On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 08:56:37 +0200, "JennyC" wrote:

~
~"Chris Stewart" wrote in message
...
~ Wasn't it brill - the allotment gardeners should be proud of
~themselves -
~ well done Brum.
~ Chris S
~
~Absolutely enthralling
~I sat glued to the TV
~
~Makes you almost want yer own allotment :~)

shameless allotment advert
Oh go on, get half a plot. It's great fun. I'm currently picking more
courgettes that I can eat, have ripe supersweet sweetcorn ready to
pluck, runner beans, French beans, cabbages, beetroot and the most
amazing carrots (both for their shape and size and taste). Not to
mention 70-odd huge onions currently drying which cost precisely £3.25
for the bag of sets. Leeks are doing nicely and I should have some
ready in a couple of months if we ever get some rain. I don't tend to
water them much, as they get there in the end anyway. Then there's the
Bramley apple, three eaters and all the blackcurrants and berries. And
rhubarb. And gooseberries.

I'm self-sufficient in fruit and veg now - and I *only* have half a
plot (5 poles). I roared with laughter at the bloke on the prog who
said they'd had to buy a second freezer - as I did too! Not to mention
learning old arts like bottling, jam making and drying.

They didn't really touch the 'you know exactly what you are eating'
aspects of allotmentholding. I'm in my third year, didn't set out to
be organic but after seeing just how much chemical has to be sprayed
to get perfect cabbages etc I became it very very fast. And with
sufficient netting I've got cabbages which are a bit slugholey on top
but peel off three layers of leaf and they're perfect...

The carrots still amaze me. I've bought organic carrots for years,
since it was shown that the things take up pesticides and store them.
But what they don't say is that commercial organic crops are, like
most commercial crops, kept watered much more than if you just leave
them to grow. That way they sell fatter crops quicker, and organic
supermarket carrots don't taste *that* much different to non-organic
supermarket carrots. But once you have had homegrown, you realise how
much flavour you get from them being grown slower - it's so much more
concentrated. My mum's comment at first tasting my carrots was that
she'd forgotten how they should taste.

So go on, it really is a community, great fun, people can grow what
they and their families like, there are ways of it being lowish
maintenance and it's the best summer supermarket there is. Just don't
underestimate how much time you end up spending up there as it's
addictive!

~That chap with all the innovative ideas was brilliant and I was amused
~by Monty Don's patched old shirt - so much like a 'proper' gardener
~:~))))
I am rapidly finding I have a lot of time for Monty. His gardening
attitudes are rather old fashioned (bend over onions to ripen them,
trim leeks when planting etc) but they always worked back then, so if
it works, what's the problem?

~
~Well done the Beeb

I hope they continue to say what can be done in such plots when the
real series of GW comes back in September.

:-)

jane, allotment blogger and addict.

--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!