In the beginning...

This is essentially a blog detailing, step-by-step, my first venture into allotment gardening.  I’ve been growing things on a small scale ‘back garden’ basis since I left my childhood home.  I fell into things by accident.  I spent my childhood in a small terraced house with a concrete yard, without paying much attention to my mothers’ efforts to decorate it with pots of summer bedding plants.  I left for a small terraced house of my own – in doing so I took possession of a strip of lawn 100 feet long at the far end of which was a pile of rubble and assorted rubbish.   I removed the pile and was left with a patch of bare soil, some spare time and a spark of interest to see if I could get anything to grow.  The spark turned into a flame which has been burning now for about 20 years and gardening has been a hobby ever since.   After the long strip of lawn I moved to a house with better proportioned back garden complete with mature fruit trees (not much else) and an additional front garden.  Over the past ten or twelve years I’ve gradually filled this space with the customary shrubs, perennials, bedding and even hens. 

Whilst I’ve grown the odd few vegetables in pots, growbags, a couple of small raised beds and an 8’X6’ greenhouse – my growing ambitions now have the opportunity to be fulfilled: after a couple of  years on waiting lists I found out this week that I have been allocated an allotment. 

My current job takes me all over the country and during my adult life I’ve worked in London and  
large towns and cities close by.  However, I have never felt the need to pull up my roots and move myself and family away from where I’ve always lived, in the 'Slade Valley' - a small strip of rural Northamptonshire.

The River Slade (more accurately described as a brook) and also the house I was born into are yards from my allotment and the site of my new endeavours, hence the title of my blog. 

I'm new to blogging too. My idea is to keep a record of my allotment experiences: successes & failures and changes to both my plot and my gardening abilities (hopefully progress!).  Also, I'm hoping I can benefit from advice and feedback along the way. 

Initially I expect posts to be quite frequent, followed by less frequent but nevertheless regular additions.  I hope these will be of interest to you and I'd love to hear what you think. 

Thanks for reading.