Rory - isnt he great!

Here's Rory, the allotment mascot. He likes coming along to to the allotment and being with people! He is good at digging holes and likes to have a good root around the compost heap.

Respect! Us old blokes are cool...

Me and Bob (H) were gently grafting away and he was telling me about his recent ills...gradual loss of sight due to cataracts, and the huge impact that had on him...(they've been removed now, or at least one has, so he's got some sight back), and we were talking about how dry the ground was and that we needed rain. I said "Not for the festival that I'm off to in a couple of weeks...". Bob replied "Would that be Glastonbury? I went to the very first one, and the Isle of Wight as well, and saw Jimi Hendrix".

How cool is that!

Briefly, he told me what he could remember from 41 years ago. He drank in the bar at Glastonbury with Roger Daltrey, and remembers Jimi Hendrix as an unknown in those days.

Bob used to keep his own allotments but had to give them up when they were developed into housing estates (tut...). He says he's really enjoying the opportunity of getting back to the land now on the community allotment. He seems to know everybody, and went to school with the guy who keeps the allotment on the other side of the track.

Here's Bob, true Glastonbury veteran, (respect!), watering one of the sunflowers that he had planted the previous day:

Just a bit of sort of arty stuff....

This is it, that's all it is:

Fence posts

I was about to put up fence posts to support the trellis at the front of the allotment so we can get some height and have climbing courgettes or something like that, and one of the Age Concern Trustees called in with two bags of muck for us, squeezed into the back of her Mazda sports car. The car was a bit smelly in the heat, she said.

Then Bob (not Christian, but Bob House) came along to do some watering (it's still very dry), and I roped him into helping me put up the posts. They are not quite straight, but I tried....here's a pic:

This weeks update..8th June 2011

Good turn out this Wednesday, further work was done by a good handful of volunteers, including Rory the dog, who is great fun. Am awaiting pics.

The new NEA Report

Defra's National Ecosystems Assessment has been establishing the benefits of living in or near the natural environment.

A good summary of the report can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/02/uk-ecosystem-assessment-warning

25th May - Bob's take on it...

A splendid day on the plot with seven of us toiling away. John and Peter did a first rate job levelling and filling the latest raised bed. Others watered, planted, weeded. The improvements on the allotment have to be compared with what it was like before we started to be able to see what we have achieved. We now have some cabbage and brussels sprouts planted. Pat has given them a good soaking and they should grow. Maggie cleaned the raspberries and strawberries and despite the drought and that they are new plants, found the first strawberry. We are hoping to get lots of runners as new plants as they are very popular on the plant stall.

25th May 2011

Seven of us working today on the allotment. Watering, weeding, cleaning up the surrounding paths and putting in almost the last of the raised beds on the roadside. The infrastructure is almost complete now, just the compost bins to go in and a small raised bed next to them. Here is a sketch of the last part of the allotment infrastructure to be constructed, it is now partly complete (scan courtesy of Bob, as usual):

We were joined by Bob House today, who has known Bob Roundup (Christian) for years, he did a sterling job with digging and weed (couch) eradication, and will be bringing on some Iceberg lettuce for the raised beds.

Weather is still too dry really to get much planting done.

Just a quick thought

We've now had over 1000 hits on the blog and I can trace that they have come from all over the world. What a good way to commuicate!

At long last, another entry

It has been quiet on the blog, and it is with some degree of humility that I realise there have been no entries for almost six weeks, apart from the one that I made a few minutes ago. A long holiday in Greece may have had something to do with it, but enough of excuses.

Although there have been no blog entries, that does not mean that there has been no work going on. Stalwarts Bob and Adam have been grafting away as usual, with occasional help from the usual others.

The state of play is as follows: we now have a row of raspberries (OK, they have been in for a while, but I'm doing a summary here), a row of strawberries that are already fruiting, three rows of potatoes, a block of sweetcorn and another of ever-lasting flowers have been planted out.

The grass mats have all been laid, but still need to be flattened out a bit as the soil has settled leaving them a bit uneven. The two big raised beds have been built, put into position and have been filled with alternating layers of topsoil and compost (as the picture below - courtesy of Roundup - shows, we had one sq m. each of topsoil and compost delivered the other day).

The last of the muck has been spread on the allotment (thanks Adam), making space for the remaining raised beds and the compost bins to be built.

