Herligheten - The Glory
Sometimes you get lucky! On Monday I biked to Malmøyet to have a swim in the fjord and passed a urban gardening lot on the side of the road. A friendly gardener gave me the name of the project, and the details for the contact person, and just two days later I'm the proud renter of allotment number 8. Its an almost unbelievable surprise after being told that Egebergløkka allotment garden, near the apartment, has a 10 year wait-list. Granted, the space is a little smaller, but its still much larger than my last garden back in Dublin, and I managed pretty well with that. The Herligheten project aims to foster organic food production in Oslo city, and at the time of its launch in 2012, some 3400 people signed up for the waitlist. The drop off rate has obviously been quite high, and as the future of the project is very uncertain after this season, my patch had been standing empty since last year. Not for much longer though! After this morning's two-hour cleanup, my new friendly neighbours had already dropped off donations of butternut squash, lettuce and chard, and my paycheck is burning a hole in my pocket while the Stortorvet plant-sellers await. With a beautiful summer in Oslo lined up, and almost constant sunlight for the next two months, I'm sure these six beds of earth will soon be crammed to bursting point with late harvest vegetables, berries and flowers to feed both myself and the onsite bee colonies. Happy days!
