I don't understand ...

[timnsal]

I've had a plot on our local site for a couple of years now. In that time, loads of people have come, taken on plots in varying states of neglect and worked incredibly hard for several months to clear them and plant them up.

So why, why, why do so many then vanish altogether, leaving vast expanses of unharvested crops? And then new people take on the plots, and dig out the stuff that's growing and throw it away!

Crazy :(


Sally

[timnsal]

[Ant]

I found myself agreeing with that right to the end...

Same happens on our site, people come and work like fury, then leave it either before they start planting or just after then vanish...

I suppose people can have other problems, but it still only take 5 minutes to come and dig something up if you have crops.

As for people taking it on and throwing away good food, they must be daft. Can just imagine them chucking a load of veg and then driving to Asda for some of the very same!

[kt.]

Each to their own I guess.  At least they give up the plot instead of hanging on to it for years and not doing anything like some do.

[Ant]

Each to their own I guess.  At least they give up the plot instead of hanging on to it for years and not doing anything like some do.

aye, like the previous owner of our plot, weeds high enough to hide an elephant.

A special elephant that poos plastic bags, broken glass and rubble...

Found a rusty junior hacksaw yesterday. God knows how people let the plot get in such a state.

[PurpleHeather]

We manage our own site, lease it from the council on a basis that we use the 'rent' each year for improvements. Every plot holder has to pay a refundable deposit and we do a 'plot check' each month between May and October.

If the plot has been unused from one month to the next, we send a letter to ask if they have any 'problems' as we had not seen them for a while. If no reply, we write again to say that we will be offering their plot to the next person on the waiting list as they do not seem to be using it. If no reply we give them 14 days to clear the plot, or we will use their deposit to offset the cost of making it presentable for the next plot holder.

Usually the first letter does the trick, either they sort it out or give up the plot and we re-let it.

When we first started this scheme, a lot of plots were in a terrible state of neglect. People were paying rent each year but we never saw them. We had no waiting list and had to ask friends and relatives to take on plots, even let some plots to existing plot holders who thought that they could manage two.

Now, we have a nice tidy site, all plots are well managed, bigger ones we have divided in two for two people to use and we have a waiting list so long that we have had to ask the council to give us the extra public land adjoining our site. This is now going through the stages.

That was 5 years ago, the scheme started to work, the first year. We also have a yearly best plot competition and invite the mayor to judge it. No big prize, just a plaque, the winner has to get their own name put on.  We ask every one to bring a cake, mugs and plates and then we make tea or coffee and more recently a BYO bar-b-q is held in the evening.

We raise funds by asking members to bring a prize (we suggest unwanted Christmas presents)  to the yearly meeting held in January. We then raffle these off.

If just a few of you can get together and organise things. It does work.

[Robert_Brenchley]

A lot of it is persistence. The current committee inherited a situation where we didn't know who plotholders were, and one of them, when finally tracked down, didn't know she had a plot! You can imagine what sort of mess some plots were in after 10 years or so of phantom plotholders. We still have legal action pending over two of them, so nothing can be dome about the state they're in.

Apart from that, we now have a system where people come on probation for three months, and pay nothing during that time. Then they get a lease if they're making a go of it. This seems to work, as people come not realising the amount of work involved, and this is usually why they vanish soon after. Every lettable plot is now let, with a waiting list, and overall the site is in a distinctly better state than a few years ago.

[timnsal]

Those sound like good ideas. But we don't have a committee - at least, I've never heard one mentioned, or a lease or ... We have a secretary who allocates plots, and gives a list of names to the parish council clerk who sends out a bill once a year.
I did hear rumours that they might provide an occasional skip if people asked, and there was one overflowing on the site when I first saw it. And if a plot is overgrown, you get the first year rent free. BUt that seems to be all that is done to keep things in any kind of order.


Popped in today to see a huge pile of abandoned leeks on one of the newly taken over plots. I'd have half-inched a few, but I've still got some.

Sally

[robkb]

Each to their own I guess.  At least they give up the plot instead of hanging on to it for years and not doing anything like some do.

aye, like the previous owner of our plot, weeds high enough to hide an elephant.

A special elephant that poos plastic bags, broken glass and rubble...

Found a rusty junior hacksaw yesterday. God knows how people let the plot get in such a state.

Sounds like my first plot - had previously been the unofficial site dump for several years before I took it on.

As for the unharvested crops, my new plot became vacant because the previous tenant unfortunately died over Xmas. So when I took over the lease I inherited lots of chard and spinach and a shed full of potatoes and - sadly - mouldy onions.

Cheers,
Rob ;)