Thursday 14 June 2007

allotment

I took this photograph at our allotment on Sunday evening after a day of blazing sunshine - hard to believe how the weather would change within the next couple of days...


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Allotment? Is that a certain amount of space residents can use for gardens?

Abraham Lincoln
If you have not seen a big ant then it might be worth seeing my post this morning.
Brookville Daily Photo

Kate said...

It looks like the whole family is involved! Wonderful activity!!

Kate said...

PS. I don't want to clutter up your comment section, but I have to comment here since you don't publish your email on your profile. I want to thank you for your recommendation re. best month to visit Ireland. Haven't been there, but DH and I hope to visit soon, especially to visit Sligo which is the ancestral home of his mother's ancestors, the Kilbanes. Great name, isn't it?

isa said...

Wow! Allotments! That takes me back to my childhood in Eastern Europe. What fun it was visiting there on Sundays!
What do your grow?

lv2scpbk said...

What are you growing there?

Jilly said...

I just love allotments. Such a great idea for city and town dwellers without access to a garden. Long may they continue.

Sally said...

Another alllotment fan, from when i lived in England. Used to go for a walk along the river quite often, and to get there passed through the allotments...

Can you inherit allotments? Do you own or rent them?

blueboat said...

Thanks all.
Allotments are a wonderful idea. In some countries (eg. Germany)where many people are apartment dwellers I know that they are used as gardens, but here in the UK they are largely used for growing produce.
They have been around for a long time, but became really popular in the UK during the first and second world war years - when fresh produce was hard to come by. In recent years, they have started to increase in popularity again - as more and more people have become interested in eating locally grown/organic food.
My husband grew up on a farm and now that I have forced him to live in the city (!), he really loves to escape to the allotment - he grows all sorts of salad leaves, soft fruit (strawberries and raspberries), wonderful potatoes (potatoes just dug up from the ground taste so much better than those bought from the shop) and some other, less mainstream vegetables - eg. kholrabi.
Most allotments in the uk are run by local councils and are available at incredibly cheap rents - our half-regular size plot costs us less than £20 per annum.

Kate - I hope you do manage to visit Ireland. Sligo is a beautiful county - it has some fantastic beaches. I'm sure you'll manage to track down some Kilbanes/McIlwaines.. and don't forget to visit the north too!