excitment - the forthcoming exhibition of Edwina Sassoon's allotment photographs at the Garden Museum. After working together on the Three-Year Allotment Notebook it's fun to move on to another related project. Looks like it'll be a stunner with Edwina's knack for catching in her pictures the incredible enterprise, imagination and artistry of allotmenteers.

This exhibition will run alongside the Garden Museum's about-to-open show: Going Dutch: how the Dutch Wave hit Britain's gardens.

Two exhibitions, the Museum cafe and shop. Looks like a visual feast and the Christmas shopping sorted.

London Allotments: A City Harvest runs from 15 October 2010 - 28 November 2010 at the Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB Tel: 020 7401 8865

Going Dutch: discover how the Dutch Wave hit Britain's Gardens runs from 5 October 2010 - 20 February 2011 at the Garden Museum

(Photograph (c) Edwina Sassoon)

The Three-Year Allotment Notebook and the five month allotment makeover

2010-08-17T10:57:00.029+01:00

It's been quite a month. Having failed to get the scruffy, barren plot I took over in March up to scratch by my first deadline of Chelsea Flower Show, I decided it absolutely HAD to be in order for publication by Frances Lincoln of the Three-Year Allotment Notebook (by Joanna Cruddas, photographs by Edwina Sassoon). Eureka! With help from family, friends and fellow allotmenteers, the plot has had its party frock on all month. It was short-listed for our allotments competition amongst a field of 410 plots, trashed the night before the RHS came to judge and, though we may not be cup holders, I reckon the pictures prove a good plot is always a winner!

Allotments in Siberia

2010-08-10T13:55:00.015+01:00

Ever thought you were surrounded by a load of clowns down at the plots? Think it's a right circus at times? Talking of which...why not get tickets for an evening of drinks, canapes and a performance of Yasmine by Giffords Circus. The date: September 3rd at 6.30 for 7.30pm.

Venue: Stratton Meadows, Cirencester.

You would be supporting a small and, very pertinent to us allotmenteers, charity Sponsoring Allotments in Siberia. Its simple aim is to provide large, low-income families often living in communal and cramped flats with the opportunity to grow their own fruit and vegetables and get some space during the summer months. Just like we've got.

For more details: call 01963 440297

or email: merielbuxton@aol.com

Sponsoring Allotments in Siberia: Reg Charity No: 1083278

Big Butterfly Count

2010-07-23T11:16:00.012+01:00

It was a first on the plot to see what I think is a Five-spot Burnet flitting between my lavender and nigella. Next week is the Big Butterfly Count. What a great opportunity to spend a quiet and peaceful 15 minutes counting the butterflies and moths we see. No worries when we don't know what they are. Just take a photo and send it in for professional identification.

The Big Butterfly Count Week runs from July 24th - August 1st. Could there be a better way to spend 15 minutes?

Photograph (c) Edwina Sassoon

Allotment Anecdotes at Snails Pace

2010-07-15T16:23:00.010+01:00

Approaching the silly season, I am reminded of anecdotes which abound in and around the allotments:

A distinguished surgeon explains that were I to drop a snail in caustic soda, it would dissolve with the exception of the tongue which would remain intact - a serrated sword set to cut through our carefully grown leaves. I haven't put it to the test.

But at an event at the Garden Museum, I did find myself repeating this alleged fact to a representative from the Chelsea Physic Garden. He looked pensive and told me of a recent bereavement. For 8 years he had kept a pet Giant African Land Snail called He-She Humungus. H-S H had recently died and lay buried in a specific spot. My new friend plans to dig H-S up in six months in the anticipation of retrieving and keeping the shell. But will the tongue lie intact or have rotted?

The Plot Goes to Pot at The Garden Museum

2010-06-29T14:39:00.026+01:00

For those with allotment envy, it has now been proved that an allotment can fit into a pot, scarecrow and all. The Garden Museum is displaying 34 planters designed by some of the country's best-known gardeners from today until Thursday July 1st. Want inspiration for filling your pots? Don't miss this fun opportunity to see (and bid for) imaginative and witty compositions from Chelsea Best-in-Show Winner Andy Sturgeon, BBC garden presenter Joe Swift, actress (and gardener) Penelope Keith and many others. Here are some tasters...Gardeners' World Allotmenteer Joe Swift compliments low level planting with colour coordinating pot, while photographer Edwina Sassoon fits the whole allotment into her pot, tumbler tomatoes doing just that, scarecrow perched high rise.

