| During the spring of 2002 I dug up a portion of our patio and started my first vegetable patch. At the time I was spending 16 hours or so each week travelling between Teeside and Munich so I had plenty of time to think about what I was going to grow. Over the next 2 years I managed a selection of crops, including carrots, parsnips, lettuce, mangetout and onions, as well as finding time to thank the corn gods for the harvest. |
| I blame John Seymoor and his excellent book The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency (1975) for starting my gardening infatuation. The limitations of my 2 square meter plot dawned on me whilst I thumbed through his classic, and read of the illicit pleasures of the smallholding. During my commute to and from Germany I would fantasize about winning the lottery and escaping to the country, dividing up my imaginary 5 acre plot into fields for livestock, vegetable gardens and orchards. |
| It probably would have gone no further than that had it not been for the imagination of one Alexandra Hemingway, who suggested to my girlfriend Kate that an allotment tenancy would be a rather unusual Christmas present. Although Kate never quite got round to arranging anything, the idea was planted firmly in my head. The first weekend of 2004 saw me visiting the allotments round the corner, a mere 10 minute walk from home. The very next day and £17 annual rent down, I was the proud tenant of 200 square meters of compacted clay covered in a sea of black plastic sheeting. |
