A Place to Sit

After our successful event last week, we had a week off for Development Week before our next session. Unfortunately, the rain also decided to take a week off and return perfectly in time for our first session back. As we geared up, huddling inside the shed to keep warm and get away from the British monsoon, we mulled over our options. After much deliberation (and cajoling on my part), we decided to create a simple yet functional bench from scrap stone and wood lying about the allotment. Surprisingly, it didn’t take us long at all. Pleased with our efforts, we decided to let the rain have its way and called it a day.

It'll be much nicer to sit on in summer...I promise.

Admiring the view...

Go Green Week

People & Planet’s annual environmental program, packed full of green fun and games, is always a fun week. The allotment gang decided to get together and host a seed-giveaway and herb planting event. Like the budding eco-warriors we claim to be, we collected recycled coffee cups and spread the word about our giveaway. The plan was to fill our cups up with compost and give free chilli, lettuce and herb seeds to anyone who turned up. The event was held on Friday and despite many studious students still being in class, we had a great turnout. After a particularly coffee-stained week and many, many seeds later, below you can see the fruits of our labour.

Thank you everyone who turned up and participated in Go Green Week! 

You can find more information about Go Green Week by visiting this page: http://www.facebook.com/uocpeopleandplanet

Herb-planting fun!

Lots of chilli, salad & herb seeds.

Here's some we planted earlier...^

Tiny, Tiny Weeds

Another session where we were on our knees wading through weeds. Only this time it wasn’t taming a thick forest of strange plants, but rather picking out the small weeds starting to take root. Despite the fact we were denied the Rambo-esque ego trip that you get from single-handedly clearing an area of land for cultivation, it was a nice break from digging. However, our dear friend Wes decided he didn’t need a break. He spent this week digging up even deeper weeds from the newest bed. I suppose the moral of the story is that even if everything else is subjective, on an allotment digging is inevitable.

Our lovely weed-free rows

Working together

Wes working hard

A Productive Snow Day

Snow suffocated our vegetables like an over-affectionate grandmother, while the cold sought to penetrate our winter clothes and drive us back into the student accommodation from whence we came. However, since everyone was appropriately dressed and our student houses were about as warm an igloo in Siberia, the allotment was not cancelled. Much to everyone’s delight, the shed was cleaned and an inventory was recorded. Now we can finally fit our wheelbarrow in the shed and find the spades when we need them! We also found some interesting new tools which we hope to utilise when the weather is kinder. The vegetables in meantime will just have to hang in there. We are thankful the ground is better insulated than our student homes!

Snow, snow, snow!

There are some vegetables here...somewhere...

A still rather full but cleaner and tidier shed.

Re-Freshers' Week

After a holiday of drinking, eating too much, and generally avoiding strenuous activity, slogging away on the allotment on a cold Saturday afternoon was not the first thing that came to mind. Predictably, our band of vegetable volunteers was delicate from re-freshers week (otherwise known as New Year's!), and therefore striving for fresh air, socialization and sympathy. They would doubtlessly have got this if Matt was in charge, but this week there was new sheriff in town. Yes readers, with Matt absent the reigns of the allotment had fallen to me; a regime with no time for shirkers! In an hour a new bed was de-weeded and all personal friendly feelings towards me had disappeared. Everyone was unsurprisingly grateful that Matt’s authority would be restored next week…

Another bed cleared!

Our broad beans are coming on nicely.

From left to right: peas, garlic, broad beans.

We're Back!

Nature's Garden is back for more in 2013!

Join us this Saturday 12th January at 12 for more fun digging, delving, and getting dirty!

For those of you who want to learn how to grow your own herbs from, the next few weeks are for you. We'll be digging and preparing a new bed for our herb garden this week and hopefully planting at the end of January.

If organic, fresh herbs aren't your thing, we've got lots of other ways to get involved and even more fun to be had!

Signs of Life

Matt was looking particularly pleased with himself today. A smug grin was spread across his cheeks. Wes and I were cold and grumpy - it was about 1 degrees. “I have some apple pulp!” said Matt cheerfully, as if it justified his good mood. He then proceeded to dump it on the compost bin. After about fifty minutes of the three of us weeding lethargically, we decided that it was far too cold to be outside and headed off to the greasy café for a very much undeserved full English breakfast!

We did however take some pictures of our progress over the last couple of months. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who made this happen!

Two planted beds in the background consisting of winter lettuces, brocolli, onions, broad beans, peas and garlic.

Finally our compost bins were cleared. We found some very fertile compost hidden amongst all the rubbish!

A cabbage seedling.

The first sign of life! A spring onion.