The Garden Museum's Matt Collins includes driftwood, Artist Charlotte Verity goes stylishly simple with a lemon tree in her elegant planter painted by Christopher Le Brun, and Richard Reynolds confirms that there's no stopping a Guerrilla Gardener.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon

Perfect strawberries for Wimbledon week

2010-06-22T14:16:00.013+01:00

It's an odd thing, but the reason I'm really proud of the strawberries I've grown at the plot this year is because they are so immaculate, they look bought. But you don't get perfection without some pretty determined action. I sprinkled Fito Slug Stoppa Granules, a 100% natural product, around each plant. On top of that went a thick layer of straw to prevent the fruit getting muddy or soggy. Next came fine mesh netting to cover the plants. Last year I used horrible flimsy netting with big holes and twice had to release small, panicked birds by cutting them out of the netting that was trapping claws and wings. Now it's the fine stuff or nothing on my plot. The only snag to my Fort Knox is that I find it practically impossible to get at the brilliant red wonders myself, but it's worth the effort and been a victory against legless, legged or winged competitors.

Out out d... (allelopathic) couch grass

2010-06-14T17:19:00.010+01:00

All the excitements of Chelsea Flower Show and our own Open Day now over, it's back to earth. All allotmenteers battle with our old enemy, couch grass, but only recently did I learn that it had negative allelopathic qualities and can actively inhibit other plants from growing. Having just digested that bit of information, I hear on Gardeners Question Time that climbing beans don't have a hope if they are beside onions and heaven forfend that we should sow radishes near our red peppers. On the other hand, I believe growing mint near your roses helps keep aphids away so I thought I'd take it a step further and spray my rose with mint tea!

Allotments Support Open Garden Squares Weekend: 12th/13th June 2010

2010-06-09T15:18:00.016+01:00

London Allotments will be opening their gates in support of London Parks and Gardens Trust this weekend. More than 200 gardens will be open, including Beatrix Potter, Branch Hill and Fulham Palace Meadows Allotments. Click on any of these allotments for opening times and details of the Open Gardens Squares Weekend. However...as an insider... I can promise you the opportunity to see more than 400 plots of diversity, imagination, and beauty you will find hard to beat at Fulham Palace Meadows. We shall be selling our very locally grown produce and offering tea and home-made cakes from 11.30am-3.30pm on Saturday. What more could you want? Here's a sneak preview of our allotments in June.

Photograph (c) Edwina Sassoon from The Three-Year Allotment Notebook to be published by Frances Lincoln on August 5th, 2010 @ £12.99

The gentleness of a city allotmenteer

2010-06-05T15:24:00.010+01:00

Just leaving the allotments this morning, when my sister stopped in her tracks. A man was crouched by a wounded pigeon. It had been attacked by a magpie. As a crowd gathers around an accident, so a ring of pigeons surrounded the scene of the crime, seemingly watching, guarding. We strolled off. Some moments later, we were approached by same man with his bike. "Excuse me," he said, having heard us discuss this. "It's not a pigeon that's been wounded." He opened his bike bag to reveal two fledgling birds of prey nestled safely in the bag. Despite already sizeable beaks, their young bodies defenceless and bleeding. He thought they were buzzards. I know there are sparrow hawks in the allotments. We none of us were knowledgeable twitchers. They were en route to the experts.

It reminded me of our special responsibility to birdlife this summer. The winter hit them hard, garden birds need all the help we can offer them to keep numbers up. In allotments we have to balance nurturing our birdlife with protecting our plots from rats and other vermin. But just after I created my birdbath (see earlier post), I discovered this website which really does seem to have something for every one of our feathered friends: www.farbrookfarm.co.uk

Chelsea Flower Show: Shops for everyone

2010-05-28T16:29:00.025+01:00

Just as exhaustion struck on the hottest day of the year, a young man popped off the Tregothnan stand and handed me an instant Cornish Cream Tea. From leaves grown on the Tregothnan estate, a cuppa has never tasted better.

I turned round to see

the coolest plant containers from Bronzino (above right). Made from

solid copper and zinc they put any other pot I've seen in the shade.

Meanwhile, my old friend The Allotment Shop still has the best garden string in town and a variety of must-haves for any allotmenteer.