The Dorset Magazine write up

A good few weeks ago we were visited by a journalist from the Dorset Magazine who wanted to run an article about the allotment. The finished piece, and very good it was to, was published in May. An online version can be found here:

http://dorset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/the-good-life-31625/

Hey Jude...

if you don't know her then you are missing out; here's her response to my last blog post (it was a bit longer than just this quote, you will find the whole thing in the comments section):

An extract from a poem by Edwin Markham, an American poet who died in 1940:

He drew a circle that shut me out.
Heretic, rebel -a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win,
we drew a circle that took him in.

Very relevant and timely. And while I am at it, here is another extract from another one of his poems, A Man with a Hoe:

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

The great Guy Garvey runs our training day...

We had a great training day on Monday, 15 of us led by Guy Garvey (well actually not him...rather it was a nice bloke from the Thrive organisation, but interesting to think that Guy might have taken a day off from writing his poetry and his current tour to run the training day...that would have been something to write about. Here's a photograph of Guy (sorry, Damien was his real name). Don't know who Guy Garvey is? Click here.

Bob's been at it again, here's the story....

Last Wednesday I saw a skip and decided it needed raiding. Bob was with me, and I think like many people who are with me when I go skip raiding, he was a trifle embarassed. Me, I do it all the time, skip raiding that is, especially when there might be fuel for my woodburner going free. So, I asked permission, and went off to try to liberate some wood...and found quite a bit including a good few lengths of 6x1 tanalised, or it might have been 8x1. Tanalised wood is not much good for burning, which is just as well as Bob immediately nabbed it all for the allotment. Huh.....

Anyway, he put it too good use, and here is the outcome, a nice tool rack and there is even a shelf above it, all the better for being made of free (liberated) wood. Very tidy, with just the very smallest hint of OCD. Here's a pic....nice one Bob.

A quick progress report.

Terminal computer failure prevents me from doing anything more than a quick update at the moment, but I'll be adding a bit more detail and photographs as soon as I can. Anyway, Bob has got in a couple of rows of potatoes now, and some pink fir apples are going in soon. Over the weekend, James, Anna and I dug over about another row of couch grass clogged earth, we're getting there slowly but surely. As a security measure, I also put reflective film over the inside of the shed windows so that people can't see in to see if there is any good stuff to nick. The reflective film is good, from the outside it looks just like a mirror (i.e. you cannot see into the shed through the windows), but from the inside you can still see out. Other security measures include strong wire mesh over the windows, toughened glass, hinges that are bolted rather than screwed in place, and a good combination padlock. I guess its only a matter of time before the shed gets broken into, lets hope never, but at least we'll have made it difficult to anybody who wants to mess up our project.

All that has got me thinking about allotment insurance, which I think comes free with membership of the South West Counties Allotment Association (clicky here). Note to self: I'll have to look into joining, if I've got it right it only costs £3 per year.

Finally, the grass mats have arrived. The ground around the shed needs levelling and they can be laid, making it much easier for those with mobility impairments or those in wheelchairs to get about. Pics will follow when we've got that done.

Here are the details of our training day...

‘Digging for Health’ Training Day

Monday 28^th March 2011 9.30am – 3.30pm

The Community Room,

Sandringham Court (Magna Housing),

Dorchester, DT1 2BL

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

Coffee will be available from 9.30am, with the training starting at 10am.  There will be a very flexible approach to the day, which will include the following:

·         Introductions and aims of the day

·         Thrive and Social and Therapeutic Horticulture

·         The benefits of gardening                      

·         The role of the activity provider

·         Safety consideration and adaptations

·         Making tasks inclusive and achievable

·         Support and information

·         Self-assessment tools

·         Conclusions and questions

We've lost our wheelbarrow...

...well, not quite lost it. But the guy in the next allotment came along and claimed it as his. Hmmm.

Apart from that, the sun was almost shining today, which is why we were at the allotment and the three of us put in about 6 man hours, MJ (still co-ordinated and in his Yak Hat), did a good job levelling the ground around the shed, so that it is ready to receive the grass mats when they arrive (early next week I think); James and I spent our time digging ground a couple of rows wide, removing about a bag of couch grass roots. Bob will be along next Tuesday to plant up the rows with pototoes.

Here's a couple of pics - James collecting couch roots, MJ contemplating a hummock.

Well, Bob did say he wasn't Steven Speilberg....

Here is a short video, shot by Bob 'Well, I'm not Speilberg!' Christian, showing the plot, one frosty morning (well today actually), just before the shed went up.

And here is another one, the shed in construction:

It was a big day down on the allotment...

Well, it was a bit late, but it turned up eventually. Now we have somewhere to store the tools, drink tea and shelter from the rain. Looks good, doesnt it!

