ALLOTMENT TALES
Sheds are the big conundrum of allotments. To most outsiders, rows of decaying dilapidated buildings are the least attractive defining feature of allotments. To plotholders they can be anything from storage for essential tools to a cherished retreat or sanctuary. Artists often see the beauty of them – Pat Edwards, a Musselburgh artist, has just asked if she can do some painting on our site. Council officials and neighbours are less easily charmed by the appearance of some of the more unusual constructions. Some new allotment sites don’t allow individual sheds at all – tools must go in lockers in a communal building.
Plotholders are renowned for being resourceful. Shower screens and replacement windows can make excellent lean-to greenhouses propped up on the side of a shed. I’ve seen good use made of an imitation Charles Rennie Mackintosh front door complete with letterbox. It’s never long before even a standard shop-bought shed sports some personal features. Bird boxes and curtains at the window are fairly common, but I heard recently about a plotholder in Aberdeenshire who has a piano in his shed. I look forward to finding out how he managed to get it on to his plot.
Acquiring a shed is often one of the first tasks for a new plotholder. Sometimes the new plotholder lavishes too much attention on it while the weeds flourish and is shocked to be on the receiving end of a “dirty plot letter”. Some plotholders spend whole days on their plot and having somewhere to shelter out of the weather is essential. Solid fuel stoves, or at least a gas ring, are popular, together with a comfy chair or two, making them little short of home from home.
Although a shed is welcome in winter, it’s almost as important to have one in the summer when friends and relations are invited to help with the harvest chores. Adults can sit down while plaiting strings of onions or topping and tailing gooseberries. Small children, tired of digging holes or fishing in the water trough, appreciate a table top where they can do a bit of drawing or lay out a picnic. My friend Isobella used to have an array of elderly ride-on plastic vehicles in her hut for visiting children.