Kitchen Garden Forum

[quote="Compo"] allotment sites aren't that pretty

Compo wh wh what! Rendered speechless i am!: :

Allotments are beautiful: the individual tastes of the plot holders held together by the rythm of the strip pattern, the repeated motifs of different crops, the mad stuctures - cane wigwams,improvised fruit cages, scarecrows...

If you equate tidy and neat with beautiful you would also miss out on huge realms of art, nature and human eccentricity.

Compo

Its what is commonly know as 'expressing ones self.... sheds of all sizes and constructions are a tribute to the true Brit (Anglo Saxon with a dash of Viking) ingenuity and idiosyncrasy... long may it continue

One of the great joys of allotmenteering is that there is no government directive on how tis done.

I may be a shedless wonder, but my plot boasts a unique collection of hand crafted compost bins (which have been universally admired I may add ) and an embryo veg cage - I will have peas this year despite those darn birds

Sue

Well done Sue...

and I 'will' have some sweetcorn in spite of the darned badgers!

Dear Sue, i would just like to congratulate you on your, universally admired, unique collection of hand crafted compost bins.

I'm sure thats something you should be very proud of.

Oh Di,

I agree with you, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so yes things can look very pretty on our site, but it's not as good as the view from our site over the Somerset Levels with Glastonbury Tor rising in the distance, the point I am making that either with or without sheds the sight is as gorgeous or unsightly as one may perceive, working farms and nurseries are not prett places, to tue untrained eye, but if you look at the accord that man has with nature in such places, the struggle to get the earth to produce, you may see things differently..........it is I feel a matter of perception.

May I say your last posting was a source of literary genius, maybe the mods can think about a turner prize for it?


Compo

I take it where I can get it OH I am an erratic plot holder at best and the old boys on my site regularly suck their teeth at my alternate mad blitz sessions and corner cutting moments.

However, composting unites all plot holders and I have been on the receiving end of several admiring comments about said bins. They still tell me I am not layering my compost and turning enough though natch

Sue

Hi folks this is a pic I took a while back and yes our plots sure can be places of beauty, the shed is being upgraded so more pics follow in due course!! The greenhouse was in the middle of the plot till the storms year before last wrecked it so I moved it and rebuilt it in plastic it is now sited next to the shed

Compo

Morning Compo, a shed to be proud of, and that goes for your whole allotment.

Darn it.......now I really have got shed envy

Lovely piccies Compo. Are they raised beds you are growing in?

Sue

I think at that time Sue it was 50/50 raised beds and traditional rows but this year it should be all raised beds..............I like mucking about with bits of wood!!

I agree with Di, I think allotments are fascinating and lovely to look at. I often find an allotment site much more pleasing than a carefully designed garden.

In my travels I often shout 'ooooh look, allotments....' and crane my neck to see as much as possible in fleeting moments. Not so good when I'm doing the driving

Yea! pongeroon,
glad to hear its not just me that does that - I'm not going to look too clever writing that on the insurance form though?

pongeroon wrote:.....In my travels I often shout 'ooooh look, allotments....' and crane my neck to see as much as possible in fleeting moments. Not so good when I'm doing the driving

Me too.

Funny how many you see from suburban railway lines and near sports grounds.

No allotment, and no proper garden shed either as I didn't want to sacrifice growing space for a shed. Have compromised by having a "potting shed" area running along the length of our house sandwiched between the house wall and the adjoining 6 foot fence, It's about four feet wide, with a polythene canopy over the length of it, and an old glass door at the entrance to keep the worst of the weather out. It contains all my gardening tools, my "potting up" bench, my husband's bike (not riden for 15 years which is a pain in the ar**) and my little mini plastic greenhouse, fully assembled when not in use. Plus lots of other stuff, including bags of compost and 5 million empty flower pots which one day I'll get round to sorting out ! One of these TV DeCluttering Gurus would have a field day.