what can i do?

[littlebabybird]

2 plots down from me is a plot with amazing beans, runners, marrows, squash, parsnips onions, sweet corn and sweed amongst other things, they did so well
BUT they havent been to the plot in 7 weeks and they have 4 rows of potatoes that are now blighted

appart from the waste of all the veg is there anything i can do without getting thrown off about the potatoes

we are a council site with no rep no nothing
lbb

[littlebabybird]

[ceres]

lbb
I had the same problem a couple of weeks back with the plot next to me who haven't been there for 5 months.  I took matters into my own hands and went onto their plot and cut down the blighted potato haulms and I also picked up all their windfall apples and took the apples off their trees that have brown rot.  I bagged all the rubbish up ready for the next skip.  I then told the committee secretary what I had done and that I was going to carry on doing it to protect my and my neighbours' plots until the committee got their fingers out and sorted abandoned plots.  It worked - those neighbours have been evicted.  I still (touch wood) have no blight on my plot.  Now that thye have been kicked off, I've dug up all their potatoes to get them out of the ground.

If I were you I'd cut off the potato tops and bin them and email the allotments officer at the council to tell them what you've done and why.  If these people do come back soon, you may well have saved their potato harvest for them.  If they don't reappear again, you need to get permission from the council to dig up the potatoes because if they are left in the ground until next year they will provide a host for the blight.

Good luck!

[littlebabybird]

ceres
thank  you as always for a reply,  that sounds like a plan to me.

lbb

[ceres]

Congratulations on your brilliant news too, you can all get on with being a proper family now.  Well done!

[littlebabybird]

thankyou, we are very happy (understatement of the year)

lbb

[northener]

Why do people do this? We let a mate have a couple of our raised beds which he dug over then put in cabbage and lettuce in one and runners and peas in the other. He went Awol then not answering his phone, when we saw him he'd make excuses and say he was coming that day. This went on for 4-5 weeks until the weeds were as big as the runners. We come to the conclusion he was'nt bothered so we weeded the beds, next day he pops up "i'm here" we told him he was'nt. Sorry for veering off a bit. Can you not find contact details from the council?

[thifasmom]

sounds like good advice ceres has given you, but with such a large assortment veg going to waste is it possible that these plot holders may have had some sort of family/ personal tragedy ??? i would be flabbergasted to find out that after all that work someone would just abandoned their plot. but then again now a days food appears to be part of the throw away its so cheap culture isn't it. :-\

[ceres]

The plot next to me has/had carrots, onions, potatoes ready for pulling and 3 apple trees with ripe fruit.  There is also sweetcorn that isn't quite ripe yet together with leeks and brocolli but you would have been hard pushed to find them among the shoulder high seeding weeds.  The only thing they harvested this year was strawberries.  No personal tragedy, just CBA.

[northener]

Can't be A**ed   ?

[littlebabybird]

thifasmom
there are at least 6 plots that i can see from mine that havent had anything done to them for months
and i might add 2 well maintained plots that havent been visited by their owners lately BUT one has had a heart attack and the other is tending his very poorly wife, most of the people at our end of the site drop in on one or the other of these 2 plots and do a little each time we are there.
i think ceres is right, cba

lbb

[thifasmom]

it really is a shame isn't it, the majority of the population could do with a good dose of starvation, and i don't mean oh my tummy is grumbling i missed lunch I'm starving moan, i mean i haven't had a proper meal in weeks and if i eat food now my body will probably reject it cause my stomach is convulsing from lack of use starvation. like i said before food is seen as so cheap it can easily be wasted without a second glance, there might be a silver lining to the credit crunch after all ??? :-\.