Selfsufficientish.com

1. Four old pallets can be made into a compost bin.
2. Keep a bird table and nesting boxes - Blue tits can eat a phenominal ammount of catterpillers.
3. Put in a pond - to attract frogs and toads and keep the slug population down.

don't try and clear a whole plot at once.
do one small bed and plant something before moving along and digging the next bed.

Dont make your home brew in the allotment shed if you do then little or no work gets done on the allotment

6. Get to know your neighbours. They've been growing stuff on the site longer than you & are, in my experience, happy to share their knowledge, lend tools & stop to chat.

7. Invest in a good deck chair.

8. Keep on the right side of t'committee...

9. Share your surpluses. what you give away will always come back threefold. I gave a friend cuttings of a worcesterberry bush a few years ago. When my bush died I was able to get new stock from the plants my friend had grown on...

If you dont have a greenhouse build as many coldframes as you can out of old window frames and doors, usually available when being replaced by new ones on any street. Just ask before they smash them in a skip.

plant really spiteful perrenials gooseberrys and blackberries for example)in strategic places to deter vandals