Viva Brighton Issue #77 July 2019

WE TRY...
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Community Allotment
The Brighton & Hove Organic Gardening Group
“Are you a gardener?,” project
coordinator Viv Caisey asks
me when I arrive at the
community allotment run by
the Brighton & Hove Organic
Gardening Group (BHOGG).
I’m not, I admit, but I’d like
to be. “It’s no problem,” she
continues. “I just don’t want to
teach you how to suck eggs.”
There’s no chance of that.
I like to think that I’d like to
have an allotment, but I’m
probably too busy to give it
the attention it would need and, anyway, there’s
a long waiting list for your own patch. So, the
BHOGG plot at the Weald Allotment site in
Hove is perfect for enthusiastic amateurs, like
me. BHOGG is a not-for-profit community
organisation run by volunteers who want to
share their passion for organic gardening. They
set up the community allotment in 2004 and
open it to various community groups during the
week, and to willing volunteers between 11am-
1pm every Sunday during the growing season.
They also offer starter plots for people who
want to do their own thing, run a monthly urban
gardening course at the Phoenix Community
Centre and arrange regular meetings and events.
It’s free to join them at the allotment for a few
trial sessions, and then you sign up for a £10
annual membership, which gives you access to
events like seedling swaps, talks and workshops.
The Weald Allotments cover a huge area next
to Hove Park Upper School, just off the Old
Shoreham Road, and the BHOGG have three
adjacent plots. On my first visit, Viv shows me
where I can find tools and
gloves, gives me a quick lesson
in identifying bindweed,
and then sets me the task of
weeding and digging over
an empty, eight-foot-by-four
veg bed. I’m soon joined by
Eva, another first timer to
the allotment, and we make a
pretty good team, chatting as
we go. By the time we stop to
look around, there are a couple
of dozen willing workers,
toiling away. The youngest
is aged around two (and surprisingly helpful),
and there are kids, and couples, and people in
their 60s, sharing the tasks written up on the
whiteboard. Together we pass an enjoyable and
productive couple of hours.
As expected, life gets in the way, and I can’t make
it back to the allotment for a couple of weeks.
But, when I do, I’m greeted by familiar faces
and new. The bed I weeded last time has been
planted up, so I get busy elsewhere, digging in
horse muck and planting up some squash and
dwarf beans, safe in the knowledge that someone
else will be along to keep them watered.
It’s surprisingly satisfying, this communal
gardening: a real case of many hands making for
light work. And, along with new friendships, I’m
rewarded with a share of the spoils (fistfuls of
organic celery, rhubarb, chard and broad beans)
and the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years.
Lizzie Lower
bhorganicgardeninggroup.org
Find more voluntary gardening opportunities at
bhfood.org.uk/directory-map
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