Category: Accountability

I have to admit that my first thought, when seeing my allotment, was “Where do I even start?”. But with the help of both old and new friends my little ‘solidarity garden’ project is off to a good start!

Yesterday

So, as the rain stopped I went down with my shovel and some other useful things to just have a go at it. Poco a poco / One step at a time. I started by identifying plants that would be worth keeping and getting rid of weeds. Slowly I ‘liberated’ what is now known as the strawberry patch.

Soon Tim joined me and helped weeding more whilst I was cutting down the two blackberry/bramble shrubs that had overtaken much of the plot. Sounds of ‘OUCH’ were frequently heard from both of us 😉

And then a miracle happened: 88 years old Eduardo come by and showed us how it’s really done! In an hour or so he got more of the plot cleared than the two of us together had managed in much more time!

If you think you are too old for something, you really should meet Eduardo, who also happens to have the biggest allotment in our little gardening community!

So, at the end of the day, the three of us managed to weed around half of the plot and prepare a quarter of it for sowing/planting.

Today

I set out in the morning to plant/sow in the now prepared soil. So far I have done: Strawberry and chives (transplanted from last years balcony gardening) and rocket salad/rucola, carrots, radishes and potatoes. As for the big potato plant in the picture, it has been pre-grown on the balcony 😉

Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon I will go down to finish weeding around the rose bush and then planting herbs (rosemary, lavender and parsley) around it.

Hopefully by tomorrow 50% of the allotment will be planted/sown and ready to produce a lot of healthy food for both me and my neighbours!

Personally

I have to say that even that I knew already that (balcony) gardening was good for me, I never imagined what a huge, positive impact the allotment would have on my mental health. In short, in just two days I went from “Thank God I don’t have to leave the flat today to run errands!” to “Sun, when are you finally getting up so that I can go out gardening?”.

This allotment truly has become my happy place …

First of all, I should have written this blog post much, much earlier! But better late then never, as the saying goes. The reason I didn’t do so earlier is twofold: One is ‘brain fog’ and the other is that the whole ‘neighbourhood pantry’ thing developed so slowly and steadily that I actually never really thought about reporting where and how the donations are used that I have received for it.

I promise to do better in future! From now on I will post every beginning of the month how much I have received in donations, how and for what it was spent and keep all the receipts. I really don’t have the time, energy and concentration to do this retrospective, sorry. What I can do is giving you a quick breakdown and attach to this post my shopping bill for this week.

Weekly shopping: Typically around 120-140 Euros, sometimes more, rarely less. This is all the usual food staples plus basic hygiene and cleaning materiel. I do this online and get it delivered as it is far too heavy for me to carry. A few items, if look at the list, are clearly for me, but I have deducted that already from the amount I wrote above.

Weekly fruit&vegetable box: 19 Euros, I don’t get a receipt for this, but will ask for a monthly one in future. My own fruit and vegetables, I buy separately.

Also, my own food stuff etc is in the kitchen, and food and other things for the pantry are in my storage/roundabout room.

1 – 2/month help for one family to buy gas to cook with, 18,75 Euros per bottle. It doesn’t make sense to give people food that they then can’t cook … and yes, I get a receipt, will keep that in future.

Additional shopping, that I do on foot and locally as some things are cheaper and/or only available in my local supermarket and not in the one I use for ‘online’ shopping. I also use it to stock up if I have run out of something important earlier then expected. Difficult to say how much it’s, I would guess between 50 and 100 Euros/month. Again, from today on I will keep the receipts.

There is the very occasional ’emergency’ request and equally the very occasional drop-in from somebody else, outside the families, but that is small stuff. But, once again, if that happens in future, I will make a note.

So, that is basically what I spend monthly to help four families (~16 people) to get through this challenging times. Bearing in mind fluctuations in need and prices around 700 Euros/month. Food prices have already risen here in Europe and are expected to rise further due to the war in Ukraine.

Thank you for reading this far, here the link to the PDF of this weeks shopping bill.

Please expect a more detailed blog post with receipts like this beginning of each months, this keeps me accountable and you know where the money goes to. If you have any comments, questions or would like more information about something, please put them in a comment. And if you come to Santiago, I am happily showing you around, just give me a bit of notice so that I am at home and not in the allotment 😉