Carol's winning plot brings home prize

She has won the award for the best large plot at the Felpham Allotments and Gardens Society site.

The society was formed in 1976 and has more women then men members for the first time. Mother and daughter combinations are a particular feature of life on the plots alongside the A259 Felpham Way.

The group also has an unprecedented number '“ 13 '“ on its waiting list with a stream of other new inquiries making life busy for officials.

Mrs Armstrong's interest is deep-rooted. She took on her first three plots about 30 years ago.

But she gave them up because of the other demands of her life. She found the time to rejoin about nine years ago when she rediscovered the attractions of growing her own potatoes, cabbages, onions, raspberries, strawberries and plums.

Her devotion to her ten rod plot, measuring 90ft by 30ft, since she retired about two years ago from her job as a carer and home help gained her this year's award for the best of the large areas.

It is the first prize she has won. Mrs Armstrong (63), of Pennyfields, Felpham, spends an average of eight hours a week tending her plot.

'I'm more or less organic,' she explained. 'I take great pleasure in sharing what I have grown.

'I feed a family of five with my produce. All the surplus goes to my daughter who also has a family of five.

'It's good to grow something. You put a seed in the ground and it's satisfying to watch it grow. If it's food, you eat it and if it's flowers you enjoy looking at them.'

The winner of the best five rod plot this year was Ken Baker. It was the second time in two years he had clinched the award. The society's rules bar anyone winning in successive years.

Mr Baker (75), of Tudor Close, Middleton, said: 'I hate weeding and digging.

'It's back-breaking work but it's also therapeutic.'

He took on his allotment some six years ago to rekindle the skills he gained during the second world war tending Battersea Grammar School's vegetable garden and helping his grandfather. Typical fruits of the eight hours he devotes to his plot most weeks include raspberries, squashes, courgettes and peppers.

As well as the changing pattern of holders, the allotment site will also enter the 21st century soon with the installation of electricity to the society's caravan. This follows the arrival of a toilet at the site last year.