OH and I got an invite in the mail, to a meeting of all allotmenteers. The secretary was standing down after many, many years and a new secretary had to be elected, plus an Allotment Committee.
We both thought we should go. I went for quite mercenary reasons: I am fully aware of just how scruffy and 'organic' our allotment is compared to the herbicide- and pesticide-spraying old-school plotters so I thought, if I show my face and volunteer for muscle jobs, at least I'm giving a clear indication of my continued interest in the allotment, which should make it harder for everyone to kick us off the site. They'd have to do it to our face, I thought, and they're not going to do that.
At the meeting, OH went one further: he volunteered for the committee and got duly elected.
The meeting was a heartwarming example of the continuing vitality of civic engagement and local democracy. Two people from the council chaired the meeting in a good-natured and endearingly muddled manner and to everyone's surprise, some of the posts were even contested. Tomato Seedling Man was there too, and even stood for a committee post, which put me in a real quandary as he was the only one of the candidates I actually knew. But I ended up voting for the only woman candidate -- can't have the whole thing sewn up by the boys -- even though I suspect she may well be one of those scary forceful Thatcherite types who would want to transform our sleepy, random, higgledy-piggledy site into the kind of site that scoops first prize at the council's Annual Allotment Competition. I put my hand up for her, and she did get elected for the post, and I immediately regretted it because Tomato Seedling Man sat so that he could see how we all voted. OH put his hand up for him though, and as the two of them will be on the committee from now on, I hope he will forgive me. I already know how I can get into his good books: the central path needs repairing and resurfacing and since, thanks to the careful husbandry of the previous secretary, we've got tons of money in the bank, we'll probably tackle this task fairly soon, and it'll be my honour to shovel gravel for a day.
Inevitably, there was a character, an elderly woman, who seemed perpetually outraged about practically everything but was also, obviously, very keen to be there and to be involved. She got roped into the committee so she will have to co-operate rather than criticise from the sidelines. I know my OH: he'll charm the marigolds off her and she'll want to adopt him by June time.
Afterwards, OH was quite buzzy about his new responsibility. "I hope you won't allow the new committee to turn our site into a German-style Laubenkolonie, with tight little plots where the use of non-regulation carrots will be punished with instant eviction," I said cautiously as we walked back to the car. "Oh no," he said, "I won't be going round judging other people's plots for any competition, and I'll also look out for our Portuguese neighbour in case this turns out to be a UKippy Little Englander gathering."
The changing of the guard is always a little sad, especially when the previous person had managed all of it in a one-man capacity and had steered it carefully through the vagaries of site rent negotiations and other threats to our collective allotment bliss that currently, and still, only costs us £17 a year. But equally, there is also a considerable Reformstau, i.e. there is quite a bit on the site that needs doing and that, with more heads and bodies focused on the same goals, could be tackled. The river water levels could be managed better so plots aren't soggy in winter and too dry in summer. There's a willow by the river that needs pruning. A skip or two for all the plastic junk that people accumulate in and around their sheds -- old carpets, netting, leaky waterbutts, old polytunnel foil, that sort of thing -- would be great to have in. Band together for a truckful of manure, or straw for the strawberries or mulch, or top soil, or bark. Distribute the fallow plots to people on the waiting list, or swap first internally. Check who's sitting on three or four plots already and should really give one of them up. Help each other with erecting new sheds or rigging water collection systems. Replace the old jetty and perhaps build a shaduf by the river so that water collection becomes easier during high summer when most of our waterbutts will have run dry. Sort out a reward for the lovely fellow plotholder who has been strimming the grass up and down the paths for free every month during summer. Share surplus seeds and seedlings. Review the rules on animal husbandry -- could we start a chicken co-operative so that we can all have our own eggs, and chicken for the pot? Think about bee-keeping. Set up a communication system. Have our first allotment party.
Let the new year begin!
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