Show and Tell

 

I came across this picture while sifting through my old photographs today.  It tells a story of youth and enthusiasm - and it was taken in 1993.  That was two years after we were allocated our allotment - the first flush of enthusiasm. Since then our four children have grown up and while they still appreciate good fresh veg, the level of participation dropped off rapidly.  My wife got a job which was all consuming, so when I started my blog in 2003 it was called "Mal's Allotment".  

Showing didn't last long as I fell out with the allotment association organisers (FEDAGA ) after they proposed a voluntary hike in allotment rents from £40 to £100. (There has been regime change since, but only after the Council proposed tripling the annual rent from £100 to £300 at a stroke.) We grow for eating rather than showing anyway and with two working parents productivity and keeping ahead of the weeds took precedence over the niceties.  Now retired we could contemplate showing again, but the pandemic has put paid to that.  There has been no show  for three years now. 

The reward I get from the allotment has not diminished at all.  Every year is a new challenge.  Can the successes be repeated, can last years disasters be turned around.  The craving for novelty is stoked up in TV and radio programmes, blogs  and seed catalogues - as well as by competitive neighbours. I like to set annual goals like: Can we be self sufficient in carrots, garlic, potatoes.. etc. Can I grow a decent celeriac (No) Celery (No) Fennel (Yes) Asparagus (the jury is out).  You are pitting your wits against nature, weather as well as weeds, every year. And every year is different. So I can manage without the show.    

Should I Laugh or Cry?

Anyone who remembers my previous Mal's Allotment blog  will know about the battle I waged against Edinburgh Council and our Edinburgh allotment association FEDAGA.  What at first sight was a council attack on allotment holders turned out to be a plan hatched by the allotment association itself.  The committeee representing over 1000 Edinburgh allotmenteers argued that if they volunteered rent increases on behalf of the members then City of Edinburgh Council would be "shamed" into providing more allotments. So they pushed for rents to be raised from £30 a decade ago to £100  this year, claiming (correctly) that this removed any subsidy by the Council.  Even the 50% concession given to those on benefit or of pensionable age is now covered by rents paid by those paying the full whack. Rent inflation has been in excess of  10% every year for a decade.

So how many more plots have we got?  None.

By contrast Glasgow who had the same rent but have tracked the RPI now charges £34.50 per annum for a full plot. And guess what, they got Commonwealth Games funding for hundreds of new plots!!

To add injury to insult, Edinburgh Council has cottoned on to the supplicant Allotment Association and has now suggested raising rents from £100 to £300 per year!  They just want the money!

Rather late FEDAGA has cottoned on to the error of it's ways and is now appealing to the membership to support it in campaigning for a rent freeze!!!!

Should I laugh or cry?

Links:

fedaga newsletter

2012 Newspaper Article

One of Many Green Tax Posts from Mal's Allotment