Woohoo! Got my allotment at last!!!

angelavdavis

I had some great news on Friday that I had, after two years on the waiting list, reached the top of the list.

I went to see the allotment yesterday and, other than it being covered in nettles (anyone got any good recipes) it looks fine - full sunshine. There is also a standpipe on the site. There are only 6 allotments on the site so its tiny. The other plots don't look overly tended at all. Only one plot has a metal shed - no other sheds or polytunnels, etc.

I was thinking of keeping some nettles around the edges of the plot - around the fences that are back gardens to deter anyone climbing over the fences and encourage the butterflies, etc.

I will need to find out how much the area is prone to theft or vandals, etc before doing anything other than just clearing some of the nettles ready to form some beds. I would love to have a shed, but am worried about it being burned down.

There is also a hard-standing already on the plot and an old oil drum for burning rubbish (there is also a lot of disgarded small pieces of wood around the plot and bits of brick). The soil is very heavy clay but fertile - hence the nettles. I will no doubt have to do some work on it and incorporate some soil improver.

stilernin

Brilliant news!!! .... and on the sunny South Coast too. I'm double jealous.

I grew up in Plymouth, spent most of my life just outside London and am now in the NE......

...... am top of the waiting list after a 15 month wait. Now I'm hoping nothing comes up too soon as I'm not very good at doing the heavy work in the warmer weather, particularly on the heavy soil up here.

Best of luck with yours, we look forward to the before and after photos

jollymummy

Excellent !! We got our first allotment after a looooong wait last week. Good luck.

Chimera

Oooo, lucky you. I've just registered my interest for one in our village - they don't even exist yet.. so am hoping they are sorted soon

misskool

congratulations!! have lots of fun. It's a 4 year wait for where we are....

katholicos

I hope we will see lots of photos. Though i couldn't tend an allotment myself, i think it is fabulous for those who can do it.

guineagirly

Snap - We've just been given a new allotment after 3 years of waiting - I'm so excited and also a little bit scared as so many people just tut and say it's a lot of hard work when we told them our good news!!!!

Ours is a brand new allotment - it's currently a field with horses in it. The council are going to strip back the surface and dig it over but I think we'll still have a long period of weed removal!

Best of luck with yours.

GreenFly_2

Well done,
Same here I had my allotment for the first year about 8 weeks ago, it is alot of hard work but well worth it, satisfaction, communuity and Fresh Food! What more could you ask for?

Good luck
GF

angelavdavis

It's good to see so many people are now getting allotments on this forum.

I will hopefully get to the site on Wednesday when I am not working so I can get a couple of photos and a little clearing done.

angelavdavis

Hi everyone,

I went to the allotment today and took some pictures for you all to see and measured up. As you can see, I will have plenty of nettles to make a feed with. The shorter grass on the right hand side is the grass path which separates plots:



It looks like my immediate neighbour has just taken over their plot also, as some more of their plot has been turned over.




It has been rainy here today so when I went to the allotment I noticed that my plot is absolutely inundated with snails and slugs! It looks like I will be collecting up loads to bring back to the chooks at home!



As mentioned the whole site is very small - just 6 plots.



Well, the plan will be to:

1) Cut down the nettles using shears, put them in a water-tight container and top up with water so they can start rotting down to make a feed.
2) Use a lawn edger and green plastic lawn edging on a roll to mark out the beds and put weed suppressant down to mark out the paths. Eventually I will find something to cover the suppressant.
3) Gradually dig over a bed at a time, soil test, fertilise and plant up. There will be a total of 7 beds. The four equal sized beds will be used for rotational cropping and the long beds for perennials such as globe artichokes and fruit, plus one for cut flowers.
4) There is an existing hard standing for a shed which I will get sometime. Currently Focus are doing a small 4 x 6 wooden shed for about £91 (summer offer), but I need to find out if there have been issues with vandals as there is only one shed on the whole site which is a metal shed. I have some tonne bags which I will use for the compost heaps at the moment.

So lots to do but all in good time, it will probably take a couple of years to get it sorted completely I would imagine. Here is my initial plan. I may join the actual borders together to make them larger (but leave a path through the centre).



I have some plants over from those started for the garden and started some more seeds off at the weekend for the allotment.

forgotmyname

If there was a wall or fence that looked like someone might climb over i would
be tempted to plant some blackberry bushes or similar something with thorns
or stingers.

I bought a thornless variety for my back garden, Wish i had bought one with thorns
now, keep the neighbours kids off the fence.