Covid 19 lockdowns have not put the breaks on this year’s developments on our second biggest site – Lime Tree Road. It’s got the most newcomers and more younger people than any of the other sites and with a lively WhatsApp group to keep people in touch, there’s lots of interaction to help new people get started.
But there’s also a small – and shrinking – group of old-timers who aren’t in the social media loop but who do have plenty of experience which could benefit people new to gardening.
One such is 87-year old Cyril who has been cultivating vegetables at Lime Tree Road site for 26 years and only last year gave up a second plot where his fig tree continues to produce a delicious crop each summer. Now his efforts are concentrated on a Small Plot (one between 84 and 167 square metres in the Council’s set of tariffs) and this is enough when he now travels a long way to maintain it – apart from being no spring chicken.
Cyril is one of the shrinking group of over-80s who’ve been on the site for many years: the longstanding Site Representative Keith Simpson died in April, but the remaining plotholders from this Windrush generation of gardeners are still going strong and growing top quality vegetables on their plots.
Cyril’s harvesting a variety of crops this year as before, and knows how to get the best from his patch. He’s growing beans, cauliflowers, sweetcorn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and pumpkins. He’s on hand to pass on tips as well – he’s told me that pumpkin leaves beginning to shrivel and turn yellow and brown is a good sign the pumpkins are ready to be harvested. If you can easily push your fingernail into the pumpkin skin, that’s another sign.
Cyril, Nathan, Chuni, Esther, Tony and Paul are other longstanding plotholders– they’ve all got a story to tell, and tips to pass on to the newcomers on the site, for anyone happy to put their mobile phones away.
As for the more recent plotholders, they too have tips to give – to people on their own site and other sites too if anyone wants to visit. At this year’s WEGA Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Competition held on 21st August, Lime Tree Rd plotholders filled a car-full of vegetables and took them down to Northleigh Road where the competition was organised – the first since 2019. The 4 who entered picked up a clutch of 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize certificates for their pumpkins, marrows, courgettes, cucumbers, onions, garlic and leeks. They brought other crops as well such as turnips and radishes which weren’t in the competition but went on the table display for plotholders and their families to admire when the marquee was opened for visits.
Before they came to the UK and later took on plots at Lime Tree Road, some of the newer plotholders had experience of growing food in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Portugal where the climate and soil conditions are different. But what everyone has in common is enthusiasm and a willingness to have a go, learn from each other and share or swap seeds, tools and equipment so they can make the best of what is fast becoming a very popular site.
