Christmas gets more and more expensive each year - presents, decorations, lights, food.  Well, here's a way you can save a few pennies - grow your own Christmas vegetables and get healthy exercise into the bargain.  "My back garden's too small to grow vegetables", I hear you say, but do you realise that we have our very own allotments in Wimbledon Park?  They are called Brooklands Avenue allotments, and they are off Haslemere Avenue; turn right up an alleyway just before you reach Dawlish Avenue, and you will find them.  There are a few plots vacant at the moment.

What can you grow?  Brussels Sprouts, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, turnips, parsnips, celery, for starters, but on an allotment anything goes (though I don't suggest Japanese Knotweed or horsetail).  Salad vegetables are popular in summer, fruit, beans and peas, and of course that "in" thing at the moment HERBS.  I have seen a vine (bearing grapes), peaches, apricots, growing on allotments, soft fruit, as well as the humble but still delicious apples, pears and plums.  And you can of course, make wine or jam from many fruits.   There is simply nothing like the flavour of vegetables or fruit, which you have grown yourself,  is really fresh and you can freeze the surplus.  It knocks supermarket fruit and veg. completely out of the running.  And why pay a gym an expensive fee in order to get exercise? Digging is aerobic, and as for bending and stretching you get plenty of that.  What's more you save money by growing your own fruit and vegetables.

So what are you waiting for?   If you're a beginner you will find other plot-holders very helpful with advice, and indeed swapping successes and moans with other plot-holders is one of the pleasures of allotment tenure. Apply to Jenny Tapping at Merton Civic Centre on 020 8545 3665.  Charges are £6.10 per rod per year (allotments are still measured in rods - a rod is roughly 15 feet) and most allotments are 5 rods, though you can have more or less if you want.  There are reductions in rent for unemployed and pensioners, and disabled persons.  Manure and water are available at no charge.

Sue Knibbs