I’m no gardener.  Well I wasn’t until about a year or so ago.  Having preached to all my friends for years about the environment I felt it was time to stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk. My memories of gardening go back to my childhood, when my father would bring a continuous delicious supply of vegetables from his allotment (that and stealing runner beans from the garden to munch on).

But why “dig for victory”, surely you can dig all you want and still end up with nothing to eat.

The problem is, I live in a flat with no garden.  For the last year or so I’ve been writing letters to my MP Robert Syms about the need for more allotments in my local area.  I’m on a 5 year waiting list for an allotment and according to the Small Holdings and Allotments Act ‘If the council of any borough, urban district, or parish are of opinion that there is a demand for allotments . . . in the borough, urban district, or parish, . . . the council shall provide a sufficient number of allotments, and shall let such allotments to persons . . ..’ (1).  A 5 year waiting list to me is demand.  But sadly, despite my lobbying – 3 letters and 2 visits later – I still haven’t convinced the Rt. Hon. Mr Syms (Conservative) to convince the local council that we need more allotments.

So I started to deal with the problem myself.  The 3m x 1m balcony area on my flat became my gardening canvass.  All that I needed was a little imagination.

I bought a bunch of seeds from an organic seed supplier on the Internet and over the past few weeks I’ve been stuffing seeds into pots like my survival depended on it.  Somehow I’ve managed to squeeze a compost sack full of potatoes, 2 tomatos, 2 courgettes, 2 climbing french beans and 2 okra plants onto my “garden”.  Be creative is my motto.  Using cloches (gardening lingo for plant covers) made from chopped up drinks bottles, I’ve protected my crop from the late cold nights of Spring.  I’ve even created a makeshift green house, from a Coca-Cola drinks stand round my girlfriend’s father’s house.   One thing I’ve learned is that it pays not to be too regimental.   Try to maximise your space.  Things don’t have to be in neat lines.  Use all available space, for example using a couple of bags from a local gardening centre, I’ve managed to put Nasturstiums on the wall  (this is my effort to give the Bees some nectar, to stop them becoming extinct).  The windowsills of my flat have made excellent seedling nurseries, for compost packed egg cartons, stuffed inside sandwich bags.  Their success has been remarkable.  Some days I’ve seen things start to sprout in as little as two days.

But be careful, growing food is addictive.  I’ve started to convince friends and family to let me cut up their gardens to grow things.  In excess of 100 onions, 12 potato plants, 30 carrots, squashs, pumpkins, peas, parnips and beans galore later, my attention is now turning to how I might preserve this sumptious feast in the later months of 2009.  Freezers?  Coldstores? Vegetable bartering at work?  Quite frankly I can’t wait to see the results of this experiement.  I still don’t feel as though I’d fair well in a conversation with UK’s gardening expert Allan Titchmarsh or Michelle Obama in her veg patch, but I’ve started my journey towards self sufficiency. I’ve started to take back, a skill many people once took for granted.

Links:

1. UK Small Holdings and Allotments Act. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1908/cukpga_19080036_en_2