Allotments - how much time do you put in?

[hamster]

Now, I'm vaguely aware before I ask this that your answers will probably all be along the lines of 'yay! allotments are fantastic! get one! get one!', but, well, I'm not entirely convinced. My boyfriend and I are moving to Wokingham over the summer, and we'll probably be renting and won't have much of a garden (or if we do, we won't be allowed to do anything fun with it). I contacted the council to ask about getting an allotment, and apparently the waiting list is about a year (with about 65 people on it - sounds rather optimistic to me, does that sound right?).

But, well, with such a high demand for allotments, I'd feel a bit bad having one if I couldn't look after it properly, and as a novice gardener who's going to have to be working quite hard to clear all my horrid student debt, I'm just not quite sure I'd be able to put in very much time. I do a lot - lots of cooking, singing, reading, writing, dancing, crafts etc, and on top of a job this might get too much. Not sure my boyfriend will be too keen on putting in much work either, he's a bit of a useless townie (though I love him dearly). I wouldn't mind so much letting my own garden get out of control, but if I was taking an allotment away from someone else who really wanted one, well, I'd feel a bit guilty.

At the moment, I'm thinking that I'll put my name on the list when we move, and then ponder it some more, as I can always take myself off if I change my mind, but if I wait, the list'll only get longer. Meanwhile, I plan to invest in lots of pots and containers and troughs and grow things like that in whatever outdoor space we've got. But I'd be interested to know how much time you all spend on your allotments. How much work does it really take? What do you reckon the minimum is to stop it getting overgrown? I'm anticipating that starting out will be fairly time-consuming, and there'll probably be busy times of year, but on an average weekly basis, what do you do for general upkeep and how much time does it take?

Sorry for the rambly post and thanks for any help!!

[Wormella]

I'm, in a similar situation to you, sort of. We'll be moving to Stafford in the summer - which has plenty of allotments and no waiting list (bless Staffordians and thier backwards ways ).

We'll be renting to start off and my argument is if we have an allotment we don't need to look for a garden to support the veg grwoing habit in a future property. But I'm worried I won't be able to upkeep one on my own with a full time job. I know My Oh is up for one too, but is slightyly more cautious then me.

Do you know anyone you could share a lottie with?

[hamster]

Not yet. The lady from the council who emailed me said that it was possible to rent, say, half of an allotment, but I imagine this would depend on there being someone else who only wanted half.

[Cornelian]

Well, I have a garden rather than an allotment - how much time do I put into it? It takes up my life! LOL Taking into consideration - it is a new garden and has needed much clearing and planting and soil conditioning etc. So it is going to depend on the condition of your allotment when you get it - if it is in good working condition it might not need much overhauling, but if it needs to be cleared and the soil worked up then it is going to take up a fair bit of your time.

I also have a large garden - almost half an acre - and it is all worked land, and much of it flower garden. But it is the food growing areas which take up the majority of my time - at the moment (for me in Tasmania it is autumn moving towards winter) it is taking probably 8-10 hours a week minimum (and this is just the food garden, not the entire half acreage): that's composting, pruning, weeding, working over the soil for the spring and summer crops, weeding (did I say weeding earlier? LOL). If you take into account all the food processing that goes on with the produce (preserving, canning, freezing etc) then it is much more time.

But ... if you're growing food, and you have a reasonable sized allotment, then it will take up a fair amount of time - perhaps not continuously, but there are going to be periods of the year where you are very busy in it and periods where you can leave it alone for a bit (but not too long ). It would certainly need attention every week.

Weekly average? I don't know, I really don't. It is a way of life with me - I am always pottering and doing things ...

[Cheezy]

A lot depends on what condition you inherit your lottie.

We got one at the end of October last year, it hadn't been used for about 2 years....needless to say the brambles,marestail,couchgrass,thistles had taken over.

Two pieces of advice I was given and thankfully listened to.

1. Don't rotivate if it's in the same state as this, as all you are doing is chopping up the preannual roots, which multipies the number.Remove the surface growth and as much root as you have time to do.

