3 March 2006
Inspiration or despair?
I received a phone call not about half an hour ago from Owen’s Dad (Hi there Gareth!) telling me that Gardeners World was featuring allotments in Birmingham, including the wonderful allotments on the street where we live (the ones we were not able to get a plot at unless we waited for at least two years…). So, we switched on and watched.
At first I found it really exciting (I’m pretty sure I saw our house - hello mum, I’m on the telly!) and it made me want to get out there and get moving with my plans. But as it continued to showcase various people’s wonderful successes I found myself becoming more and more disheartened. I will never be able to spend the kind of time on our patch that they so obviously spend on theirs, even though both Owen and I are working hard to do more than last year.
In the end I had to switch off or I might have been in danger of throwing in the towel completely. I suppose that the allotmenteers who I identify with (those who are a bit crap at it all) don’t make for very good telly!
Filed under: Fallow — Clare @ 8:34 pm
I couldnt agree with you more Clare. As I sat watching it I thought exactly the same. It was interesting tho, you always need to dream.
(03.03.06 @ 10:27 pm)
But we did get a good tip on carrots !
(03.03.06 @ 11:54 pm)
Yes, I agree - the carrot tip was good! And can you remember that guy’s process for planting potatoes? Dig a trench, put leafmould was it, 3 sheets of newspaper, then fresh grass cuttings and then the potato I think. sounds like a lot of fuss. I might just use the newspaper!
(04.03.06 @ 8:37 am)
Re the Monty Don prog on lotties-I was a bit disappointed to realise it was a repeat!!!
(04.03.06 @ 6:42 pm)
Ah! I wasn’t sure. I did have a vague memory of someone mentioning that Brum allotments had been featured on GW quite some time ago, but I didn’t do the joined up thinking.
(05.03.06 @ 11:55 am)
I only saw GW only in the backround but was forced to make conversation with a friend’s parents (so inconsiderate! ). What was the tip on carrots? And I think that a programme focused on the more ‘amatur’ side of allotmenteering would be very entertaining and pretty infomative provided the right people were profiled. I think it would also encourage new people to try gardening, people who would normally e put off growing veg because it’s too complicated and time consuming. I think we’ve got a hit on our hands her guys, I’m calling the Beeb.
(06.03.06 @ 10:41 am)
Ye gods! That’s some bad spelling there. Sorry about that, I’ve only had 10 hours of sleep over the weekend
(06.03.06 @ 10:43 am)
Mildew - ‘a creative interpretation of spelling due to fatigue!’
The carrot tip was to ‘earth up’ the carrots, a bit like with potatoes as they start to appear and certainly before carrot fly appears in May. The carrot fly can’t get near the tops of the carrots to lay its eggs and do its maggoty damage. Ingenious!
Though it doesn’t solve the problem of my ‘too lumpy for carrots’ soil!
(06.03.06 @ 10:48 am)
I wouldn’t normally dream of commenting on allotment issues as I have rarely stepped onto an allotment and have very ungreen fingers. But as I feel partly responsible for Clare’s possible inspiration or despair I feel I ought to respond in some way. I guess the Beeb thought the programme was meant to be aspirational. Most were retired and who had worked their plots for 40+ years so no surprise that they were good. How representative of allotment holders were those featured? I thought the guy with the potato and carrot ideas was impressive but scary. And how many allotment groups have a nice cricket pavilion for the committee - very middle England?
But why didn’t Monty feature the young (ish) couple who won first prize ? I would have liked to know a bit about them. And what about the guy who continued watering while the Council officer went on about the illegal use of the hose? And where did the cannabis plant come from?
Too many unanswered questions for me.
(06.03.06 @ 7:48 pm)
Hi Gareth!
Nice to see you leaving a comment as I know you’ve been reading from time to time.
Please don’t feel responsible. I think I caught the programme on a bad day (I hadn’t been feeling too good all day) and so was inclined to being a bit pants! I do wish we had recorded it so I could have gone back to it. There is so little on the telly about allotments and as lots of people have said here there were some good tips.
I agree with you about the impressive but scary guy - he didn’t really seem to get much enjoyment from his plot, did he? It all seemed like an exercise in discipline!
(08.03.06 @ 7:04 pm)