Thursday, September 18, 2008

Leek weeding commences

No photo today, I'm afraid. Just a quick line to record that the leek weeding has started (painfully slowly) the plum tree was pruned and wound paint slapped onto the fresh wood where the branches were cut. I also picked a good pile of beans, runners and french, two artichokes, spinach, raspberries, salad leaves, rocket and another little orange pumpkin.

While I was there I met an allotment neighbour who tells me she is giving up after 48 years. 48 years! For the whole of her life in Bristol she's been climbing up the hill to her allotment, tending the ground, harvesting her crops and looking out over the city. How things must have changed since 1960. The city has grown immensely in that time, spreading out across the surrounding fields. But almost more of a threat is the way green places inside the city are disappearing so quickly under new buildings . Back garden development is rife. There's a new secondary school rearing up behind us instead of playing fields. Urban allotments, once seen as an important food producer for the country, became unpopular and were used as building land. With the current allotment revival we must take the opportunity to make sure that these oases aren't swallowed up in the inexorable expansion of the city. Thank goodness for people like Margaret, who just kept on growing her vegetables, keeping her allotment going for all those years.

Happy gardening (for as long as you can)

2 comments:

clodhopper said...

48 years is impressive indeed!

During the 'slack' years on our plots some of the stalwarts would take on five or more plots: they would be concrete and car parks by now if they hadn't. I am terribly grateful to them now, even if they do use weedkiller.

Nicky said...

Oddly enough, just before I posted today, I checked my email and found a response to an online petition to the government for allotment and community garden provision in new development. You may be interested in the response.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16920
should take you to it if you paste it into your browser.
I'm not sure how much I believe the spin though - some of ours went under tarmac a few years ago!

best wishes
Look forward to reading your blog - I can never get enough of reading about other people's vegetables!