Third Agers will remember that in their younger days allotments were everywhere. Any surplus spare land was put to the soil to grow potatoes, vegetables and even to keeping pigs and chickens.

Fashions and lifestyles changed and the allotment waned but now they are very much back in fashion and in many areas there are huge waiting lists for the smallest plot of land.

I recall a huge amount of allotments in the northern town where I grew up. Two could be seen from our window and were laden with enough fruit, vegetables, flowers and chickens to keep the owner and his family and provide him with a living as a market gardener.

I fondly remember working with the owner of these allotments during school holidays, and actually being paid! So began my love affair with gardens, an affair which is being shared by a rapidly increasing number of people for a variety of reasons.

The health benefits of an allotment have to be one of the main reasons. You are in the fresh air, you are exercising gently all the time and heavily when you dig over the various sections. You are growing natural, wholesome produce which, today, you will not find on many supermarket shelves. What can beat the taste of your own home grown early crop potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions, celery, broad beans, peas and peppers? I could go on.

Preparation is everything on a new allotment. Let’s suppose you have inherited an overgrown piece of land with an unknown history. First of all clear it of all vegetation. This can be done very successfully with a proprietary product called Round Up. Then, when all greenery has disappeared, you are going to have to dig.

Many people choose to rotovate with a machine but nothing beats a bit of “double digging”.

Dig a trench the full length of the plot and then dig another spade’s depth. Deposit the first lot of soil back in the trench and then the second. When you have done this on the entire allotment you can rotovate if you wish. However, my choice would be to plant potatoes only in the ground for the first year and grow everything else in containers.

The potatoes break up the soil like nothing else can do. Use maincrop seed potatoes and by the end of the season you should have a fine tilth which you can begin to mark up into sections to begin your crop rotation for the following year.

What to grow? Anything you like and which you can store or even sell or give away to friends and family. Potatoes can be stored in sacking in an airy shed, a must for any allotment, onions can be strung and stored, but then you need to think of preventing a glut of produce.

Green vegetables can usually be grown in stages so that you can enjoy the pickings of them through the season. If you have too many it is worth thinking of blanching and cooking them and making good use of your freezer. Pickle onions, string garlic, make chutneys from tomatoes, beetroot and peppers. You can almost keep as busy preparing to preserve your produce as you are growing it.

Your allotment will become a way of life, a source of envy to many and a passport to a fitter, healthier Third Age.

In future features we will take a look at seasonal tasks and delights in more detail. In the meantime, get out there and get digging!

Graham Smith for Third Age.

See also: Top 10 Tips for Allotment Gardening

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