These are the allotments where I walk the dogs. Scamp is always appreciative of the visit as there is always plenty of manure in which to roll and to end up as smelly as possible and raise his street cred with the other dogs.I like allotments because they are utilitarian gardens and I like the contrast between the utilitarian grey shapes of the huts and fences and the softness and colour of the vegetation, which always seems to end up taking over, except in the most carefully tended plots. Nature will always prevail. Some of the allotments are spectacularly weedy with giant hybrid monster weeds, but I have chosen pics which are really rather beautiful, and which rival many a garden.
The first pic I asked permission of the allotment holders (who kindly gave it) to take it as it seemed such a perfect English scene, a couple gardening with clouds billowing overhead and the gentleman sporting a straw hat. Actually the lady said she agreed and wished she had brought her camera with her so I hope they find this blog as per instructions!
Second pic like a secret garden found among the rows of tended vegetable allotments, with pergola and slightly overgrown. Different flowers from spring when it was full of foxgloves.
Third and fifth pics look like somebody's prize blooms and look a splendid sight en masse. The manure has certainly been doing its job.
Fourth pic, that Russian Vine has transformed that shed roof into leafy thatch. Notice how it is billowing over the sides. They need to take action now or the shed will shortly disappear. Me and Scamp took the liberty of walking up one of the aisles to see this and again somebody has made it into a little garden with chairs to sit on and a collection of hanging mirrors to catch the light.
An educational visit for Scamp as he was playing on the field with Ash, a Border terrier, who is the daughter of the Border terrier which won Crufts a few years ago. I hope some of the class rubbed off.
5 comments:
Lovely pics. I always wanted an allotment when I lived in London, but these are great. I thought that was a Russian vine - we have one here that grows right up the trees and into everything. Maybe they are called different things in different parts of the country.
do you have an allotment yourself?
BTW I was born in Hull - in Beverley to be exact.
Great pictures, you are really sharing your world with us and it is great fun. The allotments are beautiful and makes me want to have a garden of my own. Well, I do have a teeny one, I guess. There is a little bit of dirt. There are four plants called Wandering Jew, so I am not sure which one yours is. I would have to see it up close.
It occurs to me that `Wandering Jew' is perhaps rather offensive and casually racist. I must have picked it up from somewhere and used it without thinking. But some people are quite casually racist round here. So apologies and I will amend to 'Russian Vine'!
We don't currently have Iran allotment but my husband used to have one, dug it a few times, did his back in, left it and then received letters of complaint about the state it was in.
I was married in Beverley, and one of my kids was born there, in a room overlooking the Westwood.
Sweet Irene, the plant to which I am referring is the plant which has overgrown the shed roof on one of the pics on this blog. You can actually enlarge the pic and see it quite clearly. It is a great plant, virtually indestructable and fast growing.
All the Wandering Jews I found were house plants and I found none that were called Russian vine, so it is still a bit of a mystery vine. A great puzzle to solve. Of course, my gardening book is from California and may not have English vines in it. Still, I would like to find it, as it seems to be so easy to grow.
Russian vine is called Fallopia something, I always remember it because it reminds me of fallopian tubes. It is also called the mile-a-minute plant in London, for obvious reasons.
Post a Comment