[Closed] Anyone have an allotment?

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Generally quite a long waiting list, took my OH a bit over a year (and that was a short list).

She grows all sorts of things on it, just finished some lovely rhubarb crumble, and there's some gooseberry jam been made today too.

I reckon she spends a few hours there when I'm riding once a week, plus the odd hour once or twice midweek.

Yes we have one, use it to grow fruit and veg, also have a very large wood store there. Love spending as much time as we can there.

I had one, can depend on the condition when you take it over . Loved it but very time consuming . Especially in a hot summer, you'll be down there every day watering, weeding , fighting off pests , harvesting stuff. Great fun though and very rewarding.

Had one for a few years a few years ago. Gave it up to spend more time riding as it was often a choice of weeding or riding and riding is more fun. You can spend a LOT of time at it depending what you want to achieve. I used to spend an hour or so at it doing very little just to get out the house. I found Oct was a busy time clearing the plot for winter and march/April the busy time setting it up. I used to spend every day off at it for a few hours plus a couple of hours on a Sunday but never really kept on top of my 6m x 12m. I grew lots but a lot went to waste due to pests or not picking it quickly enough. make sure it's near by as mine was a 20min drive away so driving 40 mins for spuds and carrots was a pain. Still grow lots at home instead now and find I can make a plot at home a quarter of what I had just as productive as it way easier to tinker little and often.

a freind has one, spends a lot of timme there, chatting theyre sociable places, beware of disclosing your occupation if youre an in demand sort of job, as people will endlessly ask for advice.

usually somewhere on the site that has stuff for sale, eg seeds, plants etc, also hunt around for old doors, sheds, tools etc.

you need a shed to shelter in when its raining, and to store stuff,and dont forget 2 chairs .

I have one, but I'm too pissed to contribute anything useful.

Short summary: This year: Sweetcorn, mini-sweetcorn, strawberries, dwarf french beans, two types of runner beans, potatoes, plums, cherries, grannie smith, braeburn, cox, 2 types of beetroot, swede, red onions, 3 types of white onions, courgette, pumpkins, rhubarb, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and peas.

I spend at least a full day a week down there mincing about and getting a lovely tan; it's a great place to spend some time. I have BBQ stuff down there though too, and a shed with some niceties (not Kayak23 levels though 🙂 )

There are some definite learning curves though regarding turning a field into a manageable plot.

No burger toast in sight.

Today:

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We have a cucumber plant growing twixt the cat shit in the raised bed outside, its there by accident and has recited exactly zero attention, does that count?

Wife excited at the prospect of growing rhubarb. We are lucky in that the allotments are a 5 min walk from the house. We went to the last open day for a mooch and there seemed to be about 10% of the lots were vacant so hopefully no waiting list.

Vey impressed by some peoples setups. Lots of chicken enclosures etc.

Yup, we got one in April.
Use it for everything it seems..
Spuds, onions, rhubarb, strawberries, and tons of other stuff...
It was in shit state when we got given it, so just seeing how we get on this year.
£22 a year well spent IMHO.

Got one - well two cut ally as the plot next to ours came up just as my name hit the top of the list.

We've got the usual onion, spuds, beans n peas, beetroot, courgettes, broccoli cabbage sprouts carrots parsnips sweet corn. Then in the fruit cage, we've got red/yellow/blackcurrant so, cherry plum and apple trees, rasps, rhubarb and brambles.

Wife spends all day Sunday there, and three nights a week to water. It's Scotland, so we don't have to do much more than that.

Forgot the poly tunnel with 50 odd tomato plants and an olive tree. We've also got a hotbed with melons growing.

Yes, but my wife does most of the work. Just had a bowl of strawberries.

I've got about 90 x 15 ft, spuds, garlic, onions, beetroot, turnips, squash, courgettes, etc 100 yards from the house. It's quite hard work but I find the produce to be better than shop-bought stuff. It took 2-3 years to get rid of the horsetail, managed it though.

I usually end up down mine a fair bit of Sunday though I'd often rather be riding. Usually pop in a few evenings to water depending on the weather.

We have marestail on our plot and it's a git. Always pulling the stuff out as it seems to grow so fast. Not too bad apart from that.
Edit-

3 years to get rid of the horsetail, managed it though.

A bloke near us dug his plot down to Australia in his attempt.

I share mine with friends which can be a good way to share the work and the potential gluts!

Build a shed and they can be lovely places to hang out at.

I've got courgette, garlic, onion, aubergine, sweetcorn, potato, cabbage, spinach beans all going.

We seem to have a remarkable ability to miss the produce at its best and am often composing bolted stuff 😳

Long waiting list usually. Keep a hive on a mates. Very nive down their yrstetday chattimg to others eating fresh strawberries. Take up a lot of time if you get one in bad condition.