(photographs: Edwina Sassoon)

During Chelsea Flower Show week, ANYTHING GOES as Cartier in Sloane Street showed us...

How cool is being such a prize winner outside the show ground?

(photographs: Edwina Sassoon)

Top Hat at Chelsea Flower Show, Old Hat at the Allotments

2010-05-27T11:43:00.028+01:00

The ingenuity of Chelsea Flower Show hats leaves Royal Ascot's attempts at the starting gate. My fav (above) comes from Kate Bainbridge of Simply Flowers

At the allotments, multi-tasking hats from around the world get put to good use (above right)

(Flower Show photograph:

(c) Edwina Sassoon)

Chelsea Show Flower Arrangements

2010-05-26T12:09:00.022+01:00

Interflora's Progression gives Pom-poms

a whole new meaning - no wonder they are Gold Medalists this year; Florigene's stunning Moon-series gives carnations a whole new colour.

Down at the allotments, our black and yellow sunflowers are as stylish as the rest of them; blue bottles recycled into specimen vases.

Photographs: (c) Edwina Sassoon

Chelsea Flower Show and Allotments support the B(ee) word

2010-05-25T13:29:00.023+01:00

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left," said one of the world's most famous allotmenteers, Albert Einstein. Global Stone socks this information to us by engraving the quote on the wall (see above) of their Bee Friendly Plants Garden designed by Janey Auchincloss

The Royal Horticultural Society's Biodiversity Display offers bugs stylish apartment accommodation designed by Andrew Fisher Tomlin and Stuart R Thomas (top right)

Meantime, lacewings (gobblers of aphids who like to take refuge in hollow sticks & canes) can relax in high-rise living courtesy of the Bradstone Biodiversity Garden (right)

But if you really fancy a country cottage best, slope off to the allotments and create an authentic, completely recycled bug hotel.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon

Chelsea Flower Show style/Allotments style

2010-05-24T16:52:00.037+01:00

Places of Change garden. Eden Project

in partnership with

HOMES & COMMUNITIES AGENCY,

COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVERNMENT,

HOMELESS LINK

Almost the first garden we saw included this wonderful full-size recycled 'plastic bottle greenhouse', the bottles linked and supported by canes. Per chance, I've been collecting used bottles all winter with a more modest version in mind, but who knows now I've seen this!

Down at the allotments, our greenhouses come in many shapes and sizes; some seedlings have their own individual homes.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon

Global bath for high flyers

2010-05-21T21:06:00.007+01:00

I picked up a discarded dustbin lid this week, sensing it could come to good use. Simultaneously, my MTF (most travelled friend) decided to shed a collection of stones she had collected from around the world. The rest is obvious. My plot now has the most luxurious bird bath any high flyer could dream to splash in, surrounded by pink quartz, petrified wood, hues of turquoise, greys, black, sandstone. My feathered friends just have to find it...

Allotment Rules...

2010-05-18T20:12:00.006+01:00

and if you can't beat them...

Because our paths are quite narrow, any construction has to be 9" inside our own plots to enable wheelbarrows etc to move freely and safely around. This takes valuable growing space, created a ridiculous shady passage on my plot and my chest looked stranded. And then an offer for convallaria majalis (lilies of the valley) plopped into my inbox. The obvious spot. I ordered 9, stuffed them in with a pile of organic matter, gave them a good water and they are already filling out and hopefully on the march.

Frost in May

2010-05-15T22:58:00.005+01:00

I gave myself until the Chelsea Flower Show to get my new plot in order. But disaster has struck and I've extended the date to our allotments Open Day in support of the London Open Garden Squares Weekend on June 12. How much have I written or banged on about a few warm days in May does not meaning it's summer? How well did I know that I was putting my beans out A BIT EARLY. But hey, we're in a city, protected by buildings, global warming and the balcony needed space to start off annuals. After all, I'd done my bit with bandages and fleece (see previous blog post). But this May frost took no hostages. It struck pockets of our allotments cruelly. The rest is in the picture. Two plots away, my friend F, has a full line of French beans unscathed and I'm delighted. 6 plots away there's a field of limp, brown, frost-burnt potato foliage. As for me, I've lost every one of my French and Runner beans. Potatoes are hit, but will probably recover.

There are good reasons for the old phrases such as "N'er cast a clout 'til May is out".

