Monday, May 23, 2011

First new Potatoes


This post was first published on Can You Dig It?

According to a gardening book I once read, there's a friendly competition on allotment sites to see who can get the first new potatoes of the year.

Perhaps such a competition is running on our allotment site. I should find out how to enter. What do I win?

The black stuff on the potatoes is pepper. Not mud. I know it looks like mud.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Shock breaking news! The Prime Minister says something sensible

 
This post was first published on http://can-you-dig-it.co.uk/
 
Concerned readers of this blog will have read the reports that the government was planning to scrap local authorities' obligation to provide allotments. This would presumably have meant the land would be sold off to Tesco, so we'd all be forced to buy our vegetables at Tesco.

What with the excitement of the recent referendum and local elections, I missed the latest news on the matter. Many allotment-holders have been quite upset by the proposal, and have expressed their outrage by signing petitions. No doubt the more radical types have been sharpening their carrots and spraying “anarchist” symbols on their sheds. This led the Prime Minister to make a sensible remark in the House of Commons.
He said allotments are “extremely important” and the movement has his “full support”. This is fantastic, fantastic news, particularly at a time when almost nothing else seems to have the Prime Minister's full support. The Independent on Sunday is taking all the credit.

I feel like we should have a celebration. Perhaps I'll drop in on my friend Jo's allotment with some Prosecco, and tell her the happy tidings.

You can watch the footage of the Prime Minister saying something sensible here. The sensible part is between 23:52 and 24:48.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Our plot is to be sold to a housing developer!

 
According to The Independent, the government has a silly and unworkable plan to allow councils to sell off allotments.

The fightback starts here.

In my armoury I already have a sharp hoe, a slightly bent fork, and some remarkably smelly fertiliser made of rotting couch grass roots which can be deployed as a non-lethal chemical weapon. When you think about it, the government doesn't stand a chance.

Notice the headline picture in The Independent features one of our fellow plotholders, thus cementing One Tree Hill Allotments' position as the most famous allotments in the world.