It took 2-3 years to get rid of the horsetail, managed it though.

Also interested in knowing how you got rid of it as well. Glysophate seems to be quite ineffective. At the moment I've covered a good chunk of the allotment with cardboard and then layering grass/leaf mould on top to smother it.
As its rife on the neighbours plots I don't hold out much hope of getting rid of it 🙁

Mrs Moses has had an allotment for many years, about10 minutes walk from home.
It's her way of getting out from the house and away from me & the kids (when they were young).
She provides interesting veg for us throughout the summer, & onions for about 4 month of the year, but the real benefit is the therapy and having somewhere to go.

horsetail: we've just been pulling it out down to and including the tap root when we see one and covered all non-growing areas with a decent quality membrane and woodchip.

three years on the plot and only get the odd one or two - possible wind blow from neighbours who still have a lot of it.

Try growing stuff in pots in your own garden if you're having difficulty getting an allotment or even if to see the amount of time/effort involved for different crops.

re Horsetail I'd recommend bruising the leaves when they're fully grown (July-ish) and then applying strong weedkiller - even tree rootkiller depending where they are. Failing that a blowtorch is satisfying (LEGAL DISCLAIMER: AS LONG AS THEY'RE AWAY FROM THE HOUSE OR ANYTHING VAGUELY FLAMMABLE - PLEASE HANDLE RESPONSIBLY ETC ETC ETC).

Kinda, the bottom 10x5m bit of our garden is a fruit and veg patch.

Despite the OH being over the moon with the idea of having a nice garden AND being able to grow our own food, and keep chickens we've been in the house a year and:

1) I've got sunburnt shoulders from digging over the same patch yet again to keep the weeds at bay, still nothing planted in it. You'd be amazed how many of the jobs become 'blue' jobs.

2) The fruit side ripens quicker than we can eat it for about a week in the year and I reckon the second freezer which has to live in the 40C conservatory probably costs more to run than the EU space program let alone just buying frozen fruit when we need it.

3) Everywhere is crawling with ants.

4) The OH apparently did her bit by killing the moss in the lawn by sprinkling the moss killer on it. I then spent a backbreaking day raking out the dead black moss from our previously green lawn and aerating the soil with a fork. this is fairly representative of the work split between us.

5) The conservatory has been out of bounds for 12 months whilst she finds time to paint the chicken coop I bought her and currently fills it. I'm nowhere near the point of getting the return on investment "if you buy me a chicken coop and we get hens I can make you fresh cake when you go out cycling".

Does your wife actually want to play at being a farmer, or just like the idea of playing at being a farmer?

You'rs with incredibly sunburnt shoulders,
TINAS

p.s. I wonder if there's some sort of inverse allotment where people would pay £22 a year to come and do my garden for me.

My wife's got one and it's a great for allowing me to get out riding!

Every Friday I ask 'what's happening this weekend' and she normally says 'I need to work on the allotment', I'll then leave it an hour or so and then book my riding passes 😀 😉

yes, my wife has one. Was on the waiting list for a long time before getting one. it had been unworked for a long time, and took the best part of a year to clear and get it to a state of being able to grow on. As already said, i ride, she potters at the allotment. But its great having fresh homegrown fruit and veg. We already have more strawberries than we can eat/jam/use.

as for clearing - no easy route, just digging and pulling he crap out over a period of time. i wouldn't use well. Glysophate - and there's a chance it will be banned in the very near future anyway

We have 2 massive beds in the garden (5m x2m each) plus a fruit tree raised bed.

This year was thin due to baby arriving but still growing peas, potatoes, kale, carrots, beetroot, onions, various lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes in the green house.

Takes a bit of work and for sure cheaper buying from tesco but the flavour is amazing and nothing beats popping out to the garden for salad for your sandwich!

Have 3 100 x 33ft plots. They were Dads and he had them when I was a nipper - so part of the family now for 40 years. Took them on when he passed away 6 years ago as there were too many memories just to walk away.

Have pretty much grown everything - still experiment every year with new stuff - and keep going with it if its any good. Its not cheaper than shop bought produce if you factor in your time.

Damn hard work though, spend roughly 8 hours a week down there in the growing season with the help of my eldest lad - hard to keep on top of the weeding at times, but grow all I need for our extended family - and still keep Mum in supply of fresh veggies as Dad did.

Must confess to having thoughts of packing them in - Have a new young family now and want to spend more time with them . .

Horsetail involved a lot of digging out and took advice from the following. Had one little ****er this year.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/1989/ammonium-sulphamate-weed-killer-banned/

http://mistralni.co.uk/products/ammonium-sulphamate (...should you need a compost accelerator)