Beanstick fracture

2010-05-10T15:48:00.010+01:00

Last summer the stem of a neighbour's sunflower broke. He bound it and it went on to grow a full 8' and produce a beautiful flowerhead. At the end of the summer he took the bandage off to find lumpy scar tissue, but a fully-healed stem.

There have already been accidents for me this year. First I skidded on an overgrown path, flew through the air twisting my ankle as I went and landed yelping in pain. It is only thanks to multi-tasking my fork and spade into crutches that I am not still stranded there. Never again will I mock inspection committees and their threatening "lose your plot" cards. Well-kept allotments are safe allotments.

Next, I carelessly knocked a bean seedling, badly bruising the stem and

causing it to flop. Remembering the sunflower, I cut up a bit of thick filter paper (from my vacuum cleaner), stapled it round stake and stem allowing just enough room for the stem to fill out. Within days the leaves opened and it seemed strong enough to put out, with the bandage slightly loosened.

Then the temperature dropped, a treacherous wind whipped across the allotments, so emergency measures with fleece have been taken. Forget nurture or nature - we're talking full-time nurturing nature here!

Get grounded at the allotments

2010-05-06T22:25:00.008+01:00

It's impossible to avoid a certain election fever, but worrying about putting my climbing beans out too early (again), I hurried down to protect them from the cold this evening. L, my Portuguese plot neighbour, passed by. "Beautiful," he said as I created a fleece wall around them. "Here, Jo-waanna, have some of my Portuguese onions - they're bigger, better...my mother sent them to me...you must plant them soon." As I hurried back to my house guests, I bumped into L, my Greek allotment friend. "Joanne!" she exclaimed, throwing open her arms and kissing me on both cheeks before pushing me away. "You must go," she observed. "You are in a hurry." I left - via one of the many lilac trees that surround our plots - reminded of real life, of the generosity, diversity and companionship of allotments.

Dug in to labelling

2010-05-05T10:44:00.008+01:00

I've tried labelling my plants before - used the wrong pen or pencil, eyesore labels or too small and they've disappeared. Given up. And then regretted not being able to identify the successes. Yesterday, browsing in the irresistible Garden Museum shop, I discovered handsome black garden labels which I bought as a present for a friend but within hours was using for my own plot! This is it. Smart, big, re-usable and the white marker claims my script will be "permanent until removed with white spirit".

Thigmomorphogenesis

2010-04-30T13:27:00.014+01:00

Last year I put my climbing beans out too early and they froze... almost literally. With the health of my broad beans already precarious, I'm being cautious with all seedlings this year. A few warm days doesn't mean it's summer. Seedlings have taken over every window ledge, being hardened off on the balcony by day, inside by night.

I first read about Thigmomorphogenesis in Emma Cooper's The Alternative Kitchen Garden A-Z. It's the principle that plants grow differently when not exposed to the wind. So, if your seedlings can't be put out, blow on them and brush your fingers through them. It'll help them become stronger and stockier before they face the outside world.

Let Nature Take Its Course

2010-04-27T22:21:00.004+01:00

The broad beans, sown in three stages for a lengthy crop, looked so promising. Then their leaves took on a new scalloped appearance. The diagnosis: Bean Weevil. I acted in haste. A too strong solution of washing up liquid was sprayed liberally, mid-day. Out burst the sun. The combination of burning rays and not diluting the solution properly severely scorched the leaves, damaging them more than the weevils would probably ever have. If you want to spray, wait until the cool of the evening, or do so in very early morning - it's also kinder to pollinators such as bees and butterflies who will be hard at work during the daytime. Without pollinators we could starve...

Cutting Edge at the Allotments

2010-04-23T13:29:00.016+01:00

Grass paths and edges spilling on to your plot? Inspections about to take place? Don't ruin your neighbours' peace with the scream of a strimmer. This pocket-sized Swiss knife sharpener will fix your sheers, secateurs, scissors (and carving knife). An allotmenteer's must-have, so just click on the link. 4 friends have already put in orders after seeing mine.

Allotment Show(s) off

2010-04-09T12:42:00.007+01:00

Moving plots in spring meant moving bulbs in full bud. I proceeded with some care, but they proved to be unmoved by moving. Bulbs are resilient and the proof of their adaptability was that three weeks later they won First Prize (a certificate, two gold stars and a coin) in London's oldest Horticultural Society Spring Show - Mixed Spring Flowers class. Don't forget to pop in a few anenome corms next autumn - or almost any time. I have best success with 'De Caen', the single flowers in a variety of vibrant colours. They will give you months of show, pick brilliantly, take up modest space and mine have survived two harsh winters scarcely bothering to bow their heads.

