Pictured: the author
I can’t believe I haven’t posted since June, or really that so little has happened in my life since then. Two things that directly impacted the allotment have happened: I developed a physical health issue, and then immediately, the council tried for around the eighth time to take the allotment off me.
My two new besties
The health stuff turned out to be much less scary than I’d feared, and while it’s still having a day-to-day impact on my life, the doctors don’t think it’s malignant or that it will get any worse than it currently is. I have a lot to say about medical misogyny and how, just because this won’t kill me or significantly impact my fertility, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like treatment for this very painful condition, but if I start on that issue I won’t stop.
And then in the midst of all this last summer, I got another letter from the council, saying there’d been another surprise inspection and they were taking the allotment off me. There’s no point in me going into all the finer details here, it’s enough to say I don’t think I’m being treated fairly, I know that everyone else is made aware of when these inspections happen and I mysteriously get left out, and although I am a very reserved person, if I feel something’s happening that isn’t fair I absolutely lose the plot, so I appealed the decision, sent the entire council my medical history plus a year’s worth of evidence that I’m cultivating the allotment on a regular basis, and won the appeal.
So I still have it but if I’m honest with myself, a lot of the energy’s gone out of it, because I often feel like there’s no point in me drawing up my elaborate annual allotment plan if it’s all going to get taken away from me. I’m trying to keep things much simpler this year and stick to fairly basic veg.
A tiny bell in the shape of Our Lady watching over the potatoes as they chit, which tells you a lot about who I am generally as a person, I think.
I’ve broken my own rule and have started growing rhubarb, which I do not enjoy the taste of but which takes up a lot of allotment space (plus there are ways of donating food so it’s not going to go to waste), and I’ll be growing Arran Pilot, King Edward and Maris Peer potatoes this year, so a nice mix of first earlies, second earlies and maincrop. I’m going to try and be better with spacing and watering this year too. So rhubarb, onion, garlic, potatoes, the artichokes (which have already started showing a lot of growth this year, probably because of the scarily warm February we’re having) and maybe sweetcorn again – it’s enough for the season when you take the fruit into account, and I also moved the strawberry patch to give it a bit more room (hopefully it won’t get ideas and start growing throughout the entire allotment). There’s no need to overthink things this year.
What I’m probably coming to terms with, though, is that I’m not going to be cultivating this particular bit of land forever. Either they’ll succeed in taking it off me at some point because I run out of energy to constantly fight them, or I’ll just run out of energy full stop. I’m not very happy where I’m living at the moment either, and have felt for quite a while like it’s time to move on – it’s just figuring out the logistics of moving on that’s proving tough and slow.
But…but! It is not all bad. Maybe I shouldn’t have updated while feeling a little bit sad. It’s not allotmenteering I’m not enjoying, and I basically want to grow vegetables for the rest of my life, it still makes me really happy – it’s just I’m coming to terms with the idea of not doing it in the same location. And when I look at it that way, it’s really not such a big problem (I started therapy this week because of a load of traumatic activist stuff and I’m very conscious that I’m speaking exactly like someone who’s just started therapy). Who cares about where the soil I’m growing veg on is location if I’m still enjoying growing that veg?
Plus I started sea swimming! And got sunburn while on the Costa del Donegal yet again! I love sea swimming now, I never thought I’d become One of Those Women but now I am, and I’m going into the sea for a good cause next week, and overall I’m finding it helpful with the health stuff, both physically and mentally.
So I’m still finding my way through, and am still doing my best with the allotment to ensure that as and when I move on, it’s on my own terms. Nobody wants something they enjoy so much becoming a battle, and sometimes you need to pick your battles.
The Ginger Allotmenteer 