BEAUTY AND THE BEETS

The question asked by Emma Bailey was: could her allotment be beautiful and productive? She gave it a go and here is what she discovered

- Emma Bailey

When I first got my hands on my allotment plot back in 2019, I had visions of creating a beautiful wildlife-friendly W paradise. It would be filled with dainty, beeloving flowers that danced in the summer breeze, and bursting with delicious vegetables and fruit, all growing strong and happy. I would skip through the garden wearing a long, floating dress and gather up crops in my handmade wicker basket, humming a Disney song on my way home.

Of course, just a few short months into cultivating my plot and the reality of growing my own vegetables on an allotment 20 minutes from my home became clear. Slugs ravaged their way through my carrots, broccoli and cosmos plants, birds swooped in to attack my dahlias and strawberries while squirrels began digging up my tulip bulbs and serving them to their friends for lunch.

I had no choice but to begin the tedious job of protecting everything. Up went the nets and cloches; out came the eggshells and beer traps and all of a sudden my dreams of a fairy-tale garden seemed just that... a dream.

The allotment began to resemble one big advertisement for mass-produced supplies as I desperately tried to keep everything alive! gardening And forget my dreams of beautiful, raised beds bursting with one of everything. It turned out that some plants didn't like others, some needed complicated structures to keep them upright and rows of uniform crops were far more practical for weed control and harvesting.

My allotment garden was becoming more and more productive, but I couldn't help but feel the prettiness had all but disappeared. It felt regimented and constructed instead of free and natural, the look I had been going for.

I blamed the bugs, I blamed the plants and I blamed the weather. I couldn't seem to get the balance right between practicality and natural beauty.