Allotments - what do I need to know?

PipneyJane

My darling husband has decided to apply for an allotment. I am sceptical about our abilities to maintain one given that we have devoted exactly one weekend to gardening in 2012 and our garden looks like a wilderness. Napalm would be useful as a weed killer, at this point. (We live in a typical 1930's semi, 70ft garden to the rear, 15 ft to the front.)

Let's be blunt: I am an enthusiastic but lazy gardener. I have fantasies about growing sufficient veg to feed us year round. With the exception of this year, I make annual attempts to maintain a veg plot at the back of the garden that always dissolve into weeds come August. (I get discouraged some time around July.) Our soil is of the "We-Make-Bricks-From-This" variety of heavy clay. My main gardening time is Friday afternoons, when I have some time to myself, to do whatever I want. My only real successful crops have been potatoes and courgettes, although I've tried onions, garlic, chillies, tomatoes, broad beans, runner beans and butternut squash.

DH's main job at present is to mow the lawn, prune the trees and lug things around. I do not know where his enthusiasm for this project is coming from or why he doesn't run with my original plan to grow veg in our back garden. He knocked me sideways with the suggestion on Monday and I haven't had the opportunity to discuss it with him (we have family visiting).

Besides the fact that you actually have to do some gardening, what do I need to know about Allotments? Dimensions? Plot sizes? Rents - annual/monthly? What you can keep on them? Courtesies?

[Deleted User]

If you have couch grass or mares tail DO NOT be tempted to use a rotorvator, dig up all the plants and all the roots - it can take years to eradicate these pernicious weeds. If you rotorvate, every tiny little bit of root you leave behind will make a brand new plant. We've had our allotment for 18 years and are still fighting the battle! The other thing to know is that Horse Manure is your friend and you can never dig in too much as it makes better and lighter soil over the years. Hope that helps, Cheers Lyn.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

OH and I share an allottment with another family. Most of the work is done by me and the husband of the other couple and we both only go once a week. We are also on clay and have found that raised beds have solved the problem for us. Saying that we have just taken on the abandoned plot next to ours. This is not raised beds but must have had a lot of manure dug into it over the years as the soil is very good. This plot does have a problem with bindweed. We do not like using chemicals but have to admit that we have sprayed this plot due to the amount of bindweed and have covered it all over with plastic. Will investigate it in a few weeks.

The hard work willbe getting the plot into a suitable state to produce crops. Iadvise doing this a bit at a time. It took 3 years to get lottie number 1 fully functioning. I aso mamage three raised beds at home for salads strawbrries and herbs again in raised beds.

goodluck with your venture. There is nothing better on the lottie than sittng on the bench under the tree with a cold drink admiring the veg we have grown.

Mrs VP

RAS

Unless you are very very lucky the waiting time for a plot will be 12 months to 12 years.

So you have time to discuss it.

REad Mel Bartholomew on square foot gardening.

Yorkie1

The traditional size of a lotty is 300 sq yards. Often, half plots are now offered - 150 sq yards.

You should be prepared for having to do quite a lot of work to get on top of the plot first. Many lotties only come free when someone has been kicked off for failing to cultivate it. There are different methods for clearance, depending on how organic you want to be, but don't rule out using weedkiller just to get on top of it at the outset.

Cost. Very variable. Can be from £10 to £100+.

I have a garden set-up at home much like yours, and a half plot at the allotment site. My front garden also has veggies in (none in the back, which isn't suitable for them).

I've got on top of my lotty now and don't go down more than once a week on average. However, I reckon that both my garden and the lotty only get about 60-70% of the attention they'd get if I only had one of them.

I wouldn't give up the lotty though, because it provides a really good opportunity for chatting to people!

GreyQueen

A lottie can break you back and break your heart. You'll meet lovely people whom you probably wouldn't have met in any other part of your life. You'll have fresh air and plenty of exercise.

You'll have fun and you'll get tired and ratty. You will develop a psychotic hatred of slugs and snails. It's addictive.

As Mrs LW so wisely says DON'T even think about a rotovator. It seems like a fast and easy solution but it's effectively like that scene in Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice when Mickey Mouse tries to skive the water carrying by enchanting the broom.

