Elaine……… and Bill

So where to start? For as long as I could remember Dad always had an allotment. He had to - with 7 kids, he had to feed us somehow! So, whilst Dad grew for the family, mum hoed as the kids dragged watering cans up and down the garden path to the allotments at the back of the garden. Those were the days - when the summer was always hot and the sun shone every day (it seemed).

The lifelong lessons stayed embedded and about 7 years ago, one of my sisters took on a plot in Derby city, though as her work grew, she asked me to help her on her plot and I did. As her work took over her life, I took over her plot and settled into allotmenting and Bill became the ‘allotment widower’.

As my journey to that plot got longer in the traffic, I decided to move sites and on the 19th February 2016, I had the tour of the plots here at ARDAA. A day not to forget and one that Bill will requote! He thought I was bonkers but I saw the potential of the plot and knew we would be happy on the site. In the following 3 months, we pulled in favours from family and friends and never looked back.

A relaxing pastime with a fruitful ending and a happy one too – Bill and I work now plot together and as they say…..live happily ever after…..(after, that is, I have told him what to do of course)!