Topic: Where is everybody?

[Unwashed]

So where is everyone?    Everything I read in the press suggests that allotmenteering is wildly popular and I had to wait patiently for a long time before I got my plot.  But what I'm seeing with my own eyes suggests that people can't actually be bothered working the plots that they've got and also that people on the waiting lists don't seem to be keen to take on plots when they're on offer.  Is this the same on allotments everywhere or is it peculiar to the site I'm on?

I don't think it does to be overly bothered with what other people do on their allotments.

[1066]

pigeonseed - go for it! But then I'm biased too  :)

You could even make a start on our site  ::)

1066  :)

[elvis2003]

englishrose,i do beg your pardon if im wrong,but you say youve been onsite less than a month? hardly enough time to get the feel of the place and have such high opinions i wouldnt have thought! they are prob on holidays!

[Digeroo]

Sounds an interesting study but the need to idenitify reasons for success or failure do not seem to come into it. 

Perhaps you should contact uni of kent and tell them of your interest. 

If there is more research on the subject of allotments they will be able to attract more funding.  Apart from during the war they do not seem to figure in the national food plan.

There are different work patterns on allotments  One on our site they paid someone to dig it  over, sowed various and now are taking the crops, though they do water, I have never seen them pull up a weed.  They are not there for long and if you blink you would miss them. 

[pigeonseed]

I came across this a while back Pigeonseed.  I don't know if you've seen it.
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sac/department/research/environmental/homegardens.html

Thank you earlypea. I will have a look at that!

And I know some have felt that englishrose shouldn't be judgemental after only a month, but sometimes it's when you're new that you notice things others take for granted. Some plots have no veg at all, just brambles and dock. You don't have to be an expert to know no one is using them.  

[cornykev]

The idea of allotments are popular ER, but working them unfortunatly are not, and I would be concerned that the weeds are growing up around you from other plots, even though you'll only been there a month the weeds sound as if they've been growing a lot longer.  :P      ;D ;D ;D

[EnglishRose]

Do you think I should?

I had a look on the databases last night, and I didn't come up with much that people had done already.

I've been trying what sort of media research I should be doing in my new career as a media production lecturer, but I have to say, imagining researching allotments instead has made me feel much more excited!

It might not be media, but it is socially useful research, and could be part of the whole regeneration in Hastings thing.

Of course as allotments are my obsession just like you lot - I could really get into this!  ;D (sorry to hijack your thread englishrose)


I think it's a brilliant idea!  It makes me so cross to see very badly overgrown plots / abandoned plots when there are so many people on waiting lists up and down the country; if we had a better understanding of how and why allotmenteers succeed or fail then perhaps there might not be so many plots going to waste.  Go for it!

[earlypea]

Personally, I don't find the question of factors contributing to a successful allotment very interesting and it might actually be quite oppressive if those factors were ever implemented.

Trouble is - the idea of 'success' seems to assume that there is only one kind of ideal allotment which we should all aspire to, whereas people have a lot of different goals or ideas and derive pleasure from their allotments in a variety of ways.

And I think 'pleasure' is an important aspect, we're not desperate peasants.

[picman]

Our site is full with a waiting list, i guess we are lucky as we don't have many 'poor' plots, (51 total) I think new tenants don't realize how much hard work is involved, it also helps if your retired.
 

[Digeroo]

I agree with Pigeionseed about success.  There are several allotment holders on our site who enjoy their allotments enormously and spend a reasonable amount of time and effort.  They feel successful and are delighted with the results they are getting.  There are others who produce comsiderably more crops.   What actiually is success?

Perhaps people also need time.  One of our plots has been completely transformed this year.  I think that the crops of others spurred them on.  We have no committee to come round and inspect and tut. 

But I agree with the original poster, I have been to my lottie four times this week and seen no one else.

[pigeonseed]

I wasn't thinking of trying to force standards on other people - just of knowing what you could put in place to increase newcomers' chances of success. There are already rules about what constitues success and if you dont have it you get evicted.

There are things I've heard sites doing like doing gardening lessons, small starter plots, encouraging a community like tee gee was doing. They could all possibly increase the chance of success, rather than just letting people sink or swim.

Of course some of us would rather just be left to get on with it ourselves - and we should be allowed that freedom. I'd hate gardening lessons or a starter plot!

I did go off the idea a bit at the weekend, I was chatting to the site secretary and he was more of a sink or swim man! He felt very strongly if you want to garden, you work out how to do it. He felt that you'll always have a number of people who rent the plot because it's cheap (and perhaps fashionable) but don't use it. He sort of has a point. But undermining it - he's started a scheme for newcomers to be offered a very small starter plot!

[earlypea]

I wasn't thinking of trying to force standards on other people - just of knowing what you could put in place to increase newcomers' chances of success. There are already rules about what constitues success and if you dont have it you get evicted.

I'm glad to hear it.  I'm very much into self-learning and would absolutely loathe to be told what to do.  Although, like the original postee, I do wish my grandfather had been around to help me get started, but then not around later because he was very particular about double-digging and spacing and everything.....and wouldn't tolerate 'foreign muck' like French beans  :D

Actually our allotment committee has a very open attitude to the rules; I was told I could grow flowers, keep bees, cultivate a wild patch - all sorts.  Unfortunately a lot of plot-holders don't seem equally enlightened and spend half their time down there winging about other peoples' plots.

