Plot 47 & The Stone Soup Group

In 2025 I gave up the plot I'd worked on for 20 years in order to support the Stone Soup Group in creating spaces for young    children and their parents to learn, play and grow.  This work has enabled us to recreate Plot 47, seen below as an area that was nobody's responsibility, as a space for the whole community at Chestnuts Farm with a  particular focus on accessibility for the very old and the very young.  Click here to see our work in progress on Plot 47 and proposals for further action.

My mother's allotment
​Clapton, 1947

This is my brother Simon on my mum's allotment in Springfield Park. My mother told me of the time she went to the baby clinic to pick up her free orange juice and cod liver oil.  As she lifted my brother off the back of her bike, the nurse saw the bunch of muddy carrots in her basket and said, "Oh you can't eat those muddy carrots!  Here, let me give you some real carrots," and held up a tin!

My first allotment
in Bristol 1970

My allotment in Walthamstow 2005-25

This is my son Saul on my first allotment on Rownham Hill, across the River Avon by Clifton Suspension Bridge. When I went to the Council Offices to ask for an allotment, I was told I needed a man to sign an undertaking to do the digging. As a fit young 21 year-old I challenged the middle-aged clerk to a digging competition. He gave it some thought and then said "Well, alright, you'll be making history my dear", and let me take it on.  Click here to see more.

And here are my daughters, Jenny (above) with scarecrow Alfonse (created by Arkem) and  Eva (below) with Verity, me and muddy carrot on our allotment at Chestnuts Farm

So gardening has always been part of my life, but I'm still learning.    And we have a Whatsapp group for all the people who help us regularly or every now and then.                  

Do plants have brains?
Click here if you want to read how plants know stuff and do stuff just like we do!

 

And slugs too!   These slugs avoided the "organic" poisoned pellets, sneaked past my regular torch-light patrols and left their glistening trails across barriers of baked egg shells, deterrent gel and a carpet of wool pellets.  Did they climb over the copper strips round my plastic pots or do I need to construct an anti-tunneling barrier? Or just pay £1 for an organic lettuce from Walthamstow Farmers' Market!

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