Celebrity gardeners are encouraging aspiring plotters to register for their local community garden during this year s National Allotments Week. Horticultural charity Garden Organic (gardenorganic.org) is encouraging current and future allotment holders to learn about the benefits of the organic way of growing and naturally controlling pests. Experts from the charity are highlighting the wider benefits of allotments, which cover everything from protecting the planet, to saving us money and boosting our physical and mental health. Put your name down now, advises Chris Collins, former Blue Peter gardener and head of organic horticulture at Garden Organic. Try not to let waiting lists put you off pursuing your allotment dreams. Putting your name down makes your intentions real and also helps councils to manage demand and understand the importance of allotments for communities.
What you can get out of having an allotment
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Grow your own - and reap the benefits
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Gardening: Why we should love our weeds most of the time Weeds can serve as hugely useful indicators of different soil types and growing conditions
about 3 hours ago
Relationships are complicated. Just consider weeds, that vast, rambunctious group of plants capable of provoking the gamut of emotions in most gardeners: from fear and loathing (step forward Japanese knotweed, the invasive, non-native perennial weed capable of undermining building foundations) to admiration (think fields of buttercups in full golden flower) to affection (there’s something irresistibly charming about the dainty, carpet-forming, evergreen known as “mind-your-own-business”, a common weed in many Dublin gardens).