GROW YOUR OWN
Avery warm welcome to this brand new column from keen allotmenteer Olga Grieves
Time certainly has away of slipping through our fingers, and here we are embarking on new gardening adventures for the year. Rather than making any wild gardening resolutions, which tend to wither away, I prefer to think of them as promises to my plot – it is a gentler commitment!
I’m Olga, better known on social media as @lovely_plot, and I’ve been entrusted with the delightful task of curating this monthly column. Originally from Poland, I’ve been living in the UK for the past 18 years, a decade and a half of which I’ve spent gardening on my allotment in Plymouth, Devon. Iam a proud amateur gardener with an appetite to experiment, learn and then learn some more. I’m currently studying for my RHS level 2qualification (or trying to!).
My journey into gardening began in 2013 when my fiancé posed a seemingly innocuous question: “Hey, do you think we should apply for an allotment?”
I responded with an eye roll and bewildered look, unsure of the allure of cultivating land when I had no real prior experience, other than helping my mum and dad in their garden when Iwas little, and this always consisted mainly of eating the food rather than growing it.
We applied anyway… and to our surprise, the council notified us about an available plot just 300m from our home two weeks later. We visited the site, and as they say, the rest is history. Iwas hooked!
My feet firmly planted in the overgrown ground, my head buzzing with ideas, but with no tools, no expertise, and no financial cushion, I embarked on a gardening journey. I scoured charity shops for gardening books, determined to make the most of this opportunity and Isowed my first seeds.
Skipping ahead to 2020, after a seven-year wait, Iwas finally granted access to the adjacent half-plot. Lovely Plot has grown into a full-size plot, and I’ve now proudly assumed the title of ‘Head Gardener’ of this 600m sq slice of green heaven.
My plot is on a slope with woodland at its rear. When I acquired it, it was entirely overgrown, and my only inheritance from the previous owners was a broken plastic chair and a struggling blueberry bush. The second plot was extremely polluted, and Ihad to start from scratch with both but there is nothing I love more than a long-term project.
Iam an organic gardener and garden usin
