By early July 2018 we had established the bones of an attractive plot that was a pleasure to maintain
Having thought that my digging days were over and with my wife, Sally, recovering from five hours of open heart surgery, we decided that the best therapy would be to take on an overgrown, 600 sq metre allotment just a short walk from home. That’s two or even three times bigger than the average. With my parents’ garden in North Wales to maintain, a six-acre wood in South Wales, a quarter of an acre plot at home with every inch under cultivation and an existing allotment, it was a close call. My brother said it was either visionary or total folly. My sister? Well, she likes to have a ‘project’ on the go too! I thought of that mantra you see on the back windows of 4 x 4s, ‘One Life, Live it!’, though I suspect they are referring more to going off-road than gardening. The war on weeds started in earnest in the winter of 2017-2018.
“We’ve never been interested in creating the sort of layout and crops that win prizes for the best kept allotments”