Wednesday 2 September 2015

Volunteering at the Crisis allotment

Recently, a gardening crisis means fretting that it's been an age since I actually got out there & did something. But not today.

Work recently instigated a Corporate Social Responsibility programme, so we now get 2 days paid leave to do volunteer our services to anyone who will have us. A mate of mine works for Crisis so I put my name forward to do anything for them that didn't involve rattling a tin out on the streets. To my delight, they suggested I spend a day helping out on their allotment - score!

The Greenfingers project was set up 3 years ago by Cath, a therapist at NECA & keen gardener. Securing allotments is one of the dark arts, often a long game of patience. Cath side-stepped the usual wait using the traditional man-on-the-inside technique. A previous client already had a plot & put in a good word with the committee. In 3 years, Cath & her volunteers have transformed the vacant plot.

Recently, NECA have started collaborating with Crisis on the project, which is a great fit as the organisations have overlapping concerns. The volunteers at the garden are a mix of staff members, clients of NECA & Crisis, and their support workers. Dom is Cath's equivalent from Crisis, & he teaches DIY skills.

The main agenda for the day was: Paint the new shed. Installed recently as a classroom & bad weather bolt hole, their new shed is great, if controversial - the team are taking some heat from allotment neighbours about it, so we best get painting quick.


The rain kept off most of the morning & we got the lion's share of it done with me on the roller & my colleague Mick doing the fiddly bits by brush.

When Barry, a project client, arrived & looked like he wanted to join in the painting work, I handed over my roller & snapped a few pics.

I also got chatting to Alfie (the aforementioned man-on-the-inside) & he insisted on showing me around his own plot (mostly veg, small koi pond) & that of his neighbour (hens, dahlias). Alfie is in the middle of tidying up from a recent unwelcome visit - some vandals got in, smashed up a bunch of his pots, wrecked a number of plants. So sad, but he was remarkably chipper about it all. He also insisted I take a small round yellow courgette & a house plant.
Back at Greenfingers as a light drizzle started & it was lunchtime, provided by the Crisis Skylight Café. Some of the veg grown on the plot supplies the Café. The gardeners are also preparing to enter the Civic Show this weekend, so Cath was busy selecting & preparing the entries. Rest goes home with the volunteers.

Shower passed & sun back out, Mick got busy with a second coat of stain on the shed, while Barry & I moved on to riddling. Riddling. It's a great word. I remember my Dad using it, but couldn't remember what it meant.

Dom has made a series of raised beds. These are being filled from the spoil heap made when they dug the pond. But the spoil includes all manner of junk including rusty nails, broken glass, stones & huge lumps of clay.

By rubbing the soil over & through a wire mesh, we break up the bigger lumps & fish out the crud.

On the route between the heap & the bed, Barry pointed out to me a rain-filled bucket. The pond might not be finished yet but the pondlife has already moved in. An hour or so later, as we moved a bit of pond liner lying on top of the heap, we spotted a frog too.

By mid afternoon, Dom has finished building another bed. Barry & I riddled a first barrow-load into the new container before Cath called it a day. We wandered home with a bag each of allotment swag & the slight ache from doing something physical all day. I'll enjoy my stretches at yoga tonight.