The allotment phenomenon

The cult of grow your own has become massive this year. Maybe it's the credit crunch driving us back to a simpler way of life, a hobby that saves us money not one that eats through our finances. Maybe it's the inevitable next step in the green revolution. Or maybe all those hours of watching Hugh do it on River Cottage have finally paid off. Almost everyone I know is growing something this year and it's a great community to be part of. A mild panic I had during the week about my potatoes was soon assuaged by talking to a fellow gardener.

I guess part of the reason I moved to the country was to be able to grow my own and become more sustainable, which is why I often feel a bit sorry for those who live in apartments or the city. There is a lot that can be done with window boxes and planters but if you want to be more adventurous, don't have a garden and really want to get your hands, boots and clothes dirty, an allotment could be the way to go.

Originally hailing from England my view of allotments has always been of old men with flat caps accompanied by whippets putting their feet up in a ramshackle shed. A view which was probably influenced by popular culture, allotments were spaces which soap opera characters like Arthur Fowler and Jack Duckworth inhabited. Coming from the suburbs allotments weren't something that I had first hand experience of, everyone in the 'burbs has their own garden!

I went to college in the north of England, just outside Newcastle and the allotment was far more prevalent there. I went to a photographic exhibition on the subject, the black and white prints of people enjoying the allotment life, growing food, pigeon fancying, being part of a community was enough to sell the whole concept to me.

It is this romantic view of allotments which has stuck with me, and when I learned of community allotment schemes beginning to spring up across Ireland I was delighted.

Earlier this year I bumped into a business contact of mine, Mary from Taxing Times, she told me that she was involved in the Harbour View Community Garden Project. The community received a grant of €2,500 to convert a 3 acre plot of vacant land into allotments. A lot of work had to be done to clear and prepare the ground, a task which the community took on together. Well wishers donated equipment and even trees.

The allotments are now being rented, the proceeds of which will go back into the garden with the intention of establishing a native woodland and orchard.

This is just one of many stories of thriving communities across Ireland pulling together to create gardening space. To keep up to date with news on allotments near you check out Allotments Ireland, you can also follow them on Twitter.

Back in the UK it seems politicians across the spectrum are encouraging the grow your own movement. Boris Johnson and Gordon Brown have both been in the news due to their green fingers. Mr Brown has even taken a leaf out of President Obama's book and declared that he and his wife are to grow veg in the garden at No. 10. So the allotment phenomenon seems to be here to stay.

*please excuse the quality of the images which were grabbed from a scanned document

Slug Control the social network way.

When ever I talk to other gardeners the conversation inevitably turns to slugs. Even when the veg garden was just a twinkle in my eye I was warned constantly of the slug threat. So now that my plants are beginning to grow and I have noticed that some of them seem to be depreciating due to slug attack I decided it was time to take action.

I've also been using social networking sites for a while to promote my business. We have a Facebook page where people can become fans of Feelgood Organic Hampers and we have two twitter accounts, one purely business and one personal where I generally talk about the everyday comings and goings in the office, the garden and the Kitchen. So I decided to ask my social networks for assistance in slug control.

The response was great. On Twitter @elainerogers was by far the most prolific with bundles of suggestions including beer traps, Vaseline around flower pots: '...they can't slime over slime.', companion planting with Allysum, Begoinia, Cosmos, Geranium, Lobelia and Nasturtiums, and going out at twilight to gather and rehouse them. @helentreacy suggested crushed egg shells around the base of the plants @scottbert suggested stamping on them, but I don't see me doing that... plus if I stamped on them I'd probably crush the plants too!

On Facebook Rochelle Harris mentioned that in his book 'A Short History of Almost Everything' Bill Bryson suggests that slugs were or are a form of plant life. The only evidence I could find to support this was on a sea slug forum which suggests that these aren't slugs in the sense that we think of them.

