Picture posting is enabled for all :)
Deb P, If it is anything like ours .. 1/3rd will accept your findings and set to work .. 1/3rd will complain vociferously but eventually do some work .. and 1/3rd will dig their heels in, spreading rumours such as he/she has it on good authority that you plan to kill the first born of all plot holders as part of their campaign against you. One guy has told our council that raised beds should be banned as part of his personal crusade.
Both plots on either side of us have been neglected. The one is also a newbie who got the plot a couple of days after us. But the guy on the other side seemed to be there all the time when we started, but we haven't seen him since April! The newbies built a raised bed, planted salad, which all went to seed. They mattocked back some of the weeds and planted sweetcorn and a couple of marrow/pumpkin looking plants (they didn't even dig it over!) and that was that, the weeds were back up within a week and have continued to grow. The guy on the other side planted parsnips, cabbage, beans, potatoes, brocoli etc. The potatoes were one of the first to get blight, and came and went (I thought at the time that it was sad, as he wouldn't know). Now his cabbages have been eaten by caterpillars, the beans are about a foot long, and his brocoli are looking lovely and ready to pick!I am so tempted to complain about them both, but feel I have only been there 5 months, so don't have the right to complain, I am kind of hoping that the old guys on the other side of them will complain.Last night when I went to my plot it was covered in white fluff from weeds that have blown from the 2 plots, I was very disappointed! I spend so much time weeding, hoping one day that I might get on top of it all (I know that I will never be weed free, but I am told that it does get easier after about 3 years!)
Problem is, weedy, that it's hard for association bods or for the council to kick folks off their allotments when there's no work being done so by the time the person has been chucked off and another person offered the plot a lot of weeds will have taken hold!!When I took mine on it had just been cleared of weeds, (but no landfill items I see >:( ) but they all grew back within a few months, so by the time a new person gets a plot it is overrun again!