Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Garden Associations
  • About FEDAGA
    • Plot Holders >
      • Rules for plot holders >
        • Bridgend Rules
        • Keeping bees
        • Termination and Appeals Procedure
    • Constitution
    • Allotments >
      • Allotment Sites >
        • Allotment Gallery part 1
        • Allotment Gallery part 2
    • Newsletter
    • Seed Scheme
    • Your Data Protection
  • News
  • Events
    • 2020 Virtual Show >
      • Virtual Show Classes
      • Showing Vegetables
      • Virtual Show Regulations
      • Virtual Show Entry Form
      • 2020 Show Winners
  • Gardening Help
    • Plot Holders Progress >
      • Plot Holders Progress - Start 2017
      • Plotholder's Progress - End 2016
      • Plotholder's Progress - Summer 2016
      • Plotholder's Progress - March/April 2016
      • Plotholder's Progress - January 2016
    • Composting
    • Education
    • Biodiversity
    • Plant Diseases
    • Pests
  • Links
  • SAGS
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Committee & Minutes
  • Wildlife Survey: April 2020
  • Wildlife Survey: July 2020
  • Wildlife Survey - November 2020
  • 2020 Covid-19 Memories
  • Small Grants Scheme
  • 2020 Show Winners
  • Wildlife Survey - November 2020

2020 Covid-19 Memories

Cath Shearing, Carrick Knowe Allotments

With time to linger ....

It is my first year on this plot and I am very fortunate that lockdown afforded me the extra time and opportunity to really get to know the plot's character. It's seed bank and soil, the rhythm of passing trains and the inherited fruit trees and bushes. The wobbly fence posts, leaning shed and the misaligned gate latch that are all still delivering provided I showed them respect  and learn to work with them.

My most memorable  visits to the plot were made in the early evenings in May and early June. Despite the challenge of an exceptionally hot and dry spring the established plants still did their thing.  On several evenings  I simply sat on the ground between the comfrey and the raspberry patches and marvelled at the bees working the flowers as they are destined to do.  The subsequent material benefit for me  was of course fully pollinated and well shaped raspberries, but there was also something  deeper that held me there much longer than I would have expected. 

The relationship between flowers and pollinators is much heralded and in my opinion rightly so. My own evening pollinator experiences have led me to ask  what other amazing  inter-dependencies are happening on my plot that are not so readily witnessed but are equally precious. Included in that, I suppose, is the critter that took all my gooseberries!
Contact FEDAGA