Since the early days of the allotment we were determined to grow only from seed. We’d soon stopped with potatoes and alliums, mainly due to blight and the small size of the plot. We focused on peas, beans, leaf and root crops, herbs and flowers. Seed seemed the way to go.
Our one constant exception was sweet peas, which were kickstarted for us in Fern Verrow farmer Jane Scotter’s Hereford greenhouse and later delivered on the fruit and vegetable run.
Finally, this year we’ve grown up and grown our own. I sourced assorted seed from Roger Parsons, home of the national collection. Blooms were chosen for strong colour and scent, from the “old-fashioned” and Spencer selections.
We started them in the bedroom, then moved outside as soon as it was warm and bright enough. Later, they were transplanted to the plot when Howard sourced new hazel poles. And here we are at last. Grown-up proper gardeners – two tents of sweet peas, with a handful of scented glory to add to this week’s calendula, radishes and salad leaves to take home.
Everything else is still sown in situ: climbing beans and peas at the base of poles. Our leaves and flowers are grown in patches rather than rows and I think for now we will stick with this as the plot predators seem more likely to leave them alone.
There are small beds of cosmos and tagetes. Others may be a mix from dill, orache, fennel, calendula and sunflowers. The latter to be scattered and shared when perhaps a foot tall.
I think I’ll always be excited when I see shoots break through. Gardening as caring: almost a form of parenting perhaps.
But now, what are your forever plants, some favourite thing to grow?
Allan Jenkins’s Plot 29 (4th Estate, £9.99) is out now. Order it for £8.49 from guardianbookshop.com