New ideas...

I had a useful and constructive chat today with Gwynne James, an occupational therapist (OT) and lecturer at Bournemouth University, who has agreed to become our informal 'Consultant' to the project. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge with working on horticultural therapy projects. We talked about many things, including the possibility of 'Digging for Health' being the focus of undergraduate OT placement and the subject of research studies. We also talked about an existing horticultural therapy project (clicky link), and noticed that it had been awarded a Green Gym licence (another clicky link) and had obtained funding from EcoMinds (yet another clicky link) who have produced a report on the values of ecotherapy (that's the last clicky link for now). I've contacted the BTCV (who run the Green Gym licence scheme) to see if there might be any scope in us pursuing the idea of a licence.

Why can't we be on the radio?

Today's Gardener's Question Time (Friday) answered the usual gardener's questions, but also went on to describe the Prudhow Community Allotment, a therapeutic garden. If you want to see a few pics, or listen to the program, go here (although I don't know how long this link will be live). For a more detailed look at the Prudhoe Community Allotment, have a look here. Phenomenally successful project! This picture has been borrowed from this website (hope thats OK?).

What has Japanese poetry got to do with allotments?

At a recent short creative writing course, we were doing exercises in writing haiku, short Japanese poems that follow a three-line, 5-7-5 syllable format. One of the students, Hattie, who is also linked to this allotment project and will be writing a Masters degree thesis on the values of horticultural therapy, wrote the following haiku (thanks Hattie!), that describes the project and what we are trying to achieve. I think its rather good, what do you think:

Your eyes remain black.
Spring sun shines onto your wheels,
the seeds are growing.

Engaging with the local community

A local branch of a well known national retail outlet contacted us recently. Terms of employment require that all employees spend two days a year engaged in voluntary activity (for which they receive their usual salary). What an enlightened condition of employment! So, very soon we will be having eight employees join us for two days a year (perhaps not all at once) to help us out with our project! Watch this space for more details!

Measurements

We need to plan the allotment so that it is accessible by as many people as possible, and that includes those with different levels of mobility, including those who use wheelchairs. So we need to think about having raised beds, and paths that are easy to negotiate. But how high should we make the raised beds? Reference to the very helpful Thrive website gives us some answers. For example, they recommend that the minimum path width for those using a wheelchair needs to be at least 900mm. For raised beds, Thrive supply an excellent leaflet, that can be downloaded and printed off here. As a rough guide, they recommend a maximum bed width of 500mm if the bed can only be accessed from one side, and that the height of the bed should be approximately 900-1000mm (for somebody who gardens standing up), 690-760mm (for those sitting) and 615mm (for those in wheelchairs). I think we need to make raised beds that are of different heights.

Today, the sun shone and the work got done!

If yesterday's heavy rain had continued into today then it would have held us up. However, it was an almost spring like day, ideal for cracking on with the work. John, Adam and Bob were on site from early on, and worked valiantly with Mr. Womble, the Dorset Volunteer Coordinator and two helpers engaged in community service activity. At least half of the site was dug, and Bob put all the boundary boards in place, effectively outlining our plot. As the following picture shows, John (AC Volunteer Coordinator for the project, and Faaf expert/activist) exhibited what might become a new fashion in trousers, but looking at the state of his knees, he might have spent a little to much time supplicating in front of our very own Horticultural Consultant (Bob 'Round-Up' Christian).

Spot on 12 midday the first shift departed (well except for Bob who stayed on to spread some muck on the raspberries) and the second shift (Fran and Matthew Jack) arrived. We set on preparing the base for the shed, now due to arrive a day later than previously reported, that is on 8th March.

Matthew Jack was surgically separated from his XBox and on arrival almost enthusiastically started levelling the ground for the shed base. Here he is in the picture below. He continued the trouser fashion show, as initiated by Jon, by sporting low slung builder's bum/emo type skinnys and colour co-ordinated wellies and a hoody and for some reason, a kind of ethnic yak wool hat. Apparently it is important to look cool at all times, even on an allotment.

Anyway, much of the site was dug, yet more couch grass was removed, the rhubarb was transplanted to a more convenient part of the plot along with a good row of raspberry canes, all rescued from the site and finally, a level base was made (using existing concrete blocks that were found on the plot), ready to take the shed. Here is a picture of the site as it looked at 3pm today. Have a look at the pictures taken at the beginning of the project and posted here in earlier blog posts, to see how far we have progressed. Note in the following pic - the shed base, the dug ground and the perimeter boards...its starting to look good!

