Friday, May 22, 2009

The Beginning...


It was a Friday lunch time a couple of weeks a go. Checking the post, a key dropped out an envelope, on further investigation of the contents I was thrilled to find I had finally acquired an allotment. Well half an allotment as it happens, but its more than enough for me to fit into my busy life.

It was a surprise because I had signed up for one around 6 months ago. But as there has been a surge of interests in allotments over the last couple of years, like many areas there is a fair old waiting list in and around Tunbridge Wells. So much so in fact, that a number of growers couldn't wait their turn and took things into their own hands earlier this year...

I however, a much less militant gardener (and pretty much distracted by the one hundred and one other things that occupy my life) was happy to wait my turn. So it was that Friday evening early in May, after work I jumped on my bike and headed down to survey my new plot to check it out and take some photos.

My first impressions were that it was not as big as I thought it would be. But that feeling soon passed as I sat in the middle of it, on the grass (it was pretty much all grass, it hadn't been dug in a while). The realisation dawned that it was plenty big enough to start with, and that I was starting from the very beginning. I didn't even own a spade...

I hope the Allotment Monkey blog will record my progress over the coming months and years. hopefully it will also becoming a useful reference for myself and anyone else who stumbles upon it. A record of a young(ish) aspiring allotmenteer fitting his plot into his hectic life.