We’ve had a few lovely sessions at the allotment this week, despite the drizzle! Firstly on the weekend, I took my daughter down, it was the first time we’d been there in 7 days due to the rain and it was amazing how much had changed! Of course, the first thing we saw was the weeds which had just shot up but luckily the same applied to the veggies as well. My daughter was so excited and proud to pick her very first courgette, we also found our first runner beans and are still picking dwarf beans, broad beans, and lettuce.

With my daughter back at school during the week, I’m having to put my son to work which is always slightly less productive but he embraced it well this week and managed to turn the shed into a boy cave, sitting in the doorway, playing with cars and swigging his water bottle! For the first time, he was enthusiastic about planting so he helped put out another batch of leeks in the space left by my, now removed, batch of broad beans. These are in a bed with parsnips, sweetcorn, and Jerusalem Artichokes which are all doing really well – I’m especially excited about the prospect of home-grown sweetcorn!

My son was less keen on weeding but I’ve found that the advantage of neglecting it for so long is that by the time you do it the weeds have competed with each other leaving a few big ones which are easy to grab and pull out (especially with the ground being so dry at the moment). I also managed to finish digging out the old compost heap, removing as much as possible of the bindweed, and then lining it with weed matting, so we finally have a functional heap which makes me feel like a real allotmenteer!

Finally, we made a small batch of redcurrant sauce (not homegrown sadly) which was a lovely task to do with the children and really delicious (maybe I have to find space for my own bushes)!

More about Lucy...
Lucy is part of the fantastic Heritage Seed Library team, working hard to grow and preserve seed varieties that are no longer available so that our members can enjoy growing them at home. Raising two young children, Lucy is keen to grow an array of fruit and vegetables to become more sustainable and to encourage her children to get involved in growing.

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