It is official – I’ve won the first prize in the Coventry Allotment association competition – ladies category.

When I first started on the allotment I entered the ‘newcomers’ category and won. The prize was a plaque, a framed certificate and £30 – that went towards some seeds.

Last year in the spring I thought I’d try again, this time the ‘serious’ gardeners competition. It wasn’t easy, the judges came twice, once in the summer and again in the autumn. The only problem for me was the fact that in the summer I wanted to harvest the veg to use it, cook and eat it and I didn’t want to leave gaps in the plants. Somehow I managed.

As ever, I try to grow unusual veg and the Tromboncino courgettes were super last year – 103cm long. I was only too glad to leave that hanging on the plant for the judges to see. It must’ve worked!

The autumn visit is all about planning – is my plot empty, did we eat it all? I was prepared and had a lot of cabbages, winter lettuce and parsnips in the ground; what was empty was dug over or sprinkled with lime.

Things don’t move too fast in the competition world, the best thing is to forget everything about it. I managed to do that until just a few weeks ago Simon, our chairman congratulated me to the win – I said ‘what win?’

Apparently he received a letter in his role as a chairman that I won the first prize. He and the secretary will be invited to the AGM, same as the prize winner – me.

And today the long-awaited letter came, I received the invitation to the AGM too. It’ll be on 3rd June, there will be a guest speaker and after the presentation by the Lord Mayor we shall have light refreshments. All I have to do now is to confirm that I’ll attend and also who will come there with me.

Exciting stuff!