In article ,
Roger Tonkin writes
If there is such a lack of younger gardeners, why is there still such a
demand for allotments. Maybe they are too busy on their plots to urgle!


I assume it's forty plus people who have more leisure time or who
believe in getting their food without all the chemicals, around here
people are very fussy what they serve to their children, especially the
toddlers,
Although we don't often admit it, many people have retired early or are
fitter than they would have been years ago at retirement age.

Years ago my dad had two allotments where we lived in New Eltham and we
used to have areas to grow stuff in. I seem to remember early summer
evenings having to go to bed whilst it wasn't quite dark and listening
to the repetitive backward and forward sound of manual lawnmowers
cutting the lawns in the back gardens - it was the essence of summer
days!
In the late fifties gardens seemed to have roses yet more roses,
Michaelmas daisies and dahlias. Can't remember many other flowers, just
lots of leaves for very few flowers and the desolate stems of hard
pruned rose bushes in the winter

When I got married i can remember carting a huge long trough up to the
balcony that the married quarters had and growing lettuce in it and I
was only 18 at the time.

My first love has always been sowing and striking cuttings etc. it's
that first initial growth of something new that I appreciate, once the
plants are reasonable size I tend to give them away or swap them for
more cuttings

--
Janet Tweedy