First post.

Well what should I say, I guess I should set the scene.

I am a married father of two who has gradually got into allotment gardening through wanting to grow healthy vegetables for my family.

Having started out with a small patch at the bottom of my seventyfive foot by twentyfive foot back garden, I graduated to having a five rod allotment plot and then grassed over the garden plot, kids and veg do not mix in a small garden.

Finding I could easily manage the five rod and not being able to grow everything I wanted to I asked for more space. After a while someone left the area and I was offered his plot, so now I had eight rods. A couple of months later the guy who had the other half of my original plot finally admitted defeat by couch grass and left.

At this point I had ten rods, then two plots up I had another three. Between was occupied by two tenants, one of whom, naughtily, sub-let part to a friend who planted it up as a herb garden. The tidy one gave up first and I got two and a half rod linking across between my two plots.

In 2004 the other tenant also gave up, and was replaced by a guy who worked a little harder at it. In 2005 this guy also left the area and I did a deal with the council. I took his five rod plot and gave up my three rod plot.

So now I have plots 17 and 18, both ten rods.