Crocuses in the allotments (and at Kew Gardens)

2010-03-17T13:19:00.007Z

While I'm struggling to get the plot in order, I am awe-struck by the creativity of my plot neighbours. A & A have created a meandering crocus walk, feet from their veg. It may not be the Reader's Digest crocus carpet of 1.5 million crocuses at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew but it's just as magical.

You can't all visit our secret allotment haven, but you can visit Kew. Don't miss their crocus carpet - it's a real sight.

www.kew.org

Plot progresses as Chelsea Flower Show approaches!

2010-03-08T20:57:00.015Z

So...thanks to the skill and generosity of fellow allotmenteers, the roof is mended by a surveyor (obviously), W put the guttering up, the current water butt is a neighbour's discarded dustbin. Round at the front, bulbs and plants all transported from previous plot, shallot and onion sets planted and netted, broad bean seedlings still on window ledge at home. Lavender hedge will hide the compost heap and incinerator.

Pot Luck: A few potatoes in bottomless black container also behind lavender.

I've decided my deadline for getting the plot decently shipshape is the Chelsea Flower Show - talking of which, for tickets or details, check it out on

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Chelsea-Flower-Show/2010

or call 0844 209 0357

I'm hoping to get lots of ideas for creative planting and design!

The Plot Deepens

2010-03-08T19:29:00.008Z

Hot news from the plot. I'm abandoning my perfectly formed half-plot for a whole one which already has its own hut (castle to me) with view of a Palace. How many of you can boast that? It may not look much...spot of bother with the roof, the grounds have an air of abandonment, but watch this blog and see what a spot of TLC can achieve in a few months.

The Good Life at The Garden Museum

2010-02-28T15:58:00.008Z

Don't miss this delightful exhibition about the last 100 years of allotments and growing-your-own. I mentioned it when it opened last October and it's now the last week - closing March 7. Full of inspirational memorabilia with original booklets such as "Cloches versus Hitler - a simple guide to intensive vegetable culture" by Charles Wyse Gardner. The Museum shop and cafe pretty irresistible...

www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/

Ordered your potatoes?

2010-02-14T19:21:00.009Z

If not, don't panic. Out of season, I unexpectedly needed to photograph chitting potatoes. My spud expert mates said there was no way I'd get hold of any. Then I remembered my fav magazine, Kitchen Garden, which is essential reading for all plotholders, had recommended Jamieson Brothers some months earlier. Sure enough, at a weekend, they flew to my rescue and, a few days later, diminutive and perfectly formed spuds ready for chitting arrived in the post. My next experiment is growing them much too early in pots on the balcony. So if you haven't already ordered your Earlies and Maincrops don't panic, just click on the link: http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/ Judging by my experience, they'll help if they can.

And don't forget to look at their "potatoes for Christmas" offer. Plant in September, on the plate on Christmas day...

A twitter over a robin

2010-01-31T22:25:00.005Z

So...my best weekend sightings for the RSPB Birdwatch hour were, not in the allotment, but in a friend's central London garden. With delight we identified blue tits, coal tits, thrush, goldfinch and wren darting about. The trouble came with the robin. "It's male," said PF authoritatively and the great debate began. Is a female robin's breast as red as a male's? I'd had this discussion with another friend over Christmas. Could someone, please, clarify?

RSPB Birdwatch Weekend

2010-01-24T17:19:00.017Z

It's countdown time to count up the birds

The weekend: January 30/31

Length of counting time: one hour

Just put that fork down for one hour and put your feet up. If (lucky you) you have both garden and allotment, the RSPB would prefer you to count the birds in your garden or better still count first in your garden, then count in your allotment. If you have neither, go to your local public garden.

What's all this about? To quote the RSPB: "The Big Garden Birdwatch has never been more important than it is today...birds are disappearing in scary numbers. We've lost more than half our house sparrows, three-quarters of our starlings...These surveys help us spot problems and are the first step to help aid a species recovery".

Imagine gardening without the company of a robin or a blackbird, without the song of a thrush, the courage of tits mobbing a thieving jay - as I saw last year. Imagine just sitting down quietly for one hour next weekend. No guilt, you will be contributing to a vital piece of research.