Publicity Day!

Today Bob and I met Edward Griffiths from the Dorset: The Dorset County Magazine (click for the link) who will be writing an article about our allotment and project, to be published in May 2011. Edward writes about allotment keeping in the magazine, see here for a past example. Otherwise, the magazine is one of those rather posh ones about country life, coastal walks, restaurants, country walks, that kind of thing.

Bob, on the left, talking with Edward Griffiths,

probably either talking about couch grass, or the geological qualities of the soil.

Clip boards!

After the meeting Bob ran off to buy a load of wood, to delineate the allotment perimeter.

The day was very overcast, almost foggy. There is a very nice rhubarb plant shooting up right in the middle of the plot. Surrounded by couch grass.

Sheds!

Click here to go to my all-time favourite website!

Here comes the shed...

If there is one thing that an allotment has to have, its a shed. And we've just ordered one, due to be delivered on March 7th, so we are going to have to crack on and get the base prepared. Briefly, the shed will be 8 x 6 ft, the biggest we are allowed to have according to the allotment association. Its made of sturdy log-lap and will be painted green. Security may be a problem, so I've ordered the shed to have toughened glass in the windows (better than perspex that just shatters) and that will be covered in a heavy metal grill. In addition all the hinges and locks will be bolted into place, rather than screwed. The base is likely to be paving slabs laid on level ground, perhaps gravel, raised on 2x1 tanalised wood laid on top of the slabs. Slowly but surely its all coming together. In an ideal world I'd like a shed like this, isnt it lovely!:

Slowly, the publicity machine....

...is grinding into action. A notice and link has been placed on the local Bournemouth University's website, advertising the project and the study day. If you are interested in having a look, and seeing more about the very relevant work of Bournemouth University's Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life and the 'Healthier Communities' work group, then pay a visit by clicking here.

In addition, we are about to be interviewed and photographed for a well known Dorset-wide magazine (scrub yourself up Bob!). More details will be posted here as soon as we have them.

Finally, through our flyers, we seem to be attracting interest from those who would like to engage with the project for therapeutic reasons. Again, at this stage I can't say too much, partly for reasons of confidentiality, but we had our first therapeutic participant working on the allotment last week, and another has expressed great interest.

Clearly, word about the project is spreading, and it seems to be generating great interest. Isn't that wonderful!

A load of old poo...

Or in this case, a load of not so old poo. As the light of an already dull day was fading, we (John and I) drove a few miles away from the allotment to pick up a second load of horse manure (John and Adam got the first lot last week) that we will use to give the allotment a bit of a kick start once we've got rid of all that couch grass. Not the best manure in the world, but better than nothing, so we bagged up 15 or 20 bags, or a good sized trailer load anyway, and took it back to the allotment. It was a couple of hours work for the two of us, but we need as much of it as we can. You can never have too much poo they say.

Here is John, standing on a huge pile of poo:

Unloading the poo into our poo store (note John's personalised number plate):

A poo close up, for those of you interested in that kind of thing:



Nice video about winter allotment work

Nice to know that its not only us that has a problem with couch grass!

Nice dog!

An allotment training day

‘Digging for Health’ TRAINING DAY 28th March 2011, Age Concern Dorchester 10.30am – 3.30pm

Age Concern Dorchester has recently acquired a community allotment in the Arlington Road area of town.  With the help of a volunteer we have obtained a small grant from the UnLtd Engage Programme and over the coming weeks and months we will be working to get the plot into shape and ready for the growing season. In the meantime we have arranged a training day for anyone who may be interested in learning more about gardening and allotment keeping with older people. 

The day will be a mixture of group work, discussions and practical activities and will include the benefits of garening for older people and specifically those with dementia, making gardening accessible and inclusive, and the role of a provider of gardening activities.

The training day is FREE and drinks will be provided. Participants will need to bring their own packed lunch.  The morning session will be indoors at a venue a short distance from the allotment.  Weather permitting, some time will be spent outdoors on the allotment so participants should dress accordingly.  Please note that the ground is uneven so strong footwear is advisable.

