Welcome to Novice Neighbour Jody!

I have news on the fate of neat neighbour John’s plot! Our new neighbour will be Barry’s young charge, Jody – I saw him with a clipboard yesterday evening measuring up the plot when I was weeding legume plot A.

Whilst the current crop will continue to be harvested for the benefit of neat neighbour John’s widow, Jody will keep it in order, & take it on ‘properly’ from October.

I'm delighted with this second-best outcome (the best one being if it had been offered to us, obviously) as not only do we know & get on with Jody, but he also met neat neighbour John a few times & so there is a sense of continuity, somehow.

It turns out that Jody wanted to take a plot at the beginning of the year, & on being told that there’s a two year waiting list, he asked if there was anywhere that he could help out (we didn’t think of that!). So Barry – a retired teacher – wanting a bit of a hand with the leg work, has taken him on in return for imparting some of his vast knowledge, & sharing the crop.

Of course this leaves Barry without his spare pair of hands, so I’m not sure what will happen there, unless the next person on the waiting list wants to help out? Barry’s Allotment Training School – has a nice ring to it!

Jody is also taking advice from the BBC gardening pages – and has a blog set up on google pages – so I’ve suggested that he signs up on the Grapevine too, for the ‘real life’ advice that is given there, & we’ll make an allotmenteer of him yet!