PowerSwitch

I saw that article and thought of here... You beat me to the posting!

In the end, after the second summer, I think, it all became too much. I had found out that I was not really up to this hand-to-hand combat. It was too much effort, too costly and you could get stuff from the shops or market much more easily.
[...]
... Then I hung up my spade.
[...]
... unless you are really prepared for a fight, leave it to the professionals.

Well there are certainly some valid words of warning there!

What's the average turnaround of allotment plots? Do many people end up overwhelmed and let things fall to pieces after one year? I guess the most important factor is having an allotment within walking/cycling distance, anything further would perhaps be too much trouble for most people.

Desperately negative article.

Wrong person, wrong place, wrong everything.

It certainly is negative, though probably truthful. Many people will fall into the trap while

you could get stuff from the shops or market much more easily

If that changes, people will do something to produce their own or starve. Unfortunately those who grow their own will also have to deal with thieves.

I confess that I'm struggling with my lotty at the moment, though my garden potager is fantastic. I've also just taken on a garden plot just a few doors away with which I can do what I please.

I have had a few goalposts move on me with the lotty; the boundaries wer eslightly redrawn, swallowing the first strip I'd dug and weeded the first year. The paths are now to be re-established and wider, and we're supposed to strim our own - meaning every separate lotty holder acquiring a petrol strimmer. Um... And they've banned carpet, so I pulled that up and had some parts rotovated. Now they have decided to make us take our own carpet away 'because we shouldn't have taken it there in the first place' except that I was reusing what was on my lotty when I got it, and some bits other lotties had finished with.

Also, my soil is played out and I'm having very poor germination despite taking down my own compost. One neighbour who's just started a lotty has put in raised beds and simply filled them with bought compost - effective, but costly.

I'm also a touch miffed that they're allegedly now clearing plots before they're passed on, but it took me two summers to get to the bottom of thet piles of plastic bags, broken glass, half bricks, risty metal, buried breeze blocks, old pallets, and so on.

I wonder, as did an earlier poster, whether the surge in people trying lottyholding is matched by many of them getting disillusioned (possibly unsupported) and giving up after a few seasons.

I'd love to start fresh, rotovate, mulch for a year with manure, green manure for a year, and then try again, but the rules on keeping it 'worked' may not let me, in which case some other soul will be trying to deplete this poor soil still further in a year or two.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant. I'm finding it frustrating.

That's a shame Tattercoats.

I'm currently trying to get some community allotments set up (or at least a few raised beds) on some derelict land in our community, where a housebuilder has postponed their development indefinitely.

The new beds will be filled with fresh compost/topsoil though so it should be quite easy to grow.

They will be community beds though - no fences or anything. So the idea is that whoever wants to plant stuff can, and whoever wants to take food from it also can. Should be interesting to see how/if it works.

Interesting article and comments.

I don't have an allotment any more - just a garden - but yes, of course, it's "easier" to buy crops from Tesco (as long as you have the money and the shops have plenty on the shelves), it's also easier to get a decorator and a cleaner. And, yes, working an allotment is harder than watching Rachel de Thame on the telly.

Re costs. I had fewer of the costs that Paul Reynolds seems to have had. You build up stuff over time - or inherit or make them or borrow them. It's amzing what you can find in skips, I've never bought "net coverings" or guttering for example. How about sharing some of the equipment with fellow allotment holders? If you use a lot of chemicals that can be expensive as it never stops, but there are natural alternatives.

Someone once told me that their homegrown tomatoes had cost them £2.50 per tomato! God knows how. Recently I got 35lbs of tomatoes from a 65p packet of seeds (plus some liquid feed). No great effort, just a bit of light weeding and watering. I'm sure I could have got more. Yes, I've had a lot of failures, that's life, but never very financially expensive. And don't forget if you're down the allotment, you're not spending money on something else.

Re gluts. Many of us already have a freezer, but definitely worth learning about preserving too - also forcing and sowing early, middle and late crops. Out of season crops are a lot more expnsive, of course, so worth putting some thought into this aspect. Also - if you have an allotment what about cooperating with friends and sharing out some of your successes and expertise? Or you can swap some of your spare crops for someone else's labour, it doesn't have to be a formal agreement (it used to be called "returning a favour").

Re saving work. Raised beds and permaculture are probably the way to go, but yes "nature strikes back"! Cancel that gym membership and save dosh. The early days are likely to be the hardest, as they say, you get out what you put in (eventually) and you are constantly learning. There's also any number of minimum maintenance crops that you can grow - such as onions, herbs, soft fruit, rhubarb and gooseberries.

The council sound like they made running the allotment for Paul very difficult (carpet, hoses etc). That they were "a little surprised, at being asked for one" indicates it's early days for them as well. I'd recommend he got someone down there and explained the problems. Failing that remember that rules are there for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

Good post Quintus.

Nothing nicer than eating your own. Also giving away produce is great..... and produces some nice gifts in return sometimes ......

A couple of years ago I bought a load of fruit bushes from Lidl and this year they are all cropping well.

Redcurrant vodka anyone? It's a really bright pink colour (not red as I thought) - it must cure something?

Keela wrote: Redcurrant vodka anyone? It's a really bright pink colour (not red as I thought) - it must cure something?

'Course it does. Swine 'Flu (Russian variant)

We've picked 33lbs of redcurrents from four bushes in the last two days.

biffvernon wrote:We've picked 33lbs of redcurrents from four bushes in the last two days.

Blimey those bushes must be Triffids! What are you feeding them on? We've picked about 33 redcurrents from our bushes!

I found the Half Hour Allotment a godsend

http://www.DODGY TAX AVOIDERS.co.uk/Half-hour-Allot ... 576&sr=8-1

Its not survivalist stuff, but as I'm short for time it allowed me to focus on maximum output while getting better at looking after it. I put agricultural mustard over half of mine as I didn't have time to plant it - its good for the soil and let be not get too overwhelmed.

When the kids are older things will be easier, and they can help and learn.

JonB wrote:I found the Half Hour Allotment a godsend

http://www.DODGY TAX AVOIDERS.co.uk/Half-hour-Allot ... 576&sr=8-1

Its not survivalist stuff, but as I'm short for time it allowed me to focus on maximum output while getting better at looking after it. I put agricultural mustard over half of mine as I didn't have time to plant it - its good for the soil and let be not get too overwhelmed.

When the kids are older things will be easier, and they can help and learn.

I agree, I was given this book just as I got my allotment and I found it very useful.

I just got about 800g of black currants from one bush, made a nice crumble with it.
The bush was £12 (yeah I was robbed), but that much fruit it about £8 from Tesco.
Anbother one is just starting to ripen, so the same amount should be ready in a couple of weeks, and I've got at least those two again in red currants after that.