Pauline Price suggested digging the ground with a copper spade and this wasn't the only time that copper was mentioned, Carla Knight and Jeff Jenkins both suggested making copper wire fences. Jeff did also suggest attempting to train the slugs with slug treats and whistles but this sounds like a lot of work! Sian Maloney also suggested beer traps and Elaine Rogers (yes the same one from Twitter) gave me directions on how to make the beer trap safe for beetles. Lesley Emerson thought I should cut them up with scissors... I don't think I could bring myself to do this though, I'd rather think they died happy swimming in a beer lake or a Bulmers lake as suggested by Rosy Days. Beverly Martin suggested hair and Ian Vince suggested making collars for the plants out of empty plastic bottles.

Armed with all this knowledge I began to assemble my arsenal. I had been collecting egg shells for a while as I had been told they were a powerful deterrent, I had also been collecting coffee grinds as a gardening friend had suggested them to me last year. I raided my recycling bin for empty plastic bottles and began to turn them into spiky collars. These were going to form part one of my assault against the slugs.

In the garden I surrounded different plants with different methods, some were too big for the collars so I used these to protect the smallest and most venerable plants, the bigger ones were surrounded by circles of crushed egg shells and coffee. The only problem I could see with the egg shells is that when I watered the some of them washed away. I'd want to be eating a lot of eggs to keep the area covered.

I'm going in with the phase two 'beer traps' soon. Watch this space....

Paper Diary

I've been rather sporadic with my paper diary for the last few weeks. It's hard to find something new to write about keeping paper out of my life. So please excuse the big gap...

Day 15
Wednesday 11th March
I was in training today, a course on PR and media which was great. The usual sheet of paper and pen greeted me when I got in the door but I pushed it out of temptations way. I am getting slightly behind with taking the notes from my iPod but it still beats finding wadges of paper in the bottom of bags and in cars weeks or months later.

In the evening I went to a Speed Networking event, like speed dating but without the kissing! I have been allowing myself business cards during this fast which is just as well because speed networking is all about business cards. I met some great people and managed not to pick up any extra bits of paper during the evening. Maybe one day there will be some sort of virtual business card that we can just send by Bluetooth to someones PDA or iPhone but for now we’re going to have to stick to the physical type.

Day 16
Thursday 12th March
Today I started to follow some paperless office people on Twitter, a quick search for the term ‘paperless office’ turned up several results. I’ve found some interesting articles too through Twitter all of which have me wanting to explore more technological solutions to working without paper. I need to find out more about electronic signatures and how to use them.

Follow Feelgood Organic Hampers on Twitter
Follow Hamperlady (that's me!) on Twitter

Day 30
Thursday 26th of March
Feelgood Organic Hampers has decided to enter the Carlow Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, a process that involves much filling of application forms. Thankfully the Chamber sent us out email copies without us even having to ask so we have been able to submit our application without the use of paper. This is especially pertinant in this case as we are going for the 'Corporate Social Responsibility' award and part of our submission mentiones our lenten paper fast. I have found using the white wipe boards invaluable in this process. They are a great brainstorming tool and not as easy to loose as scraps of paper. You will see in my picture the amount of scrawling that was done!

My desk still remains resonably empty. I can't stress how much this has helped my productivity I don't think you realise how much clutter slows you down until you get rid of it.

Day 36
Wednesday 1st April
I am going to London to the Natural & Organic Products trade show this weekend. It's the show where I pretty much decide o which products I'm going to buy for the next season. This could be one of the biggest challenge yet. Flying without a paper boarding card is impossible. I have two options, check in online and print my own ticket or check in at the airport and get a boarding card printed there. I can't work out which is best or worst for the environment. I suppose if I print it at home at least it will be printed on 100% post consumer waste paper.

I always seem to come home from this show with bags and bags of paper, wherever you go there are people virtually throwing the stuff at you and sometimes you just take it in order to escape an over zealous salesperson. It's good to be going in with the strong resolution not to accept it this time. If there is a product I'm interested in I will make a note on my iPod and ask them to email me their marketing material. This will of course mean that my inbox will be jammed in the weeks following the show but when I bring home a bag of paper, the truth is I rarely look through it.