Y'know, and then the magic broom doesn't stop, and he hacks it to pieces and each piece becomes a water-carrying magic broom, and the water rises and rises and the Sorcerer arrives in the knick of time to un-enchant the brooms and saving.

Substitute couch grass, bindweed, horsetail etc for magic brooms and you get the picture. But no sorcerer will be along to save you. :rotfl:

You have to dig the beggars out. And then dig them out, and dig them out some more. I have horsetail. Lots of it. Its roots are six feet deep. Bindweed roots have been known to go thirty feet deep. Couch grass will regenerate from a tiny fragment. You have to be persistant to slow them down but each year it gets a little bit easier.

Best case scenario, allow 5 years to drag a derelict lottie into full production. Good luck!

PS if yours is a council lottie, they may well have their lottie rules up on their website. HTH.

Pink.

Hi PipneyJane,

As your thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've moved it over to the green fingered board where you should get some more advice.

Pink

valk_scot

I have to say that if you (as in both of you) don't have enough time or motivation to set up a veg patch and grow veg in a 70ft back garden you're unlikely to discover more of either just because your plot is elsewhere. Having said that I turned my back garden over to the kids when we moved here and keep the plot as a haven of peace and quiet for myself. Maybe that's what your OH is thinking? A shed from where he can sit and survey his own little bit of land and think blokey thoughts while smoking a pipe?:)

Anyway, allotments. Each site and council will have different rules. the main ones though are that you're supposed to both keep it in good order and actually producing something. When we (I'm on the allotment committee) bring new folk up to see a potential plot we warn that it does require some degree of time committment. Ten man hours a week in the peak season is the usual rule of thumb, that's a half day at the weekend plus a couple of evening visits for one person. In practice you can manage on less once you've got the weeds under control you can manage with less but don't underestimate the amount of set up time a neglected allotment will require to bring it up to speed. Are you sure that you wouldn't be better spending what gardening time you have in your garden?

Lotus-eater

As Val says, do the garden first if you want to grow veg. You can put yourself on a allotment waiting list if they are long and then decide when (and if) one comes up, if you want it.
But maybe if you have kids or something, he just wants an oasis of quiet. But... if he's not into growing veg and fruit in the back garden, I don't see why that should suddenly change if he gets an allotment.
You need to talk


Btw, in your garden make beds and permanent paths, then fill the beds with as much rotted horse manure as you can, it will help the soil structure no end.

PipneyJane

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi PipneyJane,

As your thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've moved it over to the green fingered board where you should get some more advice.

Pink

Thanks Pink.

And a big thank you to everyone who has responded. You have been very helpful.

Valk_Scott, yes, you may be right. He may want a bolt hole, or just the feedback from having other gardeners around. When I asked him what his motivation was (via an email conversation at work), he said he thought it would be good exercise. I replied with "well, why not attack the garden we have?", which wasn't met with a direct reply. Instead, he said "it can't hurt to investigate the possibility of an allotment", which makes me think that it is the idea of a community that is attracting him.

Linda32

Hi,

I agree with the oasis of calm after work, it certainly is. When I worked in a horrendously busy office I marvelled that there wasn't a phone ringing every two minutes

Also agree on the one half day at the weekend and a couple of evenings during the summer. It is needed to "keep on top of things" also your council or whoever you rent it off with insist that you do "keep on top of it", its only fair if there is a waiting list.

The rent is usually annually and we pay £19.50 to our local parish council. I understand that this is quite cheap. To give an example a more affluent area (Think high end charity shops in the town and proper independent shops) some 15 miles away charge around £25.00 still not a fortune for the whole year but it depends what you are prepared to pay.

Some allotments have a seed club where you can buy seeds cheaply as they buy in bulk, our plot is to small for this (only about 25 plots) so not worth it.
We are allowed to keep chickens althoug noone does, the rules state that you must eat the eggs (its assumed that you must not profit from the allotment by selling the eggs) you will get a set of rules once you sign up so no need to worry.

Our plot also has rules about when you can have a bonfire (to burn your waste/weeds etc) but thats only because it backs onto a school playing field.

HTH