The final allotment visit of the year took me to Belfast – a very early rise to travel across the water, and a visit that would turn out to be the most rewarding in terms of diverse allotment sites, and indeed allotment folk.
Armed with wellingtons and uncountable layers of clothing, I was met with plot owner G, a lady whose passion for all things cultivation was clear from the outset. I was kindly driven to her own plot first, on a curious triangle plot of land, unknown to many in the city and by far one of the smallest sites I have visited to date. Sandwiched between two railway tracks on a slightly awkward slope, the plots sat, some loudly and some almost invisible, against the surrounding housing estates and local neighbourhood. ‘It isn’t the prettiest of sites’ was the first comment, which Lady G felt the need to point out. In fact it was pretty much an unused piece of land that through local community support, finally seemed to find some purpose. The site had been up and running for some years now but it was still very much a work in progress. With changing allotment officers, and plot owners coming and going, some transforming and some simply ignoring plots, the site still had a long journey to reach ‘allotment perfection’. But then again who wants a perfectly presented site, when there is so much personality and character to be discovered on individual plots and the varying work people are prepared to do on it.
It must be said that Lady G’s plot was an ingenious example of landscape architecture; stylish recycled raised beds, a draining water system to tackle that tricky slope, and a completely systematic approach to planting her various crops.
Keen to show me the larger sites situated in Belfast – I was then taken to two extremely different but intriguing allotments. Firstly, an allotment site which had been created at the back of a national trust site, just on the outskirts of the city. Complete with national trust cottage, a small farm area and mulled wine and baking on the go in the Kitchen, there was a whole host of local families and young couples working together as a community to develop what was a essentially an old cattle field, into a glorious and well organised site. It was here that I met Lady G’s friends, a fellow ‘supper club’ couple. The Supper Club was an idea started by a few local friends in the city, all of which happened to be young lesbian partners and all of which enjoyed hosting ‘come dine with me’ style evening gatherings. The food, of course, came from the cultivated crops on the couples’ sites, and Lady G’s friend giggled to me, ‘that you just aren’t a proper lesbian couple around here unless you have a supper club and your own allotment plot with your partner. It really is quite trendy now’.
On a tight schedule, we had to move on and unfortunately missed out on the mulled wine, but it was worth the journey to the third and most unusually sited allotment I had been to date. It is times likes this that meeting people like Lady G is such a blessing – as I feel my allotment adventure never would have taken me to this site without her. Hidden at the very ends of an old and overwhelmingly large NHS mental health hospital grounds, I arrived at my last allotment adventure of the year. A local volunteer group had been given some unused land within the grounds of a mainly empty hospital site for the purposes of cultivation. What had been created was incredible; a sea of neat and heavily occupied allotment plots, flourishing with crops and flora despite its winter season. Through sheer determination, dedication and teamwork within one full season, this empty area of marshy land had become a fully operational site. Each plot had, as many do, their own accessories or individual trademarks ranging from a small dolls house and amusing DIY scarecrow to impressive manure systems and decorated raised beds and flower pots. I met with two fantastic women, who could not emphasise the sense of wellbeing and community spirit they felt when on site, and it was clear to see why. As a culminating allotment visit, I felt thoroughly satisfied by what I had seen.
It is officially time to get my name on a waiting list…