I was thinking the other day what if Carol Deppe of the book 'Breed your own vegetable varieties' fame, had an allotment.  She admits she doesn't like tilling, nor weeding much, plants flowers between crops so that 'the bees can wipe their feet'.  The complainers on my plot would be horrified to see her 'letting everything run to seed' and then planting bedfuls of dandelions would be the final frontier!  

[shirlton]

I think that the thing that disappoints me the most is that there are no friendly grandfather types on my allotment who have been growing prizewinning marrows for 60 years and would only be too willing to offer a bit of advice to a complete newbie. (quote by English Rose)


Over the the last few years since allotments became the "in thing" some sites have become more than just a place to go and get bit of peace and quiet and grow the family veg, which in our case is what we liked.(Tony being the grandfather of course.) ;D
I'm afraid that change doesn't always suit us old uns although we do carry a mobile phone around with us just for emergency that is;D

[pigeonseed]

I do like to get a bit of peace and quiet - that's definitely important. I wouldn't like it if there were people on either side of my plot when I went, because our plots are only a strip 4m wide. Mind you no chance of that - It's been many years since they had veg on them!

Unfortunately a lot of plot-holders don't seem equally enlightened and spend half their time down there winging about other peoples' plots.

Aren't they a misery? I think you should get to follow your dream on your plot, and accept other people's dreams might look a bit different. The difference is a bonus to me. Allotments have character.

I think maybe you've misunderstood my intentions with the research, earlypea - I'm not trying to stop people gardening how they want - sort of the opposite really. We get so much enjoyment from our allotments, and it seems a shame if some people could have that too, but they get put off early on and give up.

[BAK]

First signs over the bank holiday of people returning!

We have quite a few young mums who we seldom see during the school holidays ... and of course many plot holders go away in July and August.

In general, we see more strangers (friend and family) picking crops than we do plot holders at this time.

[caroline7758]

I gave up half of my allotment around March/April time this year and I've seen the people who took it over twice since then! They are a young couple who said their parents were going to help them with it but they obviously all go at different times to me, although to be honest I don't think they go very often!

I like the peace and quiet, and wouldn't want people talking to me all the time, but it's nice to compare notes from time to time.

[pigeonseed]

oh no, having to give up half of it must have been hard!  :(

I'm nursing a secret ambition to ask for the 4 rod plot next to my 6 rod plot. I know it's about to become vacant. I meant to call the council today. I don't want to get my hopes up in case they say no.

How are you finding the smaller plot, caroline - is it sad or a relief to have less to worry about?

[EnglishRose]

Apologies for disappearing for so long - I've been busy on the lottie, amongst other things ;D

To respond to those who think I'm being judgmental - yes, I freely admit I am.  But please do stop and think just how frustrating it must be for someone to wait over two years to get an allotment plot only to discover that plots on the site have been left uncultivated for *years*.  If the site was being managed a little more actively then I could have been quite happily digging my way to Australia quite some time ago!  Added to that I know several local people who would be keen (and committed) lottie holders if they could actually get their hands on a plot, but they're stuck on an ever-lengthening waiting list.  Hence my disappointment at never seeing at the lottie - it just seems wrong, somehow, when so many people are clamouring for plots.

[elvis2003]

Apologies for disappearing for so long - I've been busy on the lottie, amongst other things ;D

To respond to those who think I'm being judgmental - yes, I freely admit I am.  But please do stop and think just how frustrating it must be for someone to wait over two years to get an allotment plot only to discover that plots on the site have been left uncultivated for *years*.  If the site was being managed a little more actively then I could have been quite happily digging my way to Australia quite some time ago!  Added to that I know several local people who would be keen (and committed) lottie holders if they could actually get their hands on a plot, but they're stuck on an ever-lengthening waiting list.  Hence my disappointment at never seeing at the lottie - it just seems wrong, somehow, when so many people are clamouring for plots.

I think you should join your committee ASAP,or even better,take over as you obviously know all there is to running an allotment site and you can show the lazy so and sos that are doing it now a thing or two!  ;D  ;D

[EnglishRose]

I think you should join your committee ASAP

We don't have a lottie committee, and I suspect that's half the problem :(  The site's run by the local council and I imagine they're far too overstretched to take an active role in managing their lotties - especially when we pay so little for our plots!  It's just so, so sad when people are missing out because others haven't got round to giving up plots they no longer want - I want everyone who really loves gardening to have the chance to get as much pleasure from allotmenteering as I'm getting.  I wonder what the practicalities of setting up a committee might be?  If we had a committee, we could do all sorts of fab things like arrange manure deliveries, bulk-buy discounts on seeds and regular skip collections as well as keeping more of an eye on plot cultivation.....my mind's running away with possibilities!  Trouble is that I don't know if anyone else would actually be interested in that sort of arrangement - and I can't suss out what other plot holders think as I don't see people down the lottie  ;D