Click on the link for details: www.rspb.co.uk/birdwatch/

Don't-have-a-pop-at-a-parakeet...

2010-01-06T12:12:00.008Z

And in response to the comment "Is it true that you can now shoot parakeets?" the RSPB, who kindly sent me an illustration of one, respond:

Parakeets are not an indigenous species to Britain. However, there is currently no evidence in the UK of them causing a problem for native species. If an animal's population is causing damage or a nuisance to people or property, then landowners can apply for a licence from Natural England to control them. Parakeets have been moved on to the General Licence which does mean no application has to be made. But anyone who wants to control parakeets must be able to prove that they have a good reason for doing so.

see the relevant RSPB blog: www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/news/archive/2009/10/02/don-t-have-a-pop-at-a-parakeet.aspx

GARLIC Presents...

2009-12-15T21:55:00.046Z

And while we're talking about Garlic, and are simultaneously in a panic about presents, try this Garlic Peeler + Brush + Grater all for £10...

www.rigas-enterprises.co.uk/garlic-grater-sets.htm

SCH decrees it's a winner.

If you don't fancy that, visit The Allotment Shop www.theallotmentshop.co.uk/

I swear their garden string (not just in any old colour) is the best money (not very much) can buy.

Photograph (c) Edwina Sassoon

www.fotolibra.com/gallery/collection/31568/allotments-autumn-and-winter/

www.fotolibra.com/gallery/collection/31149/vegetables-and-tools-portraits/
www.fotolibra.com/gallery/collection/29344/allotments-spring-and-summer/

PotLuck: Garlic

2009-11-28T21:25:00.005Z

Allotments spread...in my case to my window ledges and tiny balcony. Hence, alongside AllotmentPickings will occasionally come PotLuck.

A friend brings me a beautiful, bulging Provencal garlic, sweet and strong. Why have one when you can have several, I think. But I'm behind with things at the plot which is still cluttered with last summer's remains while the skies are speckled with peckish birds well able to sniff out a buried garlic clove from their dizzy heights. Where's the problem? Garlic likes sandy, well drained soil and will grow well in pots. I have the remains of a bag of John Innes No 3, a big pot, a small balcony. It's the time to plant. A no brainer; the investment will grow 300% by harvest time in 10 months and I have two-thirds of the garlic to use now. Oh, and the pot has been covered with protective wirenetting.

Parakeet

2009-11-23T19:49:00.003Z

A couple of weeks ago, a parakeet arrived in the street where I live, screeching with the frustration of someone who’s taken a wrong turning and noticed too late. Perhaps it had. It looked even more out of place than they do swooping noisily over our allotments.
It prompted me to pop down to the plot. Fiddling with the gate lock, I was struck by a waft of horse manure. Looked up to see a load had been dumped for us, warm and steaming. Another sniff and I was back in my childhood days, saddling up Muffin, a Thelwell style pony. Mentally jogging along west country lanes, I walked to my plot. The cosmos were beginning to feel the cold nights, but despite this, at the beginning of November, I came away with a last generous pink and white bunch and another mix of Rudbekias, Sunflowers, Dahlias and Marigolds all grown from seed. Global warming or autumn delight?

Free bulbs

2009-11-17T16:16:00.001Z

Eureka! The cardoons/artichokes are NOT French soldiers. They have perked up and are all sprightly.
Sat on my bench with a bowl of soup before picking definitively the last of the runner beans, 2 courgettes and a big bunch of curly kale. Last spring, I scavenged hundreds of bulbs being chucked out by florists and friends and stored them over the summer in a wooden crate smothered with leaf mould. Started planting them round the edges of my plot they don't infringe on vegetable space.

I find some huge shiny red circular bulbs anonymously tossed on to my plot. They have long, stiff dried leaves, sharp as swords. A friend suggests they are Crocosmia. Who left them? This community-type gardening means visits are punctuated with surprises. Some more welcome than others. Bicycled, wobbling, all the way home with bounty which by now included a huge bunch of cosmos and another autumnal mix. The curly cale kept springing out of my basket. A precarious and scary journey, but worth it.

