Hello again! - It's been a while...

[thethriftysquirrels]

After a pretty rubbish year, things are starting to look a bit brighter on the allotment front.

A few years ago we allowed a neighbour to use our allotment - we were finding it hard to cope as we were looking after my husband's father, who had dementia. The understanding was that he would keep it going until such a time as we would want it back.

last year (after my FIL passed away) we felt we wanted to get 'back to the land' so asked out neighbour to move off - this was in May, we said he could have his harvest and we would take over again in October, clearing the ground ready for this year.

Unfortunately, he refused to move and it has caused an awful atmosphere - the allotment owners (our local brewery) will not help, even though we have been paying all the rent but for now we have compromised on half each so at least we can get some planting done :)

Looking forward to getting dirt under the fingernails again and joining in the discussions on here

[glyn.c]

hi im a newbie POSTER, welcome back , you have my simpathies i was a full time carrer for my mother with dementia/Alzheimer's, thats awful about your allotment it does seem to be a way these days though that you help people out and then all of a sudden things go one sided ! is there no committe that can help you get it back? it seems a shame that you cant get it back and your friends past help goes towards his future search for a plot of his own

[thethriftysquirrels]

Hi Glyn, as a fellow carer you can understand why the allotment had to take a back seat for a while!! I am still a carer for my mum, although she still has a small degree of independence, so getting back to digging and weeding will be therapy for me!

The chap who is on the allotment actually has at least 5 if not 6 other plots or part of plots, some on the same agreement he had with us but the silly thing is that he doesn't even tend most the others!

[glyn.c]

certainly can understand ,its not until you have experienced it that you fully understand,its very important to get some time out though " thats from someone who doesnt take his own advice mind ".he does seem to be making a habit of getting growing space that way! i am not familiar with allotments ruling but if he does not tend his plots does he not loose them?

[thethriftysquirrels]

the brewery that owns the land has no rules and doesn't want to get involved really - and I can't blame them...it's the responsibility of the finance director and as he is only charging us £7.80 a year it's not top of his priority list!!! Once we get back on the land I am hopeful our neighbour will feel a little pang of conscience and leave...

[Green Aura]

Sounds like you've had a rough time. Welcome back, you can have a rest here.

[thethriftysquirrels]

thank you! Nice to be back :D

[becks77]

Welcome back, sounds like a rough time , could you just stop paying the lottie rent, or would that loose it altogether?
either way have a

[thethriftysquirrels]

if we don't pay then our neighbour will just take over - he has been to see the Brewery and claims he is using it for charity work when in fact at best a few people sit around drinking tea for an hour a week! What little they have been growing is just left to rot - so sad especially all of the fruit. I think it's just a case of us taking back control, going along, doing our digging and planting and gradually upping the pressure on him and the brewery to get them to do the right thing in the end... I think the brewery are just mindful of looking mean by kicking him off altogether and hopes we will sort it out between ourselves.

We're looking on the brightside though...half a plot is better than none at all

[becks77]

Sounds like a plan, keep us posted and best of luck xx

[thethriftysquirrels]

Will do and thanks...

[Zech]

Hello

I'm glad to hear you've managed to get at least half your allotment back - what a ridiculous man, hanging on to all that space that he's not using. As you say, hopefully he'll see sense once you're back there tending your plot, making comments like, "I wonder where I'm going to put..."

[thethriftysquirrels]

Hi Rachel
that sounds a very tactful strategy - I'll give it a go and see what happens