CHANGE OF PLAN

It is now 10 months since my last post and a lot has changed since then. 

I absolutely loved growing food at the allotment.  I learnt so much in six months - mostly by making mistakes but that's probably the best way.  I went on a permaculture course for a weekend and loved learning the principles of working with nature instead of against it and became determined to grow organically using natural predators to control pests etc.  I also read permaculture magazines and books and searched online to find out all I could.  It was hard being the novice and being told by all the old hands that I had to use slug pellets but I don't really want to kill slugs or birds - it seems much better to me to make a pond and let some frogs have a gourmet meal!

Of course I was frustrated by many of my seedlings being gobbled up but using physical barriers helped a bit and I knew that I hadn't had time to establish a proper ecosystem to do it for me.

However much I loved working on my plot I always felt in the back of my mind that it wasn't the right space for me.  This meant I didn't want to invest in say a new shed, or the time and effort to bring in tons of manure which I felt was necessary.  The plot was too big for me to manage and it's layout with lots of paths all overgrown with weeds and surrounded by long grass was very high maintenance.  It was also too awkward to get materials to it.  Although very close to my home getting my bike out of the garage, cycling there opening padlocks etc all took 15 minutes so that was half an hour round trip meaning I usually stayed two to three hours each time I went and was so exhausted the rest of the day was written off!  I kept wondering how I could find a more suitable space - I'd love to buy a small plot of land but that would certainly be too far away, I could have worked instead at a community garden of which there are many in Brighton and shared the produce, I could have tried to find someone with a garden which was too big to manage and arranged to share it with them and share the produce but none of these ideas seemed right for me.

I live in a flat on the second floor and there is a border of grass and shrubs around the block. I rarely used the garden as I have a balcony but it was a lovely day and I took my lunch out to sit in the sun before it got to the west side where my balcony is.  On this day I had a eureka moment.  All of this space is wasted!  It's right outside my back door, the grass is covered in dandylions and daisies but it could be covered in fruit and veg!  Surely the neighbours wouldn't mind that? It solved so many of problems of the plot and all the other possibilities I'd been mulling over.  If I had any success I could share the produce with my neighbours, get a bench so that they could enjoy sitting out too and perhaps get some of them enthusiastic enough to grow their own too.  It seemed much more worthwhile than working alone at a plot which no-one else would see.  I felt very excited and contacted the managing agents for permission.  There was some resistance  'what if everyone else wants to do the same'?  My first thought was well, wouldn't that be brilliant, all growing our own very local food. I reassured them it was highly unlikely given that most of the people in the ground floor flats were elderly already grew some flowers beneath their windows and that a lot of the residents are tenants so probably wouldn't want to invest the time.  I also said that it would be easy to revert to grass if anyone complained.  I got agreement and those overlooking my desired space were all very happy and interested in my plans.

It was September and so the growing season was over at the plot so, I dug up the perennials to replant here, tidied it all up, took the lovely compost I'd made and emptied the shed then mustered some energy to start all over again!