Inset The Fox and Hounds, Cattistock, home to Cattistock Allotments

Inset
The Fox and
Hounds, Cattistock,
home to Cattistock
Allotments
Roger Clark hoeing
between rows of
salad crops
58
Plot-holders (left to right),
Roma Rowland, Marlene
Sanderson, Liz Flight, Roger
Clark and Pauline Purdy
Gardening
The
Good Life
Edward Griffiths visits the Cattistock
Independent Allotments who are
swapping lettuces for pints
est Dorset is leading the county’s ‘real food
industry’ with local farmers and foodproducers bringing good wholesome food,
locally grown and healthily produced, to our
tables. The spirit has clearly affected many
of the residents of Cattistock. Liz Flight, landlady of the
traditional and very popular Fox and Hounds Inn with landlord
husband Scott, has started an exciting new project which,
encouraged by the present downturn in national affluence, is
bringing people out of their cottages to work the soil and ‘grow
their own’. Cattistock is one of the latest villages in England to
open up new allotments, and the plot-holders’ story should
encourage any villages considering similar ventures.
W
Young George
planting snake
gourds
Rental of the plots costs nothing at all
except an unwritten agreement to donate
any excess to the pub
The inspiration came indirectly from Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall whose ‘Landshare’ scheme brings together people
with a bit of land to spare with people who would like a small
plot. Last December, imbibing Palmer’s Best and discussing
Hugh’s crusade, some of the Fox and Hounds regulars
expressed an interest in finding an allotment site where they
could grow traditional vegetables. The field behind the Fox and
Hounds hosts annual events such as the Dorset Knob-Throwing
and Frome Valley Food Festival in May, but Liz realised that part
of this land could be put to better use. “Cattistock is a very
special village,” says Liz. “We are proud of the spirit and energy
of everyone who lives here, and I thought that allotments would
be a great community project.”
The winter weather held up proceedings until March, but the
land was then divided into a few small plots. Being a virtually
unused field of grass for so long, the soil wasn’t perfect for
growing crops, so vast amounts of cattle manure from a local
farm were dug in and allowed to settle. In the early days, the
only predators to the young plants seemed to be pigeons and a
www.dorsetmagazine.co.uk
59
Gardening
Roma Rowland’s
first crop of
radishes
60
To Do in September
Pick courgettes, beans and tomatoes
whilst they’re young and tender – the
more you pick, the more they’ll grow
Top Tip for September:
Keep topping up beer-baited slug traps.
Slugs are a real pest this month and
could decimate your hard-won crops
Top Plot Plants
Now is the time to harvest onions and
garlic when their leaves turn yellow and
fall over. Dry the bulbs and store them
Keep picking your tomatoes –
the more you pick the more
they grow
Harvest onions when their
leaves turn brown
www.dorsetmagazine.co.uk
PHOTOS: EDWARD GRIFFITHS
LANDSHARE INFORMATION
Landshare works by ‘matchmaking’ keen growers to those
who have available land. Businesses, councils, landlords
and homeowners are all encouraged to register any
available land at www.landshare.net. The website works by
allowing people to search for land, growers and help via a
postcode mapping and listings system. It provides access
to many different resources from guidance for sharing land,
including a pro forma legal agreement, to a community
questions forum and advice on growing produce.
“Landshare is about so much more than just sharing
land,” says Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who is leading the
campaign. “It’s about sharing ideas, sharing resources and
sharing a passion for the very best seasonal home grown
veg. So if you’ve never grown any vegetables before, why
not give it a go?”
with willing assistance from young son George who is already a
dab hand at planting ‘snake gourds’ – one of the site's few
exotics.
PHOTOS: THOMPSON AND MORGAN
hungry badger so a variety of imaginative scarecrows appeared
and a low wire fence quickly installed. Rental of the plots costs
nothing at all except an unwritten agreement to donate any
excess to the pub. The first ‘payment’ was a single lettuce on
16 May by Neil Rowland, who has some previous experience on
Portland and who, with wife Roma, is growing lettuce and salad
crops in raised beds. Licensees Liz and Scott have little time to
tend their own plot, so most of the work is done by Liz’s mum,
Marlene Sanderson. Pauline Purdy and Roger Clark share a plot
where they transplanted beans grown at home before the late
frosts, to which Cattistock is prone, had gone.
Other plot-holders are Paul and Linda Wilcocks who still
work full-time, and Cattistock born-and-bred Richard Langford.
Richard has some ‘previous’ as a vegetable grower and his
experience of local conditions is very valuable to the ‘novice’
plot-holders. At the top end of the site, young Karen Myers
shares a plot with sister Rachel Cantrell and her husband, Dan,