The Argus, news, sport, events, jobs, homes for Brighton, Hove and Sussex

Alan Phillips is an organic gardener who grows fruit and vegetables at his plot at the Weald Allotments in Hove. Here, he will be explaining his love for growing his own.

A Snowy,Seedy Sunday for you?

How will you keep warm on Sunday , if it’s a cold, snowy, seedy Sunday? Who will you keep warm with?

Lottie and Stephen Hester

The bonus for Stephen Hester, RBS, on his basic –yes basic compensation of £1.2 million -is worth £963,000. Interestingly this bonus would fund the cost of allotment rentals for all 2,800 tenants for 6 years. It certainly is a rich man’s world.

£110 Lottie in a rich man's world

Where are the green policies? Have the Greens knowingly agreed to allotment rentals increasing by 67% to £110?

Mourning in Moulsecoomb

Moulsecoomb Forests Garden has grabbed headline news this week for all the wrong reasons. Its amazing shed-a focus of the community project- has been burnt down.

The return of the Roedale Terminator

If you are old, cannot saw down trees, are too handicapped to repair sheds or need to spend time with a dying relative, take care, take great care …..the terminator is coming. No one is safe, even hiding in Brighton’s beautiful Roedale Valley.

Allotment week or “Much ado about nothing”.

Is there much point calling this week “Allotment week”? Surely we should have a “Waiting for Lottie” decade”?

Monet's light summer touches.

August is the time to be with nature and let your soul catch up with your body.

Seedy Sunday in a rich man’s world

On those hot basking sunny days of August there is time to have seedy thoughts while lying back, listening to the birds and the bees, watching the wind ripple through the grass.

Windy ?

Are you ever troubled by wind? It’s been a strange year with Lottie, frigid in the winter, hot in the Spring, so dry in May and wind last month that toppled one of my apple trees.

Sites of Resistance

How many of us know about the struggle to liberate land in England after its theft by the Norman invaders? How many of us know of the Council’s obligation to provide allotments have been enshrined in law for over 100 years.

Cool Killer Cucumbers

The spectacle of cold blooded killer cucumbers and terrifying tomatoes poisoning the markets of German with their organic dangers has haunted newspapers, televisions and websites through Europe. E-coli has killed scores of people, thousands are seriously ill, many of whom are in hospital

Onwards and Upwards

What comes out of the ground like a primordial being? What is enticed and stretched straight, onwards and upwards to the sun only to be pulled ruthlessly from its crown? What is rushed to the kitchen with sirens sounding, shown to the steam and eaten with knobs of butter and salted with pepper.

Forget me not in April

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels...

Spring has Sprung

The clocks lept forward, the buds burst, the bees buzzed, Brighton was in blossom, the cowslips stood small,rhubarb was relished,spring has sprung.