Q. For more than 30 years I have derived much
in the way of fresh green vegetables and satisfaction from cultivating an allotment. In the last three or four years, however, two adjacent plots have been taken up by self-important, busybodyish people who quickly got themselves elected to the committee. Now, in all sorts of niggling ways, they are making my life a misery. One has eaten into the path in such a way that passing gardeners have to
step on my plot. The other has installed a cold frame that can be accessed only from my side. He also uses part of my plot — though admittedly it has nothing on it — to store his wheelbarrow. He has planted a gooseberry bush exactly on the dividing line, so its branches will intrude a long way. I have no wish, dear Mary, to descend to their level of petty trespass but it's time 1 did something to defend my territory. I am unable myself to volunteer for the committee, while to build a fence or plant something with thorns would be a last resort. Please suggest an elegant solution.
J.D., London A. Start to reassert your boundaries by passive aggression in the form of acting daft. The wheelbarrow should he quietly pushed away by a friend of yours when you are not present. `Oh, I'm sony, I think my friend borrowed it. She wasn't to know it wasn't mine. I'll have a word and see if she can bring it back sometime.' Meanwhile construct an innocent fragile edifice of stacked pots just at the point where the other man stoops to get to his cold frame so he will bang into them and they will all fall down. You should soon see an end to the nuisance.
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