Last Sunday, 1st September was our allotment sites annual show. Held every year as a joint event with the NGS gardens for charity open day, however this year was to be a little bit different to previous years. All thanks to two of our plot holders featuring on no less than Gardeners World! It’s not the first time our plots have featured on television, Nigel Slater came and filmed for his Simple Suppers series, but that was sadly before our time. This time however the camera crews had came to film a special couple, George & Serge who have a special allotment plot which won them an award of merit from the ‘Gardening against the odds’ award. Their plot is gorgeous, part English country garden, part Potager and part sculpture garden. It really is beautiful. So thanks to their feature on Gardner’s World (Friday 25th August) and an advertisement of the show by no less than Monty Don himself, the show was a hit, attracting some 700 visitors to see Serge & George, take in the exhibits, tour the site and enjoy homemade cake and teas.
And what a lovely day it was. The sun shone, though we didn’t win anything this year (we were runners up for best half plot, 3rd prize for my chocolate beetroot cake and highly commended for my Strawberry jam) it was lovely to be able to sit back and take in the atmosphere. We’re not big fans of the competitive side of allotments, theirs some scary competitive types on the committee, but we definitely shy away from this. All a bit Allotment Wars! Although I had hoped to put a few bits in for fun, particularly some flowers but typically with my famous lackadaisical organisation skills we missed the deadline for entries. But never mind, there’s always next year.
We had a lovely afternoon and met some lovely people, shared our allotment experiences and received some very sweet compliments on our plot.
You can fin out more about George & Serge’s rose garden and plot here George & Serge’s Rose Garden NGS open day http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/gardenfinder/garden.aspx?id=30128
Catch the Gardeners World episode here on the BBC iplayer (around 8 mins 20 secs in) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0392fdg
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Hello Crafty! I saw your allotments on Gardeners World! The plot they featured looked AMAZING! I loved all the roses. I’d have loved to visit but just couldn’t do it in time. I had no idea you were on the same plot! Love your photos 🙂 I went to my mum’s local village show last weekend, it was good and I was surprised how many people take it soo seriously! Love your photos and it’s awesome that you’re blogging more often nowadays 🙂
Hey Anna! Sorry for late reply!
Yay you saw the gardeners world with our allotment holders on it. George & Serge are little celebs of the plots now. Their plot is beautiful.
The show this year was bonkers can’t believe we had 700 visitors. Our plot is in the thick of it so we got lots of nice visitors admiring the plot and asking us questions. You’d of loved it shame couldn’t make the visit. 😊
Emma x
Such fantastic produce, all without blemish. Gorgeous flowers too…
I’ve never heard of allotment competitions! My husband and I run some allotments here on our farm, but everyone is quite laid back. We tried keeping one ourselves, but we were awful and mostly neglected it all summer.