ALLOTMENT TALES
It’s always a tonic to visit other allotment sites. David and Janice were my hosts for the day over at Berridale, Glasgow. I got my first glimpse of the site from the Cathcart station platform. There is so much to like about this well-established site. Starting off our tour from its substantial vintage communal building, we walked round the main path. The first impression was of colour. Plotholders are encouraged to plant a broad flower border at the front of their plots. It was a drizzly day but somehow the abundance of calendula, alyssum and antirrhinum shone out to lift the spirits, setting off the shades of green from the vegetables beyond. Dahlias and fuchsias were doing well.
I admired the individual huts. The ramshackle appearance of allotment huts is often disparagingly commented on. There was nothing unkempt about these ones. Some of them looked so well-furnished and comfortable that I’m not sure I’d want to go home at night. Greenhouses on my site were often a target for vandals so that now there is only one. In contrast at Berridale, there were plenty of greenhouses. I was full of envy seeing tomatoes turning red as well as peppers and aubergines which struggle to ripen outside in the Scottish summer.
It’s interesting to make comparisons with my own experiences. Every year there are one or more crops which let me down. This year it’s beetroot. I’ve sown and re-sown it several times. Germination has been patchy and those plants that there are look undernourished and lack-lustre. I’m not a fan of beetroot in vinegar which reminds me of cold Sunday suppers at school but I really like roasted beetroot, and beetroot and apple salad. It’s rather good in cakes too. Unless mine puts on a late spurt, I’m not going to look forward to much this year. Comparing notes with some of the plotholders at Berridale told the same story. Even the Diploma students at Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens were having difficulty growing a good row on their individual plots. Plotholders on my own site are reporting mixed results with their beetroot crop although one or two have no problems at all.
We are in the middle of Horticultural Show season. A look at the show benches tells all about the season – there may be gaps if one particular crop has done so badly that no-one feels they have anything good enough to enter.