To book a place on what promises to be an interesting and fun day, please contact Anna at the address below.  Places are limited so book now to avoid disappointment! Please let us know if transport is a difficulty and we will do our best to help you. The training will be facilitated by an organisation called Thrive. For details about Thrive’s work, visit   www.thrive.org.uk  www.carryongardening.org.uk

Anna Biley

Development and Support Officer

Age Concern Dorchester   Tel: 01305 269444

Making progress, increasing urgency perhaps

This is what Bob has written about the recent days work at the allotment:

A good day was had doing further clearing and preparing the site. Next week, on Wednesday 9th February, we may be able to clean and level the far end of the plot and lift, prepare and replant the raspberries in a row. We lifted a root and there are signs of life so they are at about the right stage to transplant. In addition, there is ample scope to fork over the rest of the site and keep on shaking out the couch grass.

We have removed the small shed (it was beyond redemption, like me) [absolutely not - Ed.] and have transported the useful contents to a local store (we found some useful gardening tools and etc.).

We have defined the site with a post at each corner; measured dimension 21ft-6” x 49ft 8”, or in other words 20’ x 50’

We sorted timber into firewood & possibly re-useable piles

We folded the plastic 'mulch' sheets so we can dig and we carted two loads of rubbish to the tip.

We recycled some good planks and posts to make a place to put manure - which we can do as soon as we can get it (see picture). The planks were only assembled with string so can be re-used at a later date.

A good days work! Its interesting to compare this latest photo with the earlier ones, to see how much progress has been made.

The Allotment Boss

Last night I spoke to local allotment co-ordinator, a Mr. Cox. If there is one thing I've learnt in my life, it is to stay on the good side of those who hold the power! I explained the nature of the project, and it is safe to say that he was very enthusiastic. He could immediately grasp the idea of the therapeutic potential of allotment keeping. We ran through some of the allotment regulations, path width requirements, shed sizes, bonfires (none) and etc. We need to make sure that we don't do anything wrong that might break the allotment rules (some are written down, but I wonder how many of them are unwritten and implicit etiquette?) and annoy or upset some of our allotment neighbours. But I don't think there will be any chance of that, just as long as we keep our allotment tidy and in production. All very positive. Nice to meet you Mr. Cox!

Allotment innovation!

Bob (he's the man to ask!) Christian has supplied us with a few ideas and pictures for the allotment. Firstly, here are the compost bins, critical for ecological purposes, and central to the idea of re-cycling. These are the ones that Bob has made, and we'll have something similar soon in our own allotment:

Secondly, here is a picture of a cluster bomb casing from Laos (!) that was being used as a raised onion bed, so that wild pigs can't reach them. Not sure if we can get hold of any old bomb casings, or how many wild pigs we have at the allotment (?), but the raised/elevated bed system is interesting:

Finally, here is a picture of a couple of other things that we may be able to integrate into our allotment; firstly, on the left, two old brushes nailed down that can be used as a boot cleaner, and on the right, a welly puller...both essential I think with the weather that we have been having recently.

11th January 2011, another clear up...

The rain seems to have given way to some sunshine and enables yet more cleaning activity to take place. Perhaps it was the sun that prompted these smiling faces, but it just goes to show that this kind of activity can be therapeutic. We're getting there, slowly but surely; soon we'll have a tidy allotment. Pictured below are John and Adam, as mentioned in a previous blog entry. Pic below, courtesy of Robert:

Getting rid of one of the old sheds

Today, 8th Jan 2011, we (myself, Anna and James) aimed to get rid of the old shed. After a couple of hours it was fully dismantled, and I went to load it in my car (to take the boards back to my workshop, I want to do some sculptures and things like that) only to find that they were too big to fit in. Anybody got a trailer? The wood is lovely weathered red cedar (I think), and quite solid, the boards are thick and wide, so perhaps we'll be able to make raised beds with some of them. Anything that cannot be otherwise usefully used can be thrown in the woodburner.

We had a walk around the allotment site. How come we have easily the smallest allotment, others seem to be almost twice the size of ours? And I was sad to see that throughout the site little attention seems to have been paid to the aesthetics of allotment keeping. The allotments seem almost purely functional (if that!), indeed just plain scruffy. Perhaps its the time of year?

Here are three of pics of the shed, before and after deconstruction:

What an exciting week...

