So here, my final Observer column. Plot 29 has reached its autumn. Maybe me, too.
I stepped away from the Observer on Friday 13. Twenty-five years on my favourite paper. Ten as editor of the weekly magazine, 14 on the food monthly.
The plot itself will continue. It may later launch its own blog/substack or some such. I will continue to water in the early morning. I will weed and sow seed, try to stem the autumn avalanche of beans. I will write a garden diary.
My first job in London was at a Kensington garden nursery. Perhaps my last for the Observer is to write this column. Though there will be a book to write and other work.
The allotment project started as an opportunity for the Observer Magazine team to work together outside the office. Where no one would be editors, roles could be reversed. We joined with a local school gardening club (“Allan, where are the spicy flowers,” they’d say, hunting for nasturtiums).
Pretty soon, though, the plot was just Howard Sooley, photographer for Monty Don’s and Dan Pearson’s gardening columns in the magazine, and me. And still so. A dear friend with a fine eye. Handy, too, with a hoe and a shovel.
For nearly 20 years, we have grown together. Howard’s garden photographer’s eye often tempering my undisciplined over-exuberance.
There have been plants grown from seed swapped and gathered from food travels and meetings: Painted Mountain corn, Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, orache and amaranth, Basque tear peas. Tagetes from garland-growers on the banks of the Ganges. All transplanted to a tiny north London allotment. This year, too, a mass of sunflowers, most taller than me.
Maybe the best part of writing the column, though, has been you, the reader community that shares your news, views, garden thoughts and expertise. It has been a joy. I wish you forever good growing.
Keep in touch on Instagram: @allanjenkins21