t the end of 2010 the Sandys and Hoskens Educational Trust sounded out the village about interest in opening up a field that they own for allotments. The proposal was for about twenty allotments to be created on a field just outside the village. The field had been used for hay and grass fodder in recent years and had not been ploughed for many years. A meeting arranged to discuss the idea showed sufficient potential takers and at the beginning of 2011 about twenty plots were marked out on half the field and allocated to those who had made a definite commitment. Each plot is rented at £40 per annum with a few additional fees for insurance etc. There is an adequate water supply, to a drinking trough, though we have to access it with watering cans or buckets.

As I have no space for vegetables in my garden and as the plots were just up the road from where I live I put my name down and was allocated plot Ten, near the middle of the allotment area. Apart from having my plot sprayed to kill of the grass and weeds I did not actually do much until early spring, though I did get a shed erected and made some cold frames using window lights left from window replacement at my place in November. One of these frames has since been turned into a mini greenhouse. At last I did get round to digging, mostly making small beds about four feet by eight feet. The first ones were double dug, quite a time consuming process. However the later ones were dug using the fork first then a spade to turn in the manure, a much quicker method. Next year we may see which method is best as these later beds will not be used this year.

So far I have put in raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb into the permanent area, with a wigwam of sweet peas to keep them company. I may get currants in for next year. Then there is a bed with runner beans, started too early but fortunately unaffected by frost, and peas, which insist on flopping all over the place instead of climbing up the pea netting! Then there are a few main crop potatoes put in as an after thought. These all giving me plenty for the kitchen. In another bed I sowed seed of perpetual spinach not expecting anything to come up as it was a very old packet, probably a free-be given with a newspaper. I think just about every seed germinated so I was beginning to look like a spinach leaf when these matured! I am now taking them for compost as they are going to seed. I have also had one flush of radishes with another on its way, and a crop of Tom Thumb lettuce which are just big enough for me. There is a bed with carrots and parsnip since I use them regularly and some onions and leeks which seem to be doing fine so far. and some beetroot which I am pickling. In the mini greenhouse I have planted tomatoes, but they are too cramped, however some trusses are showing and I hope they will ripen before the blight gets to them. More tomatoes have gone outside and there is even a self seeded tomato with the decorative strawberries! A number of beds have flowers or shrubs and more sweet peas and sun flowers are growing against a trellis at the end of the plot to protect the tomatoes against the strong west winds. Click on the plan of the allotment to see a full scale layout.