On the 6th January 2011, I met with John, Robert and Di and we had a very successful planning meeting. In a nutshell, I'm off to the allotment on Saturday or Sunday (depending on the weather) in order to pull down the larger of the two sheds. I'm going to save the very nicely weathered wood and will knock out a few sculptural boards for the raised beds, and perhaps make a sign or two, or planters; that kind of thing. We discussed Robert's allotment plans and made a few refinements. This might still be considered to be a draft, but you can see a floor plan of what the allotment might eventually look like here (sorry its a bit small, but I hope you can work out the detail):

Anyway, we also agreed that a few more things needs to be done. John and Adam (Di's husband) will be clearing the site of rubbish next Tuesday, 11th January 2011. After that we are going to try to address the couch grass problem again and hopefully then we might have a clean(ish) site that we can start work on. When the wood arrives we (well Robert) will edge the whole site with tanalised timber so we can have nice tidy allotment edges. Then we need to prepare the base for the shed. I've checked with the local Council, and the biggest shed we can have is 8 x 6ft, which will have to do. We'll probably lay a gravel base, on which we'll place batons, and then the shed itself.

Even more exciting, Anna has sourced some training from the charitable organisation 'Thrive' (you will find a link to the right of this post), so we'll all be able to get some insight into allotment gardening for the differently abled. Watch this space for dates and, when it happens, pictures.

Thrive

Have a look at this interesting link, I think we are going to try to do more or less this kind of thing:

Click here:     Thrive: Using Gardening to Change Lives

So what are the project aims?

Well we are going to take this rather derelict allotment and over 2011 we are going to transform it into a very fine community resource!

Who exactly are we?

Well, we are Fran, the keeper of this blog, who has an interest in organic gardening and vegetable production and I will be providing hands-on help and ideas about strategic direction. There are various individuals from Age Concern, Dorchester who will be driving the project and its day to day running. These include, notably, Robert Christian, an Age Concern Trustee and an enthusiastic and very active participant in that organisation. In addition, John Yonwin, also from Age Concern where he is responsible for the 'Fit as a Fiddle' project, will be playing a key role. Others who are involved include Di Lawrence, the Age Concern Chief Officer, and Anna Biley, the Development Officer. There will be more participants, I'll give you their details as they become more involved. Lastly, but not leastly of course, there will be Annabel Sampson, the UnLtd Engage Local Co-ordinator, and the wider UnLtd network, who will be giving invaluable advice and support in relation to the project.

Of course we don't plan to do all the work ourselves, that would be defeating the object the project. Instead, we are going to encourage volunteers, primarily men, who will probably be in later life, and are perhaps retired, and who may have a wish to become more involved in community life, to help us out and to become involved. Why older men? Well, when men retire, or move house/town, there is the chance that they lose contact with friends and acquaintances. They may not have the opportunity to engage in allotment activities (have you seen the waiting lists?). They may benefit from light exercise as part of recovery from any one of a range of illnesses. We hope that this project will give the opportunity to these men to meet up with others and engage in meaningful, productive 'man-type' activity, and of course, have that all important cup of tea with others. That's what we are going to try to do. I' really be interested in what you think about all this. Please leave comments!

A quick visit to the allotment

Today we went down to the allotment, it was cold and overcast, but I wanted to take a few photographs of the allotment before it gets cleaned up too much. The raspberry canes have been pruned, some of the couch grass has gone, and the plastic mulch should help clean up the weeds. But as can see from these photographs, the site is still a mess.

The approach road.

Plastic mulch, and what remains of the old shed

The small tool shed, probably post-war

25b, our allotments official number

In the very beginning

I trained as what was then known as a 'mental' nurse in the mid 1970s. In those days, in the big Victorian asylums, there was always the remnants long unused hospital farm. But in those days, I got to hear about how important it was for the in-patients to go and work on the farm, in order to provide food for the hospital, a sense of purpose and occupation, and to have a break from the ward environment. Nowadays, those large Victorian asylums have long gone, they've either been knocked down, or converted into flats and modern housing projects, like the nearby Charlton Down on the outskirts of Dorchester. And of course, it wasn't just the Victorian Asylums that had their farms. Grand country houses had their walled gardens, and during WWII, people dug up their lawns in order to grow vegetables.

But people in any setting, and that includes myself, need to be in touch with the land, to get dirt under their finger nails, and perhaps to have the satisfaction of producing food, even if its on a relatively small scale.

The allotment movement has, in recent years, grown enormously in popularity. People are growing their own vegetables, reducing their 'airmiles' carbon footprint, they are producing and sharing VERY fresh food, are perhaps growing organically, and are benefiting from that sense of purpose an community that can be found in any local allotment society. And in addition to all this, university researchers are beginning to be able to show and highlight that there are quite a number of physical and psychological benefits to keeping an maintaining an allotment.

With all that, and more, in mind, we started to develop ideas about creating a community allotment, so that we (a whole bunch of volunteers and people who would like to just come along and help out) could produce vegetables, or just come and sit in the sun and drink a cup of tea.