If you want vegetables to taste like they should, you have to grow your own. Its hard work, but the results are just amazing. The stuff you grow bears little resemblance to what you buy in the supermarket.
The shapes are knobbly, some of the leaves have holes in them and you might find the odd caterpillar or two amongst the green bits. But the taste.......
We joined the Western Wards allotment association in October 2001 and took over a half size plot (Plot 6AA). It hadn't been worked for several years
so it needed a very large amount of work to tame it and to repair the mouldy old shed we also inherited. We'd just read a book extolling the virtues of raised
beds so we decided to use this system on the plot. No one else on the allotment seemed to be doing this, so we thought
it likely we would get some sideways looks from the older experts on site. (We did).
Well, it's now 2009 and we are still at it. We've learned that no matter what you do, Mother Nature always has the last say. Some years it's cold and wet,
some years it's hot but too dry, some years the blight wipes out the spuds and the tomatoes, and some years it all just works as we first fondly imagined it should. Still not found a cheap way to beat the slugs. Don't think we ever will either - heigh-ho.
