A new beginning in the middle

Well, It's only taken about 14 years, but my allotment is finally looking really up together so I thought I'd start a blog to celebrate!

I took over a fairly run down allotment when my younger son was only about three, I remember he used to come up there with me while the older one was at school and we'd spend the odd hour, me pulling out couch grass and him poking mud with a stick, but for years it still looked very half hearted and our produce was very meagre. Well, you know how time just slips away and suddenly he's a great lad of sixteen who doesn't want anything to do with growing vegetables but the vegetables are finally showing promise....and as for the strawberries this year...yum!

I suppose I've started putting all that nurturing into my little patch of land now that the boys are growing up. The kids are reaping the benefits in other ways (like eating the strawberries)

My allotment is on a gentle slope overlooking the city. I've divided it up in different ways over the years but it seems to be settling down into a series of small beds, some permanent like the rhubarb and the artichokes, and some that follow a rotation of potatoes and beans and onions and brassicas in the time honoured way. I've also given over a small bed to flowers and I'm so pleased I decided to do that, it adds to the feeling of well-being I get from this plot of land. Vegetables are more purposeful than flowers, more business-like if you see what I mean so to sit in my garden chair under the big apple tree admiring the flowers is one of the most chilled out ways of spending my time that I ever get to do.

We (that's my husband and I) take quite a few photos up there so I'll see if I can put any of them into this page to make it look extra pretty! I'm new to this blog stuff.
Happy gardening (it's good for the soul)