First Post

We have just started the fourth week of allotment gardening in East London, and are loving it. Thought it would be useful to record our experiences, for our own interest really, and anyone else who wants to read it. Perhaps I  won't keep this up, but will see how it goes.  I've seen some really good gardening and allotment blogs and the ones I like best have some lovely photos and useful tips, so I'll try to keep it simple.

There's some fruit trees there somewhere...apparently

I have had my own garden since I was about 7, my brother and I each had a patch in Mum and Dad's garden.  Dad used to let me order what I wanted from his seed catalogue, and I'd order loads of things from herbs to ferns and cacti- needless to say the cacti were never sown, but I enjoyed growing lots of other things and discovering what was easy and what was never going to work. When I left home and went to university I grew tomatoes and nasturtiums on my hall of residence windowsill and as I moved around various rented houses in London, so my burgeoning garden came with me, in tubs and pots. The last time we moved we had one van load for the contents of the house and one for the garden, and it was jammed to the roof of the lorry.  However when you are renting you never know when you might have to move and it's difficult to let your garden really put down roots.

I reckon we can find some beds and paths in this patch

So when the opportunity arose to get an allotment at the end of our road we couldn't wait, and last month we were handed the keys to the allotment and our new plot. Within minutes we had started work, pruning shrubs and clearing the beds. With a friend on board there are three of us excited and willing to get the allotment into shape. I would like something which looks good, gives us some tasty veg and lets wildlife get on with it! Let the plot adventure begin!