Although I had been a gardener since leaving school, it was 13 years into my career before I first had a go at growing vegetables.
It was 2005, when the housing boom was at its peak. My wife-to-be and I took our first steps on the property ladder and bought our first home together in Dundee.
We bought a tent too
Technically it was our second as we had sealed a commitment to each other a year earlier when we bought a tent.
It would be something we’d be glad to have if we couldn’t keep up with the 125% mortgage we had taken out at the time to buy the place!
It was an exciting time, nerve-wracking too, as we worried whether or not we would be able to afford the bills every month.
Like true Scots we were extra careful with our pennies, and one way we could save ourselves a bit of cash was by growing our own veg.
I was working in the St Andrews Botanical Gardens at the time and would get the bus across the silvery Tay into Fife each day.
My route down to the station took me past the Clepington allotments, the famous ones behind Tannadice Park, the home of Dundee United.
I was always fascinated by these. I’d see them when I watched the football highlights on Scotsport, presented by Arthur Montford on a Sunday afternoon after Bullseye. Happy days!
Our first allotment
This was too good an opportunity to miss. I just had to see if I could get a patch in here. I was so chuffed when I finally did.
It was early spring by the time we managed to secure our plot. There was no shed or glasshouse, which was fine.
By the time we got the beds cleaned up, it was warm enough to be able to sow directly into the soil. We didn’t need the protection the glasshouse would offer if we wanted to start sowings off earlier.
What cracking soil it was too, but I don’t suppose it was ever going to be anything less having been cultivated and improved on for many years. Light with good drainage but still able to hold moisture. Beautiful stuff.
A learning curve
We – or being the gardener who should’ve known better I suppose it was me who didn’t really know where to start.
In horticultural college, I‘d learnt the principles of crop rotation to keep our soil healthy and in doing so vegetables needed to be divided into groups. But I needed to learn more detail.
Back then, in my opinion, the best book on growing Vegetables and Herbs would’ve been from Dr D G Hessayon.
He’s written many as part of his Expert series on virtually every gardening subject there is.
Brilliant books, pure straight-talking practical advice with no thrills, any one of which I’d thoroughly recommend.
I’d still go for these books but today we also have the book ‘Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland’ by Ken Cox of Glendoick and Caroline Beaton.
I’d say it’s a must for all of you wishing to grow your own as it features specific advice more suited to our Scottish climate.
Advice to suit Scots gardeners
We may share the same island but the weather down the bottom of England where the majority of gardening advice in books, magazines and on TV is aimed at, is certainly warmer and with different patterns to us up here.
It may only be subtle but can mean a lot to Scottish gardeners. For example, if we were to try putting out our dahlias or summer hanging baskets as early as people down south, we could find them being wiped out by a late frost.
Thankfully this book helps keep us right when growing veg.
My gardening background looked after us that first summer and we enjoyed a bumper crop.
Our only trouble was I didn’t really follow the advice on successional sowing, using up the whole seed packet at one go and ending up with a glut of veg.
If I had carried out my sowings at regular intervals then our veg would’ve been ready for harvesting over the whole season instead of being ready all at once!
The one thing I’ll never forget is the generous help we received from all the seasoned gardeners at the allotment.
A friendly community
Everyone was so friendly and willing to pass on their knowledge to us. Plants too! One night we came down to find a pot of leeks sitting waiting for us.
I still don’t know who they came from but we were very grateful for the gift. They helped go to make a lovely soup in winter.
I enjoyed giving some help back in return, to do my part in this gardening community.
I was up early one Saturday morning in autumn to help empty a trailer-load of farmyard manure, wheel-barrowing it to various plots around the allotment as the soil was getting prepared for the following year.
Nearly 20 years later and some things haven’t changed.
Gardening still helps keep us healthy, active and making friends. Growing our own veg in particular helps to keep the costs down while we all struggle with the rising cost of living.
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