I first began working at St Ann’s Allotments in 2004 as part of a project within a hostel in Sneinton for homeless people. Long-term unemployed and with nothing to do, the allotments became a favourite past-time and the highlight of my week. A few years down the line in 2014, I was living in a flat and, although not…
On one of the first occasions I met Charlie Wesson, STAA’s oldest trustee, I was carrying a bundle of the last of the rhubarb on my plot and he told me quite firmly “They say if you eat all those you’re going to die”. What Charlie was referring to was the belief that eating rhubarb in late Spring or Summer was dangerous because of…
After the frosts and dry cold winds of April let’s hope that we are into a normal May. That might enable us to seriously think about starting the barbecue season, which has been delayed by the chilly April evenings for many of us. However, what we don’t want are incidents that one plot holder experienced in April 1834, where someone was clearly not keeping an eye on…
The frosts we have experienced during this month have been a concern, particularly for those of us with fruit trees. Hopefully, the blossom will survive long enough for the bees to begin their pollination task as the weather warms up. Fortunately, we appear to have suffered only ground frosts. In May 1900, fruit tree growers on St Ann’s Allotments were also concerned…
I’ve always thought that the private ownership of land was inimical. As Leon Rosselson’s song ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ has it: You poor take courage You rich take care This earth was made a common treasury For everyone to share That’s why I’ve always been keen to see the allotments as widely as accessible as possible, which is one of the threads…
Although we hear constant references to climate change, we don’t always see those changes around us. As a lad during the late 1950’s the cold war between Russia and the West was at its height, so any severe weather patterns were satirically blamed on the Russians. I was too young to recognise seasonal changes in the weather and birds such as skylarks, lapwings and song thrushes were plentiful. I was…