FROM POTS TO PLOTSI

Starting out with houseplants, Hannah Reid then progressed to growing herbs and vegetables on a small scale indoors. Now she has two flourishing allotment plots!

How long have you had your allotment and what got you interested in growing? I took over my first allotment plot in March 2019 and my second (next to my first plot) at the beginning of 2020. My allotment neighbour, who had the plot for 40 years, gave it up and asked me if I would like to take it over – of course I said yes. I was really lucky that it was a well-maintained plot which he’d taken great care looking after, so I was off to a good start – with established rhubarb and strawberry plants, a wormery and plenty of fruit bushes.

I’ve visited garden centres with my mother and auntie since I was young, so I’ve been around plants my entire life. My own real interests began when I moved into my own home. It started with houseplants, then expanded to herbs I could grow on my windowsill like basil and mint. My auntie and uncle have an allotment; they gave me a tomato plant six years ago, which I grew indoors and harvested more than 20 tomatoes from – this is when my real love for growing vegetables began. I lived in a flat at the time, so I experimented with what I could grow indoors with a relatively small space. I was pleasantly surprised how much I could grow, including trailing tomatoes in hanging baskets in the kitchen.