The council wrote to me offering me half a plot of allotment to rent.
[FEDEGA: Edinburgh Allotment Association | BBC Allotment NEWS ]
I am so excited!
The waiting times are usually something in between 5-7 years, in particular spots up to 11 years. I am looking forward to do a bit of composting and growing organic veggies. However, nearly all my experiences with gardening and plants is trying to leave this green stuff alone as much as possible, but am not sure if it works. I want to grow loads of cucumbers, pumpkins and courgettes, and some flowers and berries. I hope I can do barbecues in there and a bit of sunbathing. I wonder if there are toilets nearby and if it has a little hut for when it is raining. I also want to collect rain water. Hopefully I could also plant an apple tree and fresh herbs, especially parsley. I am suspicious of growing tomatoes and strawberries, as in my parents garden they are tasting fantastic but are mostly eaten by other living organisms and not humans. Same with salads.
Red Currants would be nice, too. I have an old organic gardening book, but it is written in German, so I might have to find out what plants are advertised to grow nicely here in Scotland. I am wondering how big the plot is.
At home, nearly everybody has a garden, and by this I mean a proper garden, not just a strip of green gras in front or at the back of the house. A garden with vegetables, fruit, flowers, trees and hedges and neighbours swap with each other the surplus of their organic harvest. I would like a cherry tree, too, but there is always the problem with the little white worms in the cherries. We have a little nice peartree at home in the garden, the leaves have got a problem of orange rusty-coloured spots, but it always brings quite some fruit and doesn’t grow that big, as it seems to be a dwarf tree.
I want to grow also some sunflowers.
The plot is quite a bit away, about at least half an hour by bicycle, but there weren’t any allotments closer to where I live.
Whilst I hope I get along fine with the neighbours, I also hope it is possible to have a bit or privacy in the garden.
I am wondering if I should start a campaign for more council allotments. We have this brown field site over the street and it is owned by the council, but they want to sell it to build houses. It is actually a nice place to train the dogs and give them a bit of a run, as it is fenced off towards the road, so especially for unobedient dogs there is less danger of something serious happening. Unfortunately some kids do not only light bonfires, but also burn hedges and trees, which is less nice, especially as it is one of the few sites where there are lots of butterflies, some rabbits and other wild little creatures and a variety of flowers, gras and shrubberies.
There is an initiative to stop building on the brown field, but I wonder if allotments would be a better solution to keep it actually part of the green belt. I will ask what others think about it in the community forum.
On another political note: I tried to persuade community groups to put in for a communal allotment, too, but they did not want to. This is rather sad, as especially gardening is more fun when you have someone to talk to.
Will try to take some pictures once I have visited it.
Comments
Comment by Sylv on 2006-07-11 16:33:52 +0100
Hi,
we are currently selling our house at fixed price and have an area of communal allotment ground which can be transferred to the buyer. We’re in the south of Edinburgh and the allotment is one minute’s walk from the house. As the allotment area is private, not many folk know about it. Viewers can see the house for sale on ESPC – Relugas Road. Hope to find a buyer who has been longing for an allotment – it’s available very soon!