Cometh the hour, cometh the man with shitloads of questions

I had a chat with the man from the allotment association last night. Nice chap, he was. Sounded like a man who had an allotment. A sense of calm assurance emanated from him and he exuded a patient quality.

I had thousands of questions, as you do. I would imagine every young upstart who has applied for a plot on Almonds Hill has had the same questions.

"Can I put a shed up?"

"What do you mean no fires?! How will I get rid of my waste?"

"Can I plant trees?"

Ok the last one is a ringer, but apparently trees are oft banned from allotment sites. Not sure why, maybe the depth of the roots makes them hard to dig out?

Anyway, the answer to this key & critical last question was a resounding "yes, no problem!".

It turns out that although there are many restrictions on what to grow (keep it legal being the obvious one), height is the main concern, as it may shade out fellow allotmenteer's plot - a mortal sin in this world of brassicas, back pain, leaf mould and water butts. This is good, no - great news! I can plant all of the material that I want and I have a number of years to develop it all into decent starter trees.

I plan to have patches devoted to certain types of nursery stock (juniper, pine, maple) and also a separate section for collected. I intend to apply different training techniques to each - some trees I will simply prune judiciously but allow to thicken. Others will be brutally stamped on and snapped and tortured. When they then grow they should then exhibit unusual characteristics. Only trial and error, time and patience will see me bear the fruits of my labour.

I'll also be able to plant all of those wonder veggies that I horse my way through every week. Red Onions, Asparagus & Broccoli (by the bucketload),, hopefully some salad.

So I have my appointment to meet this chap and see my new plot on Sunday at 11am.

I'm such a sad bastard that I will probably barely sleep on Saturday night through the excitement!!

I'm looking forward to many evenings spent outside, digging, weeding, pruning, deliberating...and chilling. I'm looking forward to the physical aspect too, as part of my healthy lifestyle. The weight is dropping off me right now, and this can only help....

I love being outside. (£50 says my plot is right at the top, at the opposite end to the road, up a nasty hill with only a barrow allowed in)