My Sunday Photo - Thinking about an allotment

There are allotments within a 10 minute walk of our house. I've no idea how one goes about getting a plot and I'm guessing there is probably a waiting list for one.

I really enjoy gardening and for the first time, ever, I've actually been in one place long enough to grow, nurture and harvest peas and strawberries and I have a pumpkin, beans and a cucumber growing. 

Part of my enjoyment with gardening is the fact it's just outside my back door. I can do what I need to do for as long or as little as I like. We don't need or want a showcase garden. We need to replace the shed and we're thinking of having one with a workshop in the back and a veranda out front with a lean to green house.

There are no rules that state a garden must have a lawn or traditional flower beds, so I'm investigating and planning how to combine an allotment style garden into the space we already have. Typically veg patches are at the bottom of the garden, behind fencing, but I'd like to see how we can combine veg patches, herb garden, some fruit trees and little paths meandering around the existing lawn.

It's taken me most of lockdown to restore the garden from a jungle to a relatively flat lawn, reclaim the paths from the lawn and make repairs to the sheds and the gates.

Seeing as it's going to be a while before I can get back to Dubai and the weather being so nice, now may be a good time to start drawing up some plans and researching foods I can grow for next year, when we're back in the UK full time.

I'd love to know if you've done anything similar.

Township gardening in South Africa with #HDYGG?

Update on my visit to Soshanguve in November last year.

I was introduced to this project by the lovely Lee-Anne who I met after I asked for people on social media to let me know if they knew of any deserving children that would benefit from receiving a christmas gift.

Lee-Anne has been involved with Ikaya Lami for a long time supporting them with donations, arranging for long drops to be dug and housed........the list is endless. This week, through a plant forum on face book she received 1200 plants, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Kale, Rape and Mustard which she and a team of volunteers helped to plant, May 2016. I'm hoping to get back to South Africa in July this year for a week and look forward to visiting this project and many others like it.

Original post

Access to water in many townships is not available with adults and children walking up to 4kms each way to get water for drinking and washing, so having a garden in a township for many is a luxury, although it does rain regularly during summer, but South Africa has been having a drought over recent months with the rains arriving late and water is being rationed.

Many people in the townships try to be self sufficient and grow their own fruit and vegetables and they are able to do is if they have a bore hole, they are usually community projects who run after school care, take in orphans, run the local church and support the locals.

The cost of a bore hole starts from around R25,000/£1,100/AED 6,450 depending on the ground being dug and the depth required to get fresh water and the casing needed. These costs are met with donations from individuals and sponsors, but they are few and far between and many communities who try to be self sufficient have to give up early on in the project so many just don't invest the money in seeds or the time for projects they know will fail due to lack of water.

However some are successful like this community project in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria.

They have built an irrigation system and are successfully growing fruit trees and a variety of vegetables to supplement a very meagre income with 18 children from age birth to 18 to feed, plus the adults who live there and run the project.

I've spotted a variety of fruits and vegetables growing but wasn't able to put a name to everything, I think a lot of the gardening here is 'plant it and see'

Peach tree

Papaya?

Onions

 One of the projects in desperate need of a bore hole is in Mpumalanga. Access to water would make a huge difference to the communities lives.

Gardens around the UK, Dubai, South Africa and Canada with #HDYGG

September took hubby and I to the UK for just over 2 weeks. The main purpose of our trip was child 4 of 5 passing out parade in Catterick.

I travelled for the first few days on my own, arriving in Birmingham and travelling up to Manchester, then over to Bradford where I stayed on a farm, a day out in York with child 3 of 5 and then collecting hubby from the train station in Thirsk.

We then drove down to South Wales where we were based for the rest of our stay with an overnight stay in Lyme Regis with friends.

I haven't seen any other weather other than summer for over 12 months, since moving from South Africa to Dubai in December last year, although winter in Dubai when we arrived it is very similar to a UK summer but without the rain. I visited the UK late April for my niece's wedding and the weather was wonderful and then spent 3 weeks in Canada. I'm off to South Africa next week where it's the end of spring and start of summer.

The gardens I've visited the past 12 months have been wonderful from the Dubai Miracle Gardens in Dubai, Catherine's Garden in Canada, Spring in the Western Cape and of course my Mum's garden twice this year in South Wales.

The towns and cities I've visited were still all in full bloom and looked wonderful.

Birmingham

Allotments in the car park in Saltaire, Bradford

Tewkesbury

Gloucester Cathedral

Bridport, Dorset

Beer, Devon

Thirsk, Yorkshire

York

The Gardens at the B&B in Bradford on the farm

The garden at the B&B in Thirsk

With our daughter on a stroll through Keynsham, Bristol

The Country Lanes of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Woodland walks and berry picking

These fir trees were planted by my Mum and Dad at our old house in York in 1976

The Crematorium in Newport where my Gran's ashes are

Log piles

Farmers Markets

My mum's garden