Brand new allotment - cost?

SuzieMum

Hi there, I am near a little village which is creating an allotment in a field with 25 plots, we are having 1/2 a plot which going by the measurements is bigger than the ground floor of my house which is a standard 3 bed semi, quite shocked it's going to be that big really! We are being asked to pay £25 a year. Just out of interest, is this about right? It will have water and we are paying a one off £10 for it to be cultivated and another £15 contribution for fencing.

We are very excited. It is being built now and should be ready end of April, I guess this year will be more preparing than actually growing but going by all the seeds which I have going already I will have to use that as well as my own garden as I won't have enough space here! Gone a bit banana's with the sewing this year as I am a childminder so have plenty of excited children helping me.

Any tips for getting started this year, costs involved and ideas would be much appreciated.

emilyka

That sounds about right, I have a pitch in Surrey approximately 11mx7m which costs me £10 a year through the local council. Yours would be probably twice the size of mine, if not more.

Is it going to be prepped (Ie no weeds, grass, brambles etc)? If so you're very lucky! Mine was very weedy but worst of all is that I've pulled over a tonne of bricks, car parts, tiles etc out of it!

Costs involved depends entirely on how you would like it. Raised beds would increase the costs dramatically but would keep little feet off beds and plants. Try to get hold of some well rotted manure to dig in as a base, leave the manured areas for a few weeks while you decide the layout of your plot/ germinate any seeds and off you go.

Other costs to think about are sheds, composters, waterbutts etc but fellow MSE-ers have advised that freecyle is good for this kind of thing and your coucnil may offer free or reduced price compost bins.

Let me know how you get on.

Em

matt987106

£25 a year is a nice enough price

its allways nice to have a shed, somewhere to store some hand tools AND somewhere to shelter if you have a rain shower, a shed can cost you £109 from B&Q

Stainless Steel tools seem to be the best, we have a set that we bring home and a set of cheapo B&Q value that we leave in the shed

lufoo7

our plots our 250 sq metres and they cost £52 a year, this can be reduced in several ways ie if you are on benefit or over 60 or have a council sports and leisure card, so yours sounds about right.

like already mentioned allotments can cost as much or as little as you like, some people buy all the fancy stuff, some just buy the essentials

SuzieMum

Thankyou everyone. If I have converted this correctly it is going to be 13.7m x 4.5m. It is 125sq m. We are strictly not allowed to build anything, so no sheds or anything!! Means we have to have some sort of car storage boxes for all the tools. Yes it will be weed and grass free. They are leaving decent wide walkways, of grass I presume, in between each patch. I can't wait to see it!

Thanks for the freecycle tips and the tip about manure, hopefully being a farmer he will get involved and help out with things like that.

Oh, I checked my council website, I just missed out on an offer of compost bins for £8 for 220l! Absolutely gutted. They are now £18.

suisidevw

Sounds like a great allotment and it's pushed me to e-mail our parks team @ council to find out where we are on the list!

Cardiff Council have a deal on this weekend for compost bins for £5!!!!!!!

SuzieMum

suisidevw wrote: »

Sounds like a great allotment and it's pushed me to e-mail our parks team @ council to find out where we are on the list!

Cardiff Council have a deal on this weekend for compost bins for £5!!!!!!!

Ah that's great...wonder how far they will deliver?!

suisidevw

We are #14 on the list for allotment nearest us (500m) and #29 on one about 1m away. Not sure how long this will take to go down!

They won't deliver, literally a pick up in ikea car park tomorrow and Sunday!

SuzieMum

Ha ha, I was wrong it's not £25 a year, it's £15 a year! So excited. Have been to see the field, it's just a field - conveniently right next to the only pub for miles and miles :-)

bottlehalffull

That sounds like a bargain!

hwalkerh

if you have a Aldi, Lidl or 99p shop near you have a look in there are always bargins to have