Allotments 4 All

Hello all, new to site although have lurked for a bit...

I'm going up in a few days to look at a possible allotment. Got lucky really as council said the waiting list was three years, but one of the societies I phoned had four free plots (on a big site). Apparently they've recently been rotavated.

Any advice on what I should look for and what might be sensible questions to ask? Also I don't drive and the site is ten minutes bike ride away; any advice on how to manage without a car for carting things around? The site has a shop, but I don't know what it sells yet and I'm worried about things like black plastic/bricks to hold it down/tools etc. All advice gratefully received, I'm completely new to this (though I have grand ambitions....)

you may find lots of scavengable material on or around your new plot in any case. so long as you have a shed, you can maybe get a friend to help you take up tools etc to the site - after that, everything should be transportable on your bike. get a good basket, or a set of pannier bags :) will also come in handy when it's harvest time.

as for what to look for: how close is the nearest tap, any diseases known on the soil (clubroot, white rot etc), any deliveries of manure to the site possible or organised, does it get waterlogged - check what soil you have.

rotovated, well it can be a good or a bad thing. pull up weeds quickly when they come, identify the enemy - you might have some perennial nightmares there like couch grass or bindweed or dock etc etc

most of all, don't forget: little and often. order yourself some seed catalogues -make great bedtime reading ;D

yes, we really are sad. welcome aboard ;)
svea

Hello bupster  :)  sure your great lotty ambitions will be soon realised and you will be ovewhelmed by vegetables   ;D   There will be all sorts on your site hopefully which can be re-used.  There are usually lots of bricks which are good for weighing down sheeting and stuff.  If not I use plastic bottles off milk or water, fill them with water at the butt or standpipe on the plot and use these for weights.  The milk cartons also make good measuring jugs too, and plant pots.  You can also cut your milk cartons up (plastic ones) and make plant labels out of them.  I made a barby out of bricks found on my site and my lotty mate gave me the racks from his old oven  :)  You'll need a water butt to harvest water off your shed which will save ages (and sore arms)  I got an old blue plastic barrel off a building site nearby)  The tap for it came from Wilko's
Check out the Tips part of the forum for recycling ideas  :)

Thanks, guys, reassuring. So, a shed you say...

Welcome Bupster.

Lucky you, got a plot just in the nick of time for autumn digging and planting! ;D

But do not panic, black sheeting available from B&Q will help you contain things until you are really ready to progress. 
Scavenging in skips can sometimes reveal carpet/underlay too.

Old pallets make great 'rustic' compost heaps, ideally you need three after a bit (add one a year) one to add to, last years to mature ,and the year before that to use on the plot ;D

From the point of view of transport:-
me and mine bought a little 4 wheel trolley with drop down sides also from B&Q.  :) No time for self-consciousness, we pulled it round to the lottie loaded fit to bust with tack and plants, past the local shops - much to the amazement of the locals! ;D

The folk in our little shop are very helpful, and I'm sure yours too would be willing to take delivery of shed if you bought one, (again try B&Q) just need to find out their opening times!

If only ONE piece of advice ...  pace yourself, there is always next year ;)

Just have fun.

I have no shame, so that's probably an advantage, right? I'm wondering how large a basket my elderly bicycle would take. (Excuse me sir, could you fix a shed to this contraption?)

Bicycles can be fitted out with 'orange boxes on wheels'
;D ;D ;D

I will hopefully get one of these one day.  ::)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bicycle-Trailer_W0QQitemZ7172553448QQcategoryZ98932QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Welcome Bupster,

My plot is a 10 minute walk away, and even though I drive, a shed has been my best investment. If nothing else it is a place to keep my 2nd best investment.....a wheelbarrow, along with other bits of non valuable tat.

Ask a local carpet fitter for any old hessian backed carpets to keep weeds down....save you a fortune. Foam backed breaks up and makes a right old mess.

Take your time...and most of all....enjoy it!!

Good luck!

or do that:
http://www.re-cycle.org/trailer/

:)

Yay! Signed lease, got nearly a shed and a plum tree, a row of redcurrants and all the brambles in the world. Other two thirds has been rotavated earlier in the year and is to be done again this week. I know it can exacerbate perennial weeds but I sort of felt the damage had been done. And the site secretary did seem keen, and he did have a cool mini-tractor. Hope I haven't done anything daft.

 Bupster, make sure you ask if you are allowed to erect anything rather than assuming you can even if others have them.  On my plot you have to get special permission from the council before getting a shed or greenhouse.    Thankfully crime is low though so spades etc are all left safely.

Iain

well if he is doing it again this week then you can go up and sift through the soil removing as many roots as you can.

well done, and good luck :)

Icyberjunkie, what I meant by nearly a shed is there's almost a shed on the plot. It's missing half its roof, which looks like it's blown off and is rotting on the ground, so I'm going to nail on some polythene this week as a short term measure. There's all sorts been left in the shed so I'm going to rootle around in there too. My site secretary said I can do more or less what I want on the plot as long as it doesn't harm the neighbours; the only restriction in the contract seems to be planting fruit trees away from the borders. One plot he pointed out has a woman who's just sown wildflowers and comes up to the site to sit in the sun!

A real top quality building then!  Still it sounds like you can make it weather proof and I reckon half the fun is improvising- or is that just my scruffy plot  ;D 

Have fun!  Iain

Hell of a building. Yesterday I managed to get the brambles out of the shed - they were growing in through the windows and out through the roof! And I've discovered that I have water butts, though I can't reach them yet.

Water butts are a real help and I want some more.  My old man would only put one on my shed but I've pointed out that the shed does have more than one corner  ;D I'm currently on the scrounge for another one as I'm the one lugging watering cans about  :(.  Best thing we ever did on the plot was getting the butt rigged up.  Taps are available from Wilko for about £3.00 odd  :)

Glad to hear you've got some brambles. I dug one up and replanted it in the hedge out of the way and I've got blackberries  :)

That lady who's sown wildflowers and just sits in the sun is just one of the many types of folks who are discovering the joys of allotmenteering.  They are supposed to grow some food as well though  :)

Hallo, Wardy,

Yes, I'm quite pleased about the butts though as I say, I haven't got to them yet, they're just looming through a haze of brambles and blackberries. It's going to take a while to get to that end of the halfashed. I'm wondering where the blackberries started and was it deliberate; the chap whose halfashed it was clearly loved growing fruit as there's redcurrants and plums as well as loads of netting and canes in the halfashed. I hate cutting down fruiting brambles though, even though I know I have to clear this nowish or I'll never do it when it's wet and cold. How did you transplant your brambles? (I have around 16 sq m of them so most will be cut down!)

I appreciate what you're going through.  I have zillions of raspberries which had taken over my plot and they're practically indestructible.  I was told to dig em up and burn them as diseased but they look pretty healthy to me  ;D  the blackberries I just went for the most straight and compact ones (only a couple as I think they're only wild ones) but I fancied some free fruit so dug em up, tidied them up a bit and replanted in the gaps in the hedge (which I'm trying to restore). 

I figured I could trim them when I trim the hedge - perhaps twice a year - to keep them in bounds  :)

Mine have taken over a third of the plot and have rooted beneath the half a shed, as well as growing through it! I didn't know raspberries went that mad as well. I have found myself talking to individual bramble tendrils as I rip them out; it seems to have got very personal.