The Artistry of Allotmenteering

I love looking around the other plots on our site, they are each so very different. It is like giving a large group of people their own empty white room and access to whatever furniture, material and paint etc they desire - it is an expression of who you are; your personality comes through and it is a joy to see; there is practically unlimited potential. We aren't all graduates from some fancy Horticultural school and I think it is all the more pleasurable for that; the quirkiness, the plonk-it-in-and-see-what-happens sentimentality, the way your mind thinks outside the box and every skip you drive past could have the perfect piece of 'rubbish' that you need!

Andrew and I are very plain to see in our plot layouts. Andrew did more of 24a at the beginning than me as I had NO confidence at all but it slowly grew into 'ours'. This time 14b seems to be a little more me at the moment (well so Andrew said as he praised me for the design so far on Sunday) and I find that very interesting. Yes, I knew that garden designing was an art form (just look at all the fuss over Chelsea the past couple of weeks) but to me Allotments were always strips of productive land that you grew veg on, productivity being the key. They are so much more than that, my eyes are open now.

So with this in mind I would like to introduce you too Mary and Phil, both of whom were working on their individual plots all day, like us, on Sunday. They're very different but both deserve a lot of praise and I have photos to prove it......

Mary has always had a lovely half plot, feminine and neat. She puts a lot of love into her piece of Eden and I always find something to take a photo of that just looks prefect no matter the time of year. In fact on Friday night past I took a picture of her plot thinking it looked lovely, only to find that it was even prettier on Sunday as she had whipped out the paint brush and tackled her shed. So cute, I love the icy blue colour. I bet someone could study people's sheds and give a full psychological work up of the individual. Plus, Mary is sensible and eloquent, a real asset to the Lottie Community meetings and full of praise for everyone who works hard. (I am not a sycophant, really, I'm just telling it as it is).

Phil, you may remember from a recent post - he is the mysterious and generous 'book giver'. Remember my detective work, or lack there of, hehe? He was done so much hard work over the past few weeks and really turned around an over grown, tired plot into something that looks full of live and new promise (my photos do it no justice). He also has finally got that darn shed together, the weather was not on his side over the winter and the wind was particularly cruel (bits of shed all over the show, not a happy time). It's also been really pleasurable to see his wife come down more often with a flask of tea and his son showing an interest too. Sometimes I wonder how people work their Lotties alone, I need that interaction with Andrew to really appreciate what we've done.

Phil is also good at identifying bugs - goodies and nasties. Which is very valuable really and something I'll talk more of on Friday.

So there you go, just 2 of almost 200 plots and so different. It's just my feeling, but I think we all have a bit of the artist in ourselves and being able to express yourself in many ways is a wonderful gift. What does you plot say about you??