Overgrown wasteland of allotment - worth it?!

jimmo

Keith,
Really well done on what you have achieved so far.
I got myself an allotment some years ago and spent a huge amount of time digging it over. Unfortunately for me I went down with cancer and was evicted for neglecting the allotment.
No hard feelings on that. I‘m still here but I don‘t have an allotment.
The big thing I learned when I had the allotment was to learn from the neighbours.
The general advice I got was that you will have a problem with weeds for at least 7 years. Weed killers, flamethrowers etc provide a quick fix but the weeds will keep coming back.
In my short time as an allotment holder I had some good results with the old staples like potatoes, runner beans and onions but for anything else either I was not ready to progress or the ground wasn’t.
The best tool I ever bought was a Chillington Hoe. Basically it’s a spade blade mounted, at right angles on a 6ft shaft. You swing it like a pick axe and lever up the earth. Absolutely brilliant.
My neighbours on the allotment were also first class. Many a day I spent digging but I went home with artichokes, rhubarb and soft fruits given to me by my neighbours.
Its hard work but the rewards are really worth it.

arkonite_babe

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arkonite_babe

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sethsgran

Hi there everyone how are the allotments coming on? I must admit I'm not really a gardener but felt this thread should be bumped so we could have an update. My parents moved when I was a teenager into a new home. The garden was big and in a terrible way, dad kept finding stuff like bikes and prams burried under the mounds of weeds etc. We moved into the house in the May and I can still clearly remember us having dads home grown veg that winter and fabulous sprouts were on the table on christmas day. Keep up the good work everyone.