Billy Mann joins St Luke's Community Centre Men's Shed on a plant-buying mission north of Old Street
Ally Pally garden centre is a regular destination for St Luke's Men's Shed. It has the twin advantages of being on home turf (or thereabouts) for St Luke's gardening guru Heather, who imparts valuable purchasing advice before each visit, and it is on a route that is permanently etched into our driver's mind. Kishoor, CEO of Kishoor Tours, knows the route like the back of his hand and is not slow to fill us in on the most interesting landmarks that pepper our route.
The outward journey is normally a quiet crawl through north London, but today Graham got the banter off to a speedy start, and by the time we reached Highbury Corner subjects as diverse as FGM, the price of wildflower seeds and a family connection with the Sultan of Brunei had already been tackled. With Magic 105.4fm on the radio (Sister Sledge, Seal), a gentle mood quickly took over, and as we neared the garden centre, climbing the hill behind a sluggish W3 bus, the leaves of autumn were wide awake and flashing their golden glory for all to see.
As we emptied out of the van in the usual spot (next to the pot displays), a light drizzle had started. We had a mission (of sorts). The small plot in King Square garden (kindly donated and supported by Islington Council) that has become the focus of the St Luke's Men's Shed ambitious growing activities is in need of some deep-soil crops to overwinter. So we all scattered in search of potential candidates, leeks being an early favourite.
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| The Men's Shed patch in King Square garden |
In the past, Ally Pally garden centre has offered so many sightings of celebrities that photographers from Heat magazine, or Closer, or Sleb Cellulite would not look out of place. Today, however, not a jot. Not a bad hair day in sight. Even inside, where row upon row of gardening delights are laid out for casual browsing, not a famous face could be found amid the Hunter wellies and watering cans. The closest we came to excitement arrived just after Kishoor wrenched himself from the cafe to ponce a quick squirt from the lavender hand cream on display. Meanwhile, Graham had a bee in his bonnet about finding a Venus Flytrap to go with the growing collection of carnivorous plants he keeps on his windowsill.
Just in case you are thinking that a laugh and giggle for a bunch of blokes is the sole purpose of these adventures, here is a list of the stuff we bought with cash kindly donated by Islington Council: leeks, wildflowers, green manure, broad beans, red cabbage, green cabbage, spring onion, French beans, pansies, sweet peas, sunflowers, beetroot, onion, carrot and, no we didn't forget, COMPOST.
It was raining proper as we bundled back into the van, and as we motored south back to St Luke's HQ in Central Street for a cuppa, we all studied our dirty fingernails with pride. Magic 105.4fm got our toes tapping with Come On Eileen and the van reverberated to the sound of multiple reminiscences of childhoods spent hop picking in Kent. All in all, a very productive outing.
