Allotment Crunch
I've decided to let my neighbour take over my allotment.
The problem is that I've not been facing up to the stark reality of the problems that have been plaguing my plot. You know the sort of things, toxic weeds and poor vegetable growth dressed up as good yields. To be honest this has been happening since August 2007 and it's not been all my fault. I blame the difficult climatic conditions, especially the ill winds blowing in from the Atlantic. We thought that it had just been raining, but in reality it has been an absolute deluge. The writing had been on the wall for a long time foretelling an allotment collapse, but who bothered to read it?
My neighbour's allotment is identical to mine so there are lots of synergies to capitalise upon. He has the same area, grows the same veg, and has an equally dishevelled shed. Anyway, as I'm relatively new to the allotment game, I've been exposed as being a little naive in my horticultural practices, as I have relied too heavily on the advice of others.
My neighbour is very experienced and has run his allotment under more prudent lines for decades. In fact he is so good that he has hardly been affected by the recent meteorological downturn. Obviously he has the same amount of mouths to feed so some of his newly merged growing area will be made redundant. In fact he has already contacted the allotment secretary to take some of the land back under council control. Unfortunately the small patch of residual land is no longer needed and will be made redundant as it is too small to make a sizeable allotment, so it will be left to fend for itself. It will go to seed.
These are the harsh realities faced by the modern, reckless, allotmentor who has tried to produce more from his land than is prudent. Reaping produce from the plot will be more difficult in the future although it is expected to return to some degree of normality in three to five years time. In the mean time there will be fewer allotments around leading to less choice for would be allotmentors, and things will never quite be the same again.
Why has something that should be so simple become this complicated?
Maybe I should stick to banking.
The problem is that I've not been facing up to the stark reality of the problems that have been plaguing my plot. You know the sort of things, toxic weeds and poor vegetable growth dressed up as good yields. To be honest this has been happening since August 2007 and it's not been all my fault. I blame the difficult climatic conditions, especially the ill winds blowing in from the Atlantic. We thought that it had just been raining, but in reality it has been an absolute deluge. The writing had been on the wall for a long time foretelling an allotment collapse, but who bothered to read it?
My neighbour's allotment is identical to mine so there are lots of synergies to capitalise upon. He has the same area, grows the same veg, and has an equally dishevelled shed. Anyway, as I'm relatively new to the allotment game, I've been exposed as being a little naive in my horticultural practices, as I have relied too heavily on the advice of others.
My neighbour is very experienced and has run his allotment under more prudent lines for decades. In fact he is so good that he has hardly been affected by the recent meteorological downturn. Obviously he has the same amount of mouths to feed so some of his newly merged growing area will be made redundant. In fact he has already contacted the allotment secretary to take some of the land back under council control. Unfortunately the small patch of residual land is no longer needed and will be made redundant as it is too small to make a sizeable allotment, so it will be left to fend for itself. It will go to seed.
These are the harsh realities faced by the modern, reckless, allotmentor who has tried to produce more from his land than is prudent. Reaping produce from the plot will be more difficult in the future although it is expected to return to some degree of normality in three to five years time. In the mean time there will be fewer allotments around leading to less choice for would be allotmentors, and things will never quite be the same again.
Why has something that should be so simple become this complicated?
Maybe I should stick to banking.
Labels: Crunch