The allotments I'm on are really friendly. Last year was our first year, and we took it on too late to put in much of our own stuff, but the other allotmenteers gave us loads of their extra crops, so we ended up with tons of tomatoes, swiss chard and some leeks (very nice! ;D)
We did have our pumpkins stolen last year :'(. One of the other lottie holders said he saw them in the hands of a couple of kids, but, hell, I guess in the grand scheme of things that's pretty harmless really. There don't seem to be many problems with vandalism etc otherwise.
I do grow herds ???, sorry herbs, in the garden and I'm thinking of putting some chilli pepper plants out, though I'm not sure how well they will do there. Wish me luck! How was your garlic aquilegia? I've got some planted, but at the rate it's growing it won't be ready till December....