Allotments 4 All

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/plants/vegetables/allotments/9754198/Amateur-gardeners-inspired-by-TV-being-turfed-off-overgrown-allotments.html

I think that it is good that councils are being proactive and giving more people the chance of an allotment, though I do hope that no one gets thrown off due to problems with the weather.

I must admit I like the idea of a Strictly Come Gardening where the viewers vote off the person with the worst plot could be a winner.

Quote from: Poolcue on December 19, 2012, 09:27:04
I must admit I like the idea of a Strictly Come Gardening where the viewers vote off the person with the worst plot could be a winner.

LOL!!

Having been knocked back by shingles for 4 weeks I'm now weeks behind and my plot looks a mess with not much I can do about it at the moment. It was as much the antivirals and the antibiotics (Doctor thought it was a bacterial infection though I insisted it was shingles so another Dr advised having both....I was right!) that have made me ill as I'm now suffering from the effects of these now.

I like the strictly come gardening approach. 

Quote from: Kea on December 19, 2012, 13:52:39
Having been knocked back by shingles for 4 weeks I'm now weeks behind and my plot looks a mess with not much I can do about it at the moment. It was as much the antivirals and the antibiotics (Doctor thought it was a bacterial infection though I insisted it was shingles so another Dr advised having both....I was right!) that have made me ill as I'm now suffering from the effects of these now.

Hope you feel better. I had chicken pox a few years ago, but shingles is so painful.
No well run site would ever vote any one off for an illness like you have had.

Our non cultivators just stop turning up at all and the weeds just take over and seeds blow about the place.  Committed people with problems are not the same issue at all. 

Shingles is not nice, I do hope you are better soon.  I hope you get better in time to get stuck in again in the Spring.

Here's Mr Titchmarsh's response -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9755921/How-does-my-garden-grow-With-effort-patience-and-TLC.html

It has been a very difficult year, even for established plotholders, but retention of new tenants is an issue that we need to look at... 

Titchmarsh doesn't half waffle on but he captures it in the last paragraph: you've got to have the heart to deal with all the disappointments.  And there are zillions of disappointments when you've got an allotment.

But to me, that is part of the experience - standing around with other allotmenteers swapping sob stories.  Perhaps it is a peculiarly British thing.

Kea, if it makes you feel better, I haven't done anything in the last week at my plot anyway and I haven't been ill!