Kitchen Garden Forum

Might be done with plot holders agreement perhaps, eg Any objection if we suppress weeds while this is decided ?

Can't touch it while it is tenanted.

Once they're off it takes only days, maybe at most a fortnight to get a new tenant.
Strimmimg can be done then but rather hampers weed recognition.

On a more prosaic note allotment plots involve SCALE, a five rod or half plot will need one hundred and twenty five square metres of cardboard, plus some tor overlap and that's a single layer. Supermarkets all keep cardboard for their recycling targets/contracts now so cardboard is a rare commodity, round here at any rate. For perspective let's assume a double bed is two by two metres, delivered in three bits, two base units that bolt together plus a mattress and they all come in a cardboard box, that with the box sides being overlap will cover about sixteen square metres and need at least a barrowload of bricks to hold down in an exposed site.
One hundred and nine square metres to go....

Seems like allotments are a lot bigger now than they used to be.

Nature's Babe wrote:Seems like allotments are a lot bigger now than they used to be.

A full plot was always ten rods - approx 30 yards by 10 yards + 300 square yards.

Try covering that with cardboard and bricks and not get turned off by the committee/council

Our site have bought some cheap tarpaulin sheets, these are weighted down with bricks.

There is another way of looking at this. Most would be dedicated growers are determined enough to clear their own plots. They sign up for their plot and start work as soon as they possibly can. Clearing doesn't all have to be done at once - it's a long term project -so maybe some guidance as to how to go about clearing the plot will be needed etc.

New plot holders who baulk at the hard work of clearing will probably not stick at gardening anyway. It would give the wrong impression to think that you can just walk up, take over a tidy plot and start growing things.

Pardon the pun but being faced with such a plot soon weeds out those who are looking at growing their own through rose tinted spectacles from the realists who know it is going to require some effort.

Glallotments, regarding the "rose-tinted " comment that is the voice of experience.

A lot will depend on how interested the council is after they have taken the deposit and the rent. Our council appears to lose interest completely. As long as the rent is paid that's enough for them.

We have an association with just over 50% membership, but the council retain all rights over warning letters etc. Some plots have had the rent paid as of last October, and the plot hasn't been visited this year. Sadly, the association can do nothing about it.

As with a lot of associations, there are only a few of us who actually get invloved and do anything.

And as I would expect with most associations if people refuse the conform there is little you can do about it without council support.

It was certainly the case for ours which has meant that in the end we have no association.