How do I manage without a shed?

[Valer1e]

Hi

I'm a new member and really pleased to find this site. It looks just what I need to encourage me.

I'm still looking at the local allotments but am a bit discouraged by the fact that the council don't allow any buildings, i.e. sheds on the plots.

I can take everything I need in the car although that's not what I envisaged doing. How do other people manage without anywhere to store things?

I'm already trying to devise a way to improvise a seat on the plot but it is more the storage and shelter aspect I'm thinking about.

Can it be done?

Thanks

Val

[Valer1e]

[saddad]

You will have to check carefully with your site sec but many no shed plots allow storage boxes some of which double up quite well as a seat. Has the site got a communal shelter/site hut? What would they say to a gazebo, some have three transparent sides....
???

[OliveOil]

I have a shed with chooks in it LOL... my tools live outside and remain there every day... they arent expensive tools though... i think i'll have to putmy new xmas tools away when they arrive... but a shed isnt the bee all and end all so dont worry.

You could buy a plastic storage container - they are quite big - about £60

[Valer1e]

Thanks for your swift responses. You know how it is when you want something - you want it now!

Walking around the plots there doesn't seem to be anything allowed - no storage boxes, no gazebos. It's all a bit flat in fact. The odd wigwam or row of sticks for climbers but otherwise the only other thing is a compost heap or two and a water barrel.

I was told it was due to vandalism in the past as the site is open to anyone. There are no fences and public footpaths cross the site.

I can't even find anyone working there. I must go at the wrong times as some plots are obviously tended. I'd say about 25% are vacant though.

Well I will keep on looking for others there and see how they manage,

Val

[supersprout]

Before I had a shed, I made a fake compost bin out of doors held together with string, next to a real (and very active) compost bin. In went the tools, then on top of them a tarp and a pile of filthy sacks spattered with manure. Nothing stolen in more than a year - having said that, we have fences and a gate, and a gang of vigilante plotholders whose windows overlook the plot ::) I do think that mud and manure put off casual thieves though.

[tim]

Fingers crossed, Sprouty?

I so much admire all those who do everything either from home or from a shed. Or a compost heap. We have a BARN & I still don't have enough room!!

[gary]

Are you allowed a greenhouse?

At the minute my (few) tools are laid on top of the compost heap under a tarp.

Gary

[triffid]

Having just had my shed broken into (for the fourth time  :'()  I'd firmly second the idea of storing tools in an unlikely hideaway.

Before I got my shed, I just used to lay my tools down where I was working (or well away from the main path, at any rate). It meant they got rained on, but if you're using them often they don't get rusty or anything.

The thing is that most allotment break-ins happen after dark or at twilight. And anything lying on the ground is effectively invisible.

The real use for a shed is shelter, which is a different matter. Could you maybe rig up a framework that stands there all the time, but has a tarp or boards to go over it that can easily be taken down (if someone complains)?

[mr plasma]

my advise to you is to lobby your council to not be so ridiculous and allow you a shed!

[artichoke]

I think the idea of a fake compost heap is absolutely brilliant!

We are allowed only "purpose-built" sheds on our plot (and I don't want to buy one), but it is rather isolated and unprotected, and I have already lost a number of bamboos and had my squashes kicked around to destruction. I have toyed with the idea of building a normal runner bean support and tying a tarpaulin over it until told not to, but the fake compost heap seems a better idea to me. I might do the runner support as well, for shelter when it rains.

I too have left tools lying on the ground under greenery - and have even lost things until finding them again in the sutumn clear-up....

[Gail-M]

Hi Val,

I find it very odd your site does not have a fence ? Why is this - could the council not be requested to erect one ?

I don't have a shed or a car ( but do have a fence round site) I leave all my tools in a empty plastic compost bin.Dalek type.  Keeps them out of site and dry.

Luckily we do not have much of a vandalism problem but I don't leave anything that I would be upset if it was stolen.


good luck

Gail
 

[STHLMgreen]

I don't have a shed but we did build a huge storage box with a back, so as to double as a bench. Three or four people can sit and the tools stay dry. Maybe ask if a storage box is allowed?

Ours is black and if it was in black or green or another earthy colour they probably wouldn't complain.

We don't have a fence around out plots either but it is in the clearing of the woods and it seems to be relatively safe. (The odd tools go missing once or twice a year, but honestly, we don't have the nicest tools of the 110 or so allotments there.)

[Andy H]

Someone on our plots has fake compo bin with pallet as roof with soil on it and weeds growing on top, looks like real bin, the side pallet is tied with string and opens like a door! giving a nice hidden cubic metre storage space.

We are not allowed sheds or GH`s but are allowed a large metal cupboard.

[cornykev]

:) I sympathise I couldn't be without my shed, fake compost bin a blinding idea that one, failing that dig a hole drop in the storage box and cover with an old bit of carpet sounds over the top but so does some of these site rules.

       May the corn be with you.

[Kea]

Yes I thought about digging a hole in the ground and lining it with something waterproof and covering it with something waterproof or some sort of storage box, then something on top like old carpet. Then put weeds or bags of manure on top. I use old carpet weighed down with bags of weeds and manure to hide my wheel barrow. i have a shed now but considered the above as an alternative. The fake compost bin is a good idea though.

[Barnowl]

Having just had my shed broken into (for the fourth time  :'()  I'd firmly second the idea of storing tools in an unlikely hideaway.

On a program about allotment sheds they showed one with a false back to it behind which the allotmenteer stored all his tools.

[Rosyred]

I don't have a shed (yet) I carried some stuff in the car like gloves and my little hoe. I leave a big fork by a pole all the time at the allotment and my little fork is hidden with some veg. Most of the other people have sheds so i'm sure my stuff will be fine.

[cornykev]

This may help instead of finding a carrying bag.  ;D ;D ;D

[bupster]

Fake compost bin genius! I have a shed, falling apart and full of other people's stuff - I now want to have one of these instead! ;D

[gunnerbee]

Kea, your answer cracked me up although ive seen it on the Allotment dvd,great idea.

i just imagioned turning all the rakes sunnyside up to catch any night lurkers/vandals, like an old fashioned trap!!!