Nature Features

Geoff Brookes remembers well how the idea of renting an allotment plot came about:

"It all started at a dinner party and after one or two glasses of wine the guys said it would be a good idea to have an allotment. We were sober enough the next day to take it forward."

"It took a bit of time as there was a waiting list for a plot."

But since they obtained the plot at Lodge Farm Allotments, Loughborough, the holders haven't looked back.

Listen: Ready, Steady, Grow!

BBC Leicester's Julie Mayer went to visit the allotment in Loughborough...

Four couples were involved in the scheme and for all of them it was a case of starting from scratch.

Julie Mayer being jolly by the poly...

Organising the rotas became all important:

"We have a work-book in the form of a computer spread sheet."

It formalises who does what and who is responsible for what bit of the allotment. At the start they knew nothing about gardening - more about spread sheets!

'A lot' of fun

But Geoff and Mike Harper emphasise that allotment holders are a friendly bunch and only too ready to share advice. Mike says:

"I can say that a lot of plot holders nearby are very experienced. The guy who had the plot before us had it for 30 years and had prepared the ground very well... We get lots of advice from neighbouring plots."

In the poly-tunnel leeks, tarragon, salad leaves and tomatoes grow in profusion.

And the beds contain early and late crop potatoes, cabbages, broccoli, broad beans, peas, cauliflowers, rhubarb and beetroot.

There are problems, however. So attached have the eight become to the vegetables they have grown that there is a marked reluctance to harvest them: "They're like friends of the family."

They have also had to deal with nature red in tooth and claw.

Fighting a battle

Mike says, "It's a bit like a war zone here with pigeons, a lot of mice. Slugs were a disaster last year. We had a lot of vegetables eaten by slugs.

"We are fighting a real battle"

Whether they win that battle will be revealed in BBC Leicester's regular visits to Lodge Farm Allotments.