Allotments: the bad side

As well as measuring sunflowers and shooting the breeze, there are other things we allotment officials have to do as we tour the site, one of which is looking at the plots and deciding who needs a weed notice. On our site, after a certain number of weed notices the tenant gets a termination notice and then we (under our new rules) divide some plots into four, offer each quarter to a new tenant and then, when they’ve proved they can cope with a full plot, move them up to a full or half plot, as they desire.

That’s the theory. Of course, from time to time, we have to cast that stern eye over our own plots, and 201, to be honest, is heading for a weed notice! See, I don’t hide the ugliness at the heart of our paradise. We won’t get a weed notice, not because I’m on the committee (they were handing out weed notices to each other like Christmas cards last year!) but because the site rep who covers my area knows that we’ve had a tough few months, first with my stomach op and then with Himself getting swine flu. Also, the plot was totally neglected before we took it over in November 2008 and it takes more than a year to get to grips with really ingrained perennial weeds. So that, along with our health woes, gives us a few month’s grace to get this mess tidied up.

So if you’re an allotment holder, and you’re struggling to cope for some reason, talk to your allotment committee BEFORE you get a warning, not after. It helps us when we’re going round the site if we know there’s a reason for your lack of good housekeeping, and it helps you if you know that your committee understands why you might not be on top of the weed problem.

Labels: allotment-committee, allotment-rules, allotment-weeds

Allotment work is never done

201, 9 October 2008

I had a bit of a panic over the weekend, mainly because the wind and rain and rain and wind deprived me of any chance of getting to either allotment and getting things done – the only ‘good’ hours we experienced were spent in an interesting allotment site committee meeting – interesting, but not as immediately rewarding as getting something dug or planted!

We got to 201 in time to put down a single raised bed, before dodging the raindrops on our way down to 235 where we covered the broad been seedlings from the worst of the weather and turned a bit of compost in the lee of the tyre stack in the hope of generating some heat to get our super-early tyre potatoes off to a superfast start. No, we haven’t planted them get, don’t worry, we’re not getting previous with our spuds.

And then the rain became undodge-able, so we couldn’t dig, we couldn’t sow, we couldn’t light the incinerator and burn rubbish … we had to go home instead.

I tried to console myself by planting some alpine strawberry seeds and a tray of hardy tree seeds in the greenhouse, but it was scant consolation for the weather, and when I looked at the trays of potatoes and the packets of seeds piling up, and the amount of undug allotment that still remains on 201, I despaired.

201, 12 December 2008

So I dragged out the photos to remind myself how much we’d already done. And while it didn’t stop me feeling miserable about the weather, it did remind me that we’ve really made a difference on 201, given the short time that we’ve been looking after it.

Labels: allotment-committee, allotment-digging, allotment-weeds