Topic: Sharing a plot

[timnsal]

I have just informally agreed to share the neighbouring plot to mine with a friend.

Does anyone have any advice about potential pitfalls, so we can try to avoid them?

I'm not totally sure it'll work out, as she is adamant that we won't be able to plant anything on it this year and thinks I should leave it until she's cleared the weeds. And I was thinking of doing the same as on my main plot - digging over to remove as many weeds as poss, planting up fairly quickly and attacking the weed regrowth as it comes through.

Oh well, we shall see.

Sally

[supersprout]

Good idea, and potentially half the work! :). I have done this twice, once very happily, once OK but abandoned after two years. I think you have the advantage, as you have a plot already.

If you're planning to tackle the next door plot jointly imho it's worth comparing notes on 'what is a successfully run allotment' - answers might vary e.g.

grows food all the year round
allows me to grow extraordinary veg
one with not a weed to be seen and the top layer of soil sifted
well dug and manured
covered in apple trees
somewhere I can relax after work

etc. etc.

there are bound to be differences between you and your chum, if you can reconcile them upfront ('what if I plant sweetcorn and winter brassicas on half of the plot now and we can dig over the other half') you'll avoid misunderstandings. On the upside, there's the fun of planning your sowing and planting month by month over a beer!

The better of the two shares started with my friend and I working our half plots independently but turning up at the same time so we could have company, then merging as we went along. We still each had a few beds of our own, meant we could 'offer' each other things we'd independently grown. Nice!

[Svea]

having a good discussion with your friend is definately the way to go before you commit/start work on it.

if you differences are too great, maybe you can agree to work each half totally independently. this way, you can do what you like, and so can she (within reason - you should agree on basics such as organic or not control methods etc)

[Larkspur]

having a good discussion with your friend is definately the way to go before you commit/start work on it.

if you differences are too great, maybe you can agree to work each half totally independently. this way, you can do what you like, and so can she (within reason - you should agree on basics such as organic or not control methods etc)

I share a plot with my daughter- in -law. We each have our own half and do what we want on it , to the extent that she is organic and I am not.  We help each other out but do not interfere with what the other does. It works fine and we have never had any problems with it but even with some one I get on so well with I would not fancy a sysem where you share the same land and have to discuss everything you are going to do. Infact when we decided to share a plot we new from the outset that the only way that would work was for us each to have our own half.

[timnsal]

Oh well, best laid plans and all that. These allotments are addictive.

I think it took 2 days for her hubby to decide to come and have a look. The whole family spent Sunday afternoon there and apparently he's started drawing up plans  now ;D Somehow, I don't think sharing is going to work.

So I'm moving further up the site, so I can have two plots together.

Even remembered to take some pics
before I started this time. (edited to sort the url out)

Sally

[Tee Gee]

Can you clarify something for me;

Are you sharing the 'land' or sharing the 'produce' ?

If it is the land, then I see no problem, you friend has say the top half and you the bottom,and you can both do what you like.

If it is the produce this could be a bit more difficult, and can only be decided by discussion.

As a suggestion; you do the preparationand caring and your friend buys the seed & fertiliser then you share the crop 50-50.

I leave these thought with you!

[timnsal]

Hi Tee-Gee,

Thanks for the suggestion.

Plan A was to share the land, but that's been superceded by an unanticipated rush of enthusiasm from my friend's husband. So they are going to work the whole plot now, and I'm having two on a different part of the site.

I'm certainly not going to complain at someone else getting the bug ;D

Sally

[artichoke]

I shared with my husband for four years and it did not work at all well. He had a third of the plot and filled it with potatoes for a couple of years, then added raspberries, gooseberries and marrows - no trouble there. I grew different things and we both ate the results.

The problem was that he didn't seem to believe in weeding and hoeing, or in trimming the grass path edges (and didn't want me to help), and the whole area became an embarrassing eyesore, with earth spilling over onto the grass, complaints from the man who generously mows them, tiny green potatoes that took for ever to prepare for a meal and raspberry canes that sprawled everywhere and collapsed onto my plants. And the couch, creeping buttercup and bindweed made a major come-back in among the raspberries etc.

Anyone who shares should make sure they have similar levels of commitment to keeping the plot under control.

He gave me his area back over Christmas, and I have put a huge amount of energy into clearing it, including digging up all the fruit and untwining the bindweed etc.

He didn't believe in putting anything much into the soil either, so the plants now growing there are noticeably less healthy than in my area, which is full of compost and manure. It's not that I am smug, but it is quite interesting how fine and soft and deep the soil is on my side and how heavy, cloddy and sticky it is on his. All that work does make a difference.