So my husband and I have just taken on an allotment. Sounds like fun you might say? Well, with two small boys as helpers I think it might be rather more work than we are expecting.

Rich, my partner in crime, signed up to be on the waiting list for an allotment two and a half years ago. To be honest, I had completely forgotten he had even done it until a letter came through the post saying a plot had become available. The first plot we looked at was in a bit of a state and at the time we decided it wasn’t for us. Too much work and not a great location, it had been empty for ages. The second was even more work. I guess I naively thought that we wouldn’t be offered one that might actually work. That was until three weeks ago.

I sent Rich up to scout it out, he came back so excited. It’s got an apple tree, he said. It’s got a one year old shed, he said. It’s got berries in it. It just needs strimming and then digging over and we can plant stuff. I got taken along with the idyllic vision of homegrown veggies and juicy fruit from our own allotment. Being able to create yummy things in the kitchen with our own produce. I wasn’t really thinking about whether it would be manageable with a two and a half year old who prefers to water people over plants and a 10 month old who wants to crawl and explore everything, particularly soil and stones, with his mouth.

I tried to block out the fact that maternity leave was about to end and I wouldn’t have quite the same freedom as I have now. I was just thinking how nice it will be for the boys to learn about growing and taking care of things. I don’t really know much about gardening. I’ve experimented with a few things in the past year but I want to learn.  It would be nice for us to do this together as a family and learn together. At least that’s what I thought when we signed the paperwork. Now the reality of it is sinking in as we start to slowly clear the rather large allotment plot we have acquired and glimpsed the work we need to do. Perhaps we are completely mad taking this on now, I guess only time will tell but for now I’m going to document my adventure as an allotment gardener mummy and see how things turn out!