French Allotments, Garden Centre & NVS

French Garden Centre

We did one of our Viking raids on France on Thursday. Val plans these with the efficiency of the D Day landings and it feels like every moment is scheduled. We drove down to the chunnel late on Wednesday, spending the night in the Holiday Inn before catching an early train across to Calais.

Normally Val’s very kind and allows me an hour to wander round Leroy Merlin (a huge DIY store) and admire the rotovators. This time though we noticed the Auchan supermarket had opened a large garden centre so off we went.

Now the drop in value of the pound against the euro has made a real difference to prices for us. No longer is most everything a bargain but in the plants section they’d still got some good bargains. Val picked up some geraniums, nice healthy plants in 10 cm pots, for a euro each and I dithered over some tomato plants at a euro each and 3 for the price of two.

In the end I decided against buying any for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t need any  (not that that would always stop me!) and secondly I didn’t recognise the varieties. It’s a bit difficult when you don’t know if you’re growing bush or cordon, plum or cherry.

I did grab a packet of seeds, my favourite carrot Touchon, before we headed into the main store to stock up on a little beer and wine.

French Allotments

On leaving the store I managed to turn in the wrong direction and we came across a new allotment site. I’m so cross, for years I’ve tried to get a photo of the French allotments off the main motorway but not managed to stop safely. This time I drive straight into a site and I’ve not got a camera with me!

These allotments were so tidy it was spooky. Between each pair of plots there was a shed split into two – semi detached sheds – and each half had a large water storage tank connected to the guttering on the shed.

The site was obviously brand new, in fact it doesn’t look occupied yet. Perhaps ‘grow your own’ is enjoying a resurgence in France as well as the UK. Just to reinforce that idea, when we got back onto the correct road and passed the allotment site I’ve been trying to photograph for years, we passed yet another brand new site with even posher semi-detached sheds.

Shame the UK councils don’t follow in their footsteps.

We returned home as the clock moved into the early hours of Friday. Had a great run up from the tunnel until we hit the M6 motorway which was determined to prove that the M25 doesn’t have a monopoly on jams. Stop start for miles.

National Vegetable Society

Friday was spent recovering. There was a time when I could easily drive from the south coast to Cheshire without bother but now.. well I’m out of practice.  Saturday was the National Vegetable Society meeting in Preston (120 miles round trip). It was a very productive meeting and we felt we’d accomplished something. Too often recently the meetings seem to have been taken up with fire-fighting problems rather than actually pushing the society ahead but this one went well.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
4 comments on “French Allotments, Garden Centre & NVS
  1. Steven Amore says:

    You might pay a visit to Jardiland in Calais next time you sharpen your battleaxe.

    They have a wonderful selection of vegetable seeds there.

  2. geoff Gregory says:

    Like you I have seen the impresive allotments in Calaise and would like the same in the UK.Have you any idea regarding the size of their allotments? Is there not a restriction on bringing plants back to the UK? I saw some realy strong veg. plants that I would love to have, I should just say that I have just started my allotment at the end of March, since retiring, much of the time has been clearing bramble roots etc. and setting up raised beds. I have been able to start some seeds and await the chance to start the outside. I will add your site to my ‘favourites’and look forward to reading lots more.
    Geoff Gregory
    Wimbledon

  3. John says:

    As far as I know there are no restrictions on movement of plants and seeds within the EU. Most of the nursery plants sold in the big stores are shipped in from Holland I think.

  4. Gill says:

    Hi there just to say that i live in rural france and far from home grown making a resurgence, it has never stopped. All of my friends and neighbours have a garden but this is mostly veg with flowers around the outside to encourage the bees.

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