what would you advise

[Pa Snip]

So on Mr or Mrs Anon's plots up and down the country its been a bad year. Mr or Mrs Anon are new to kitchen gardening and are already fed up and dejected, you can tell this by the obvious bad husbandry.

whitefly smothered decaying brassica leaves

decaying tomato and / or potato stems that had blight earlier in the season

rotting leeks, ( Mr or Mrs Anon are not sure why they have rotted and neither are you)

fly riddled carrots

and

Onions rotting and covered in mould and fungus

all the above are just laying on the plots surface or have been placed on the compost heap.

Given that we all practice good husbandry (of course we do, goes without saying ) which of the above would you advise Mr or Mrs Anon to compost and which would you advise them to dispose off by removing from plot and site completely, or would you just let them get on with it unless they approach you and ask

[Primrose]

I wouldn't wait for next Bonfire Night. I'd just tell them to have a joxlly good fire and burn the lot. The trouble with all these diseases is that they'll lurk in the compoat and the spores will eventually just be apread back i to the soil again.

Besides, a nice blazing bonfire might cheer them up as thhey contemplate theie disasters. It certainly cheers me up as I watch the bright flickering flames on a cold dull day.

[retropants]

Burn everything!

[Tony Hague]

I have always wondered about this "burn them" advice. Most vegetable matter is 90% water, so won't readily burn ! Even if you can get enough wood to build your pyre, it would be sure to annoy the neighbours for many of us, if it is even allowed.

I would worry most about the leek / onion remains, and have a good look for white rot which is a big problem.

The rest I'd happily compost, including the blighted tomato and potato tops - blight needs living potato matter to overwinter on. Worry about tubers left in the ground and volunteers, not the tops.

[robo]

We are not allowed fires so we have to compost or throw on the waste land that surrounds us

[dan3008]

I'd advise removing and destroying all the diseased plants, only compost the ones that only have pest damage (the Brassica's)
But that said, unless they want the advice it's not worth forcing it on them. Maybe start a friendly chat about gardening and then move onto the issue of disposing of dead plats

And for future, advise they start with a slightly easier plot, with more disease and pest resistant plants

[Pa Snip]

Some interesting answers so far. Thanks.
Be interesting to see who else expresses their view.

Dan, Mr or Mrs Anon are totally fictional, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Merely an exercise in what our members would do under the circumstances described.

[Primrose]

Another interesting dilemma would be to ponder how much time a week a new allotment holder thinks they need to cultivate an overgrown plot from scratch and how productive it will be in their first season.

Some neighbours of ours had been on the allotment waiting list for ages before they got one and were so excited. I suspect They reckoned they would be able to knock a very overgrown plot into shape giving about an hour a week as they both worked. As they only have a tiny garden I think they grossly underestimated their challenge. In three months I gather they barely managed to clear and plant any area at all and gave it up, thoroughly disillusioned.

I wonder how many other allotment holder see a similar pattern?

[Pa Snip]

A very good question Primrose
one I will come back to later if I may

[dan3008]

Dan, Mr or Mrs Anon are totally fictional, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Merely an exercise in what our members would do under the circumstances described.

Oh... I thought it was a genuine annonomised question/issue lol. Thats cool then

[Pa Snip]

Some neighbours of ours had been on the allotment waiting list for ages before they got one and were so excited. I suspect They reckoned they would be able to knock a very overgrown plot into shape giving about an hour a week as they both worked. As they only have a tiny garden I think they grossly underestimated their challenge. In three months I gather they barely managed to clear and plant any area at all and gave it up, thoroughly disillusioned.

I wonder how many other allotment holder see a similar pattern?

Two years ago the waiting time for a plot on the various sites around town was about 7 years, the plot that is next to mine recently got a new tenant last month who told me they had been on the list just 3 years.

If other sites around town are anything like ours they also may have had a number of short term tenants come and go.

I can think of 5 half size plots in the last 18 months on our site that had people take them on and then give up in a very short time.
One made half hearted attempt to dig the plot, spent a small fortune on 3 very expensive slatted wooden compost bins with slatted lids. Also spent money on sand & slabs to make a shed base. Plot then got smothered in weeds again and they soon gave up.

So Primrose I reckon the answer is 'quite a few'

[Pawty]

My allotment is a half, which hadn't been worked for many years. When I took it on, a more experienced neighbour said to me 'take your time, start small, don't try to do it all at once - and don't feel like you have to dig it all'. This was some of the best advice I have ever received on the allotment - and as such I grew to love it and have never seen it as a burden or hard work.

Maybe every newbie should be issued with such great advice from the very beginning?

Paula

[Westi]

I was the first on my plot. It was land at the back of established plots that have been in use for decades. The council used it to drop off river dredging etc. They had pegged it out into plots but no fences & the grass & weeds in some places was over my head. We had no strimmer so just started one end and went for it. Fortunately as it was mostly sand dumped too, it wasn't too much effort & we surprised ourselves with how quickly it was cleared.

Funnily all the advice came after it was cleared! Must have thought they would get roped in clearing it!

Westi

[Motherwoman]

I first took on my plot in 2000, it had been cared for, I was lucky. But all around me was prairie... 3 ft high grass and weeds. I used to get locked in by the people at the bottom end of the slope because they couldn't see me. Nobody wanted plots in 2000, except me apparently, lots were vacant. Then a rush started, from about 2002 to 2013 there was a waiting list and lots of 'I've started but won't finish' takers came and went. Unrealistic expectations of the amount of time a plot takes to maintain let alone clear was I think the main reason, closely followed by very little knowledge of growing vegetables. Failure leads to disappointment. One of the reasons why publications and tv programmes should give a knowledgeable view point not a trendy one. Sometimes I'd see work start on a plot and end without ever meeting the owners.

The site manager (Parish Council chap) has told me that there is no waiting list now, so the enthusiasm seems to have passed. I learnt a lot from my father who grow most of the family's veg when I was young and once that thread of knowledge has broken it can be difficult for people to pick it up again.

[Pa Snip]

My allotment is a half, which hadn't been worked for many years. When I took it on, a more