Who would be a site official / chairperson???

[GIULIA]

Yes Granny - the letters we send, although bog-standard, can be customised and often produce a reply which becomes a dialogue etc. We give people leeway where it's justified. Helping people with new plots is a tricky one, the council will dig over a rough plot in some cases but we've certainly found that it doesn't help the tenant in the long term if they don't learn about weeds the hard way from the outset! We encourage people to bring a gang of mates to help them with the early stages but it's still amazing how many people don't understand the ability of weeds to keep coming back, and back, and back. It's the thing that defeats many newcomers in their first year no matter how much you stress the importance of regular hoeing. I'm becoming a bit tougher these days, allotments require time and effort and if people haven't got enough of either commodity they should move over for those who have. We've a huge waiting list so there's no excuse for letting lazy people linger.

[Chantal]

I agree with you entirely Giulia. The importance of learning to weed and hoe cannot be understated.

Last year we had a new guy who spent 6 solid weeks clearing his plot. He came round to me (and a lot of other people) asking loads of questions. He then planted up his plot and disappeared. I wrote to him when the weeds got over knee high and he came to the site in horror saying "I didn't know the weeds would grow back". He honestly seemed to think that he would be able to harvest his veg with no further weeding all year. As his veg was smothered in weeds he didn't even bother with it, just gave up. What I can't understand is that he had a garden at home so surely he'd know that weeds grow and grow and grow?

[Compo]

Thanks for the comment

Shallot Man, your post confused me...not sure what it meant

Chantal amazing the weed story, although my front garden is set out ins shrubs and perennials and mulched in bark and rarely do we have a weed at all!!

Granny, yes I do believe in sympathy and having verbally warned said person, will see if she has made an effort, before sending the letter, if I can see some intent, I will be lenient. The problem we have is that we only charge a tenner for a full plot, and with such a small waiting list of never more than one or two people, we could end up with unallocated plots, raised eyebrows from the parish council and then lose the lot!!

The logic at that point, is that it is better to collected ten pounds for an overgrown plot rather than get no income from the same unallocated plot in the same state, having a small waiting list gives us a little leverage though.

Compo