Big Allotment Challenge, Episode 1, Part 1

Have you seen the first episode of the Big Allotment Challenge yet? Whether you have or haven’t it’s still well worth reading our review of the show…

What’s it all about?

The cast consists of nine pairs of contestants, three judges and a presenter.

The contestants are presented three challenges per week: grow, show and make something.

They were each given 15 weeks to prepare their plots and grow their vegetables and flowers on the purpose-built set on the Mapledurham estate in Oxfordshire.

All contestants started with a bare earth plot and it was interesting to see how different teams prepared it. Contestants Kate and Eleanor used a novel home-produced manure courtesy of their llamas. They were able to use it straight on their plants, unlike with horse manure.

We were just settling in for more such advice when the voice-over said, ‘Fast forward fifteen weeks’, and suddenly all the plots were in full bloom. There have been times when we’ve wished we could do that on our plot; however it did set the tone for a rather superficial insight into life on a plot.

On several plots we spotted the ubiquitous blue pipe bent into arches and swathes of green netting which made us feel at home, as did Sally and Michelle’s rustic approach: ‘chuck it in the ground and let it grow’.

There have been plenty of times when an identical approach has worked very well for us.

Anyway, on with the show…

Radish beauty contest

The first challenge was to grow radishes and present three identical examples for judging by Jim Buttress – former Superintendent of Royal Parks.

This task proved more tricky than some of the contestants, and we, thought was possible. Shaun and Liz managed to get their radishes to bolt while Gary and Pete decided to grow them in the shade.

On balance they admitted that this wasn’t the best plan with one of them remarking that, ‘it can only get better; can’t get much worse.’

The winners of the radish growing challenge were mum and daughter team Shirley and Victoria. Such was the impact of this accolade that Shirley almost shed a few tears.

We’ll leave it there for now, but check back tomorrow when we’ll be posting our review of the two remaining challenges in the show…