THE PLOTIn September 2008, Paul and I decided it would be nice to grow our own veggies. Although mum has an allotment, Paul and I were complete beginners, never having grown anything other than a few plants in the back garden, and even they were in desperate need of some TLC! Nevertheless, we found a local allotment who were creating some new plots, and our plot 135 was born!
Our blank canvas September 2008
Along with the new plots either side, we paid to have the plot roughly ploughed, and began planning the layout. I armed myself with as many books as I could get my hands on, and gemmed up on allotments, crop rotation, plant families and Paul (Graphic designer by day) planned the layout.
POLY TUNNEL
With 2 kids and a hefty mortgage we don't have alot of spare cash, so one thing we were both agreed on was to do this project as cheaply as possible.
INSIDE THE POLY TUNNEL
We set up paste tables covered in plastic to protect them from the water and all our seedlings grew well - very well in fact!
COMPOSTING
THE LAYOUT
We wanted to create separate beds with easy access all around for sowing, weeding and harvesting and opted for a slab path as this would be the most durable option. We put an advert in our local Sainsburys and Tesco asking for donations of old slabs and a shed offering to collect and dismantle. We were amazed, that same day we had a call for a shed (pictured at the top) and we were inundated with calls for slabs, to the point that we had to turn some offers down!
OUR SHED
Here's our shed sprayed green, Paul put a new roof on and put a couple of windows in. Also pictured is our cold frame, again Paul built this from clear perpex salvaged from work (we grew our chillies in this) and my bargain water butt, should have cost £20 but I found it reduced at the end of the gardening season in Wilcos for £5! - I had to struggle across town dragging it and pushing my son in his buggy, but couldn't let that bargain go!
GROWING THE VEGGIES
Paul built some frames which we covered with a fine mesh we bought, it's strong and can be used year after year, we made the frames portable, so that they could protect the young plants from pests and then be moved to protect other plants from pests.
IN FULL SWING!
If we can do it anyone can! We have very busy hectic lives, we both work and have two young children. They love our allotment, Our son was just 3 when we took on the plot, he loves digging up the worms, collecting 'treasures' he finds and generally getting dirty without being told off!! Our Daughter was 8 when we started, a really 'girly' girl, she wasn't too keen on digging, but soon got into helping label plants and sow seeds. They both made friends with other children on the allotment, and have built dens in the trees in the waste area of the plot, and because it is all fenced in, we are happy to give them the freedom to go off and play out of sight, knowing they are safe.
OUR PRODUCEMy favorite part of the whole growing season - harvesting! Although I must say I didn't realise just how time consuming this would be! For some veggies, we just couldn't pick them fast enough! We had huge amounts of Salad, Runner beans, Potatoes and Cucumbers, to the point that I went round out road knocking on the doors of strangers offering them bags of salad and cucumbers!!
My favorite crop has to be the Sweetcorn. We bought a disposable BBQ - headed down the allotment one sunny afternoon, picked the ripe sweetcorn cobs, grilled them for a few minutes, and within no more that 5 min from picking them, we were eating them, along with other fresh veggies so sweet for having just been picked, and all grown completely organically! 
THE UPS
It all paid off....
We were amazed to win 2nd prize for the best plot on the allotment, and even more amazed to win 3rd prize for the best plot in the whole of Redditch! not bad for our
We also won first prize for our veggie box! wooo hoo! first year!
Not to mention the amount of veg we successfully grew! We also ate a lot more of it - determined to cook it while it was still fresh and saved a small fortune off our grocery bill!
THE DOWNS
Looking back it has been hard work, and we have learned a lot. We don't have a rotorvator, which appears to take a lot of the hard work out of the digging. I remember sitting crumbling the clumps of clay soil in my hands after a long day of digging and weeding only to see our neighbour arrive and wizz over his plot with a rotorvator, doing the lot in about 30 min! Groan!
I'm proud to say all of our veggies are organic, although we did have some losses. We lost most of our tomatoes, to blight I think, it happened while we were on holiday, which was a shame. We also had a set back when thieves broke into our allotment. Our tools were all 4th or 5th hand and most had broken handles, never the less they were taken along with Pauls size 12 wellies, and worse of all our stove and kettle! The even took my caddy of tea bags and sugar! Some of the other plot holders lost all their tools and equipment too. Its sad and does get you down but we battle on and now we don't keep tools on the allotment , even the really old battered ones, our car boot has become our mobile shed!!
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