Where it all started

“Bitten the bullet at last. After 10 years of finding reasons not to, I have had a “carpe diem” moment and taken an allotment. It is waist-high with weeds at present but the soil looks promising”

That was the beginning of an article which I was lucky enough to be asked to write for Lincolnshire's "Good Taste" magazine a couple of years ago. Once the weeds were cleared this is what it looked like  - with hubby helping with some of the soil preparation, thank goodness. The first few weeks were extremely hard work as we decided to do it the hard way, without weedkillers, rotavators or other short-cuts.

That was mid-September 2008. Since then there have been successes and failures. But I came home on Monday with 63 fantastic bulbs of garlic which I had lifted that morning. That makes it all feel worthwhile.