2. Put a good quality (no light visible through it) weed suppressant over everything.It doesn't look great and costs money (50m roll 2m wide was around £50), but it's less polluting to the soil than old carpet. And no preannual weed can survive without light for a year.
The seeds can of course grow once you remove the suppressant, so do it in stages you can keep on top of. Do small bits, build one bed at a time.

One guy yesterday told me to completely cover the half I hadn't got round to, and make small cuts through it and plant LOTS of strawberries. At least your still going to get a crop from them. Apparently you can do the same with raspberry canes as well. The weeds will try to come up around the strawberry but you can get them. And after two years you'll have great strawberries and no preannual weeds underneath.

So time wise, we want to do a proper job, the plan is to double dig as much as possible extract as much root as we can ,put the soil back, replace the weed suppresant and build raised beds ontop, cutting the weed control only where the beds are. Then I intend to go zero dig! and only top dress with organic material every year.

So myself and my OH this weekend dug a 2m square out to a spade to spade and half depth, extracing all the soil, forking out the pit below extracting all roots breaking up the clay, went through the removed soil and replaced it......8 hours!!! over two days. I still have to build the raised bed then plant it up.But we actually enjoyed the work this weekend .

In summary with allotments as all things in life, it depends what you want from them and how much time you have.

We don't have much time, we spend usually at least 3 hours on a Sunday "down the lottie". But we have decided to front load the the time.
We put our annual leave into working the lottie as well.But we're skint this year anyway so arn't planning to go anywhere.

i.e we're taking our time initially so that later on in the years to come we don't have to weed/rotivate etc. We've done a quarter of it since November!.

[Andy Hamilton]

I put a lot of work into mine going up almost every day for at least an hour and spending 4-5 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I always leave with a mixed sense of joy and a feeling that I still should do some more.

Saying that I do really love my allotment and so it is not a chore to go up there.

Previous post are right in saying that it all depends on what state you inherit it in. If it has been recently worked then you might be lucky and not have many perennial weeds there so the whole job would be easier. Otherwise you might end up with a weed infested plot that try as you might never seems to get clear. Suppressants are a good idea, the woman on the plot next to mine covered hers over last year and has only just started work on it. It is looking good and I never see her up there.

Another 'trick' to cut down on how much work you have to do on your plot would be to cover it over with cardboard and then cover the cardboard with compost. PLant your seedlings in the compost and it will act as a weed suppressant and a mulch, rotting down into the soil.

Other time factors might be soil type, we are blessed with a light easily worked soil but our previous allotment was thick heavy clay and that was almost impossible to dig.

Also think about location, there is not much point having a plot that is a bit of a distance from your house. Again our first plot was too far really, it was 30 mins walk uphill, we had to muster a bit of energy just to get there.

I would also suggest taking a half plot and not a full one if you are worried about the amount of time you can put in. You could also see if you can get others involved and make a mini community plot.

[Christine]

I think you have been given two lots of excellent advice - I have had my allotment for nearly two years and spent the first year cutting down the ridiculously high privet hedge(on the good advice of my neighbour) to let some light in.
I spent the second year cultivating about one quarter of the site - the bit with fewer brambles - and cutting down some more privet. I harvested the blackberries off the brambles as I cut them down in autumn.
This year, I will cultivate about half of the site, with half of the remainder given over to fruit bushes in a netted cage and a carpeted area with baths growing salads.

I do go up nearly every night for a couple of hours to keep on top of it, though, and do love it

[hamster]

Lots of excellent advice, thank you!

It still feels like I'd be taking on a lot, especially if the plot's overgrown, though part of me likes the idea of the challenge. Sharing a plot or getting a community plot going sounds good - doing things with other people always motivates me. Shame I don't know anyone there yet...

Maybe the enthusiasm grows the more you do... You lot all seem very enthusiastic. Which came first: the allotment/garden or the keenness?!

[Andy Hamilton]

Lots of excellent advice, thank you!

It still feels like I'd be taking on a lot, especially if the plot's overgrown, though part of me likes the idea of the challenge. Sharing a plot or getting a community plot going sounds good - doing things with other people always motivates me. Shame I don't know anyone there yet...

Maybe the enthusiasm grows the more you do... You lot all seem very enthusiastic. Which came first: the allotment/garden or the keenness?!

It could be a way to get to know people, put up cards in local shops, or in the local paper or in the freecycle group - Worth a try.

The enthusiasm grows with the plants!

[Cornelian]

Which came first: the allotment/garden or the keenness?!

Planting a plant into a dust bowl. Watching it die. Wondering what I could have done differently.

And from there ... an obsession. LOL

[littlebluefish]

Maybe the enthusiasm grows the more you do... You lot all seem very enthusiastic. Which came first: the allotment/garden or the keenness?!

For me, the allotment! I started it with a friend whose circumstances have forced her to pretty much leave it all to me. Frustrating for both of us.

It takes a couple of hours a day from me, generally after my work shift, but we inherited it rotavated, complete with weeds fighting back. Since then, we've planted loads and each time we go up there, we get another idea of what to plant, and so on. We're going to stick a load of late potatoes into the bits where we've not planned anything yet, just for a crop!

[Cheezy]

I started at my previous house , just a little terrace: postage sized front garden.
We moved specifically to get a bigger garden, dug up the grass put some raised beds, built a cold frame, then a small lean-to green house, lots of containers of tomatoes etc, by then it wasn't enough, houses with a bit of land are too expensive we started walking around our town looking at the allotments we we're lost to the idea.

One point to mention I was 10th in our cue and we waited 10 months. And our commitee use strong arm tactics if you don't keep up with the weeding. If I was you I would put your name down to get in the que ,65 people sounds a lot longer than a year!.When it gets round to you; you can see what state your plot is in, and if you don't want it you don't have to take it, it just passes on down the que. I had a choice of 3, the other two were worse because there is no fencing, no shed and looked like a tip.
It's taken a further 6 months to get people on to them!.

When you go looking at a plot make sure you look for perannual weeds especially marestail, what sort of soil it is (clay is much harder to dig), if there is anyone around ask them how long it's been left, what the person grew before, does it flood (mine does which I didn't know hence the raised beds!), any problem with vandals, other points do the other plots have fencing/hedges and does this one, a shed is invaluable, and how far is it from a supply of water.

[flower]

definately put your name on the list.
who knows what your situation will be in a year?

65 on the list sounds quite a lot, but if it's a council run site it may be that they only reassign plots once a year when people fail to renew. Have a look at the site...if lots of plot seem unused chances are that list will be halved by the end of may.

many sites with waiting lists stipulate half plots only for newbies (ours does) so it won't be up to you to find someone to take the other half.

If you make some narrow, raised beds and cover the paths between them a plot needn't take up too much time at all. Brassicas, leeks, parsnips and spuds don't require much care nor do raspberries, black, white and red currants....all they need really is space, dirt and time to grow.
Keep your high maintenance crops, salads etc near to home in containers.

I say go for it.

[Christine]

Yes, go for it! I got mine because I agreed to help someone I didn't really know to 'get on top' of hers and soon got fed up of being treated like the hired help! However - I was already hooked...

I have to spend lots of time at the moment because I had no shed, no greenhouse and lots of clearance. My allotment is 'snided' with Bindweed -a Sheffield word meaning absolutely riddled - which is impossible to get rid of. Even glyphosates don't work and physical control is the best option. On the other hand, I found out the other day that an allotment just across the way has Japanese Knotweed - eeek!

In previous years, I've spent less time up there but enjoyed it less, too, because of the non-growing-related tasks. Were it not for the bindweed, I'd manage on three or four visits per week.

[Helsbells]

Hi,

I live in Lower Earley, just near Wokingham, when I asked Wokingham District Council for an allotment, they refused to even put me on the list. Reading Bourough Council were much more helpful, and I am now on a waiting list for an allotment in Earley.

P.S I might be interested in sharing?!? maybe?