Moving Plants

2009-11-14T18:35:00.005Z

The cardoons/artichokes violetta di Chioggia are looking limp and wretched. I am reminded of a friend’s thesis on 18th century French soldiers who died of the then medically accepted condition, nostalgia. The strain of being up-rooted, homesick and in a strange place to which they couldn't adapt, became too much. They withered and died. More recently, our cricketers have had to come home from tours due to bouts of homesickness. I can't move my plants back to their original spots so find myself cheering them on, willing them to settle and root.

?Cardoons

2009-11-11T10:37:00.009Z

Decided to move my cardoons which spent the summer leaning over a main path, scratching innocent passers by. For plotholders are well-armed and shoot from the hip, or in this case, chopped off my exquisite cardoons' purple heads. Became clear getting to the root of the probem was a tough job, but undeterred my spade and I heaved and dug and suddenly up one came, then another. Roots torn and broken, but with cans of water and beds of mixed compost, manure and leaf mould they are now rehoused. One new shoot broke right off. A, who knows his plants, told me to cut the outside leaf down to the tip of the heart of the new leaves and pop it in since it had a hint of root. Followed instruction and left it looking perky. Strange to think these prickly giants began as seeds on my window ledge. I call them cardoons because my usually knowledgeable plotmates do, but I thought the seed packet (now lost) was entitled more glamorously, artichoke "violetta di Chioggia". What is the identifiable difference?

The Big Bulb Plant

2009-11-03T21:08:00.013Z

When I first got my allotment I went wild about Allium Purple Sensation as a way of giving the plot focus, colour, height. The following year there was no stopping me. Unfortunately once they had finally died down, there was no stopping both my fork and the squirrels digging up dormant bulbs. But it turns out to have been fortuitous. Rather than dig them back in, I stored them. Now I see The Eden Project and Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Centre have joined forces to encourage us to brighten up public spaces in the spring. The chosen bulb for this year is Allium Purple Sensation and I can strongly recommend it to cheer the dullest corner. It’s late to track down popular bulbs but Peter Nyssen Ltd (excellent value for money) can still offer the decorative and long-lasting Allium Christophii and Allium Aflatunense. The Garden Centre Group, whose Chief Executive, Nicholas Marshall, supports the current allotment movement to the extent of suggesting universities should put aside land for them, has Purple Sensation still in stock in most of its garden centres. Do you have a communal space in your allotments which needs jollying up… are you a dead-of-night guerrilla gardener... is there an abandoned raised bed at the end of your street, as there is in mine? It would make all the difference if you popped a few in.

www.peternyssen.com

www.thegardencentregroup.co.uk

www.thebigbulbplant.com

Mushrooms

2009-10-27T09:55:00.012Z

Two field mushrooms popped up beside my plot. I wish I was definitively clear about which are the poisonous ones but I've read too many dramas about the consequences of eating the wrong ones. So I 'generously' offered them to a less squeamish friend who, all organs still functioning, reports back that they were delicious. I vow to eat the next one. Is there a key way to identify killers?

Launching my blog: The Good Life

2009-10-21T10:18:00.024+01:00

What better way to launch my AllotmentPickings blog than with a note about The Good Life exhibition running until March 2010 at London’s hidden treasure, The Garden Museum. This small show is a “must see” for anyone who values their plot, for anyone interested in social history, for anyone concerned about our planet, for anyone. Starting with a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of allotments - illustrations of the demise of the Manor Gardens allotments in favour of space for the 2012 Olympics - it covers the three major Grow Your Own movements of the past 100 years. The pattern is clear; at times of crisis we become sudden Good Life Tom and Barbaras only to revert to Instant Luxury Life Jerry and Margots at the hint of the return to prosperity. Just one result? Developers move in, allotment space disappears.

Can we break this mould? Will the current must-have-a-plot/must-grow-our-veg hype survive a receding recession and a winter or two of digging and chilblains or will we, too, emulate history? What are we doing to spread the word that rooting ourselves and our veg should be normal everyday life for each generation, on our window ledges, in pots outside our back doors, in our plots or our gardens; that a bunch of mixed in season flowers beats 10 perfectly formed, cellophane-wrapped, carbon footprint stamped matching stems any day? Landowner Sir Julian Rose certainly seems to be supporting the movement by offering 5 acres of his agricultural land in Oxfordshire for allotment rental.

If you are near The Garden Museum, pop in. If not, make an outing of it and enjoy their café, shop and garden.

The Good Life exhibition, until March 7, 2010. www.gardenmuseum.org.uk