Digging for Victory

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, my esteemed husband and i figured it would be far more financially beneficial - as well as lifestyle/health beneficial - to have an allotment. This isn't as easy as it sounds. It has to be said, we didn't have to wait for our allotment, we could plot share for the last few months of last year (the chap we were sharing it with, had already paid the whole years rent, for the whole plot, so we got our patch rent free), and so the entire plot became ours immediately the new (spring) year started. Everyone is very friendly, and I suppose we will have an abundance of vegetables that are tastier than your average supermarkets produce, BUT it costs to rent the allotment, it costs to purchase the seeds and the fertilizer and seed trays to grow them in, it costs to set up strawberry nets and bean fences, tools cost money, the fruit bushes cost money (and we won't even get a yield from these this year).

Of course we are also reliant on the benevolence of the weather, to not give us a downpour like last year's, which makes the crop poor and the wisdom of other allotmenteers and advice from purchased or borrowed books to ensure that we get something like a halfway decent harvest in the first couple of years as learn for ourselves.

What I'm saying - sitting here, drinking a cup of tea, staring out at the gale force winds and blustery rain for the third day in a row, when I have seeds and plants that need planting - is that allotments are not for the faint hearted and aren't necessarily cost effective for the first year or two, that maybe, just maybe, the local supermarket, or market stall, are cheaper....