We are lucky enough to have an allotment at Bower Hinton that is open to all members of the community to help out at. The purpose is to have a space where people can garden alongside others, helping out as much as they have time to and is a healthy, sociable, fun and productive activity to participate in – and you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour with fresh fruit, veg and flowers! It can be a dipping your toe into gardening, without the commitment of owning your own plot, or a returning to gardening to help train the younger generation.
We have a kids area, so is lovely to have families up there to allow their kids to have a dig, get muddy and take their first steps in growing flowers and veg. We have a wild area to encourage wildlife and plans to enhance this.
Clearly, to maintain this, the more helpers the better, so if you are interested in being involved and can see the benefits to you or/and that you can give to others, please do get in touch and be happy to get your started up there. Will put up here any current jobs that need doing, and if looks like a dry patch, a watering rota…!
We have been successful in securing a grant from SSDC to help us improve the plot and we are using this to build raised beds to help it be easier to organise and allocate jobs, and hopefully a little more accessible as should limit quite so much bending!
We want the allotment to feel fully community so encourage people from all walks of life, all ages and situations to come and be part of the planning, building, digging, organising, harvesting, weeding and watering… And even if you have physical limitations to what you can do, it is a lovely spot to visit, and we intend to make it as welcoming as possible.
We are currently a small team, so hopefully not intimidating to join at all. We are having monthly meetings, 10.30am at the Old Dairy Cafe in Bower Hinton on the first Thursday of the month to talk through the plans for the coming month, and then this allows for participants to work in their leisure throughout the month to fulfil these tasks.