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So I had to give up the last allotment a couple of years ago as we moved from Kent to Essex. Put my name down for one in the town we moved to as soon as we moved, was told 3 years waiting list but got a call a couple of days ago with 2 to go and view. One was tiny and badly overgrown (to be fair the rest of the site is in very good condition and well looked after) and the other was massive but workable. It had also come up because the previous holder is moving away rather than being taken back due to neglect, so it won't take much to get it ready for receiving plants.

Also noticed some other plot holders have chickens.. :)

So now the frantic hunt beings for what to grow (probably going to cheat and order in loads of plug plants and seed potatoes) and cardboard to cover the bits I won't get round to using. will try and get some pics posted soon.

EDIT: Quite interested in applying permaculture principles to my allotment. Wondering if anyone else has experience of doing this? Most other plots look very neat and traditional style, I'm wondering how it would go down with the rest of the plot holders....

If you are joining a site of traditional allotment gardeners anything new will be frowned upon. I only cultivated an enormous compost heap so that I could grow marrows, courgettes, squash on it. And that raised eyebrows till I had a glut to bribe the critics with.

Rather than cardboard you still just have time to plant a green manure crop (something like red clover which will be good for the bees or buckwheat) which you can dig in once it has flowered. That gives you soil improver, if flowering then you are also doing good for the bees. Or you can just scatter phacelia or borage which will come through, flower and attract all sorts of flying things and then be excellent additions to the compost heap. All you have to do is scatter such things and rake in. And borage flowers can be frozen in ice cubes to give a lemon flavour.

Many more options than boring old cardboard - and you are growing things.

I'm amazed at how critical some of the other allotmenters are on our site. The allotment coordinator came to ask me about them one day, asked me what they were for. I told her they were raised beds and she said, with a look I haven't seen since I was at school without my homework, "Well yes, you can do that, I suppose, but WE prefer to do the work and dig it ALL over"

We've also had lots of negative comments about the lady who had our plot before us. Apparently she was "One of those" (accompanied by rigorous eyebrow wriggling and head tipping). I have no idea what they mean.

Fortunately I don't mind ignoring them and (provided I'm sticking to the allotment rules that they gave us) doing what we fancy.

So what I'm saying is, give the permaculture thing a whirl. They can mind if they like, or enjoy it when it looks lush and green and fruitful.

I hope you have lots of fun at your new allotment.

Having chatted to a couple of people I think they're actually fairly ok and not too 'old school'. After initial confusion I now know I have 2 beds, each 4m by 14m. The first largely contains what looks like some sort of green manure, and the odd potato and leek. Very workable soil as the previous guy apparently dug in tons of compost etc while he had them. The other bed has some well established raspberry and gooseberry plants at the top, lower down it's getting a bit overgrown but shouldn't take too much work. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the pics I've attached.

Have already started planting potatoes and some sprout plants in the veg bed, and have lots more ordered or on their way to being ready to plant out.