The Allotment

Our allotment has done us proud again this year. So far this summer we have harvested carrots, French beans, broccoli, leeks, peas, onions, courgettes, rhubarb, raspberries (red and yellow), strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, gooseberries, we'll soon have pears off the tree, and kale and brussel sprouts are coming on for the winter season.

We've had the usual battles. The wooden frames support plastic netting which keeps the local pigeons off the brassicas, but the cabbage white caterpillars have been a nuisance on the broccoli. Particular successes have been the onions - I think the best we've ever grown - and the carrots - in the foreground of the picture - which have managed, so far, to avoid the attention of the carrot fly.

There's something very therapeutic about an hour or so's work on the allotment followed by a few minutes' relaxation on our seats under the pear tree. The tree is visible in this picture at centre, background, almost covering the very decrepit shed.

A pleasant bonus is that our little patch of good Suffolk earth is near the entrance to the allotments so people walk by along the track and often stop to exchange a few words and, if we're lucky, give us some advice.

What we harvest off the allotment is additional to what's growing in the garden. At present we're harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers from both inside and outside the greenhouse. Both grow very well without a greenhouse in this climate but it is also nurturing some very late aubergines and peppers - though whether they'll fruit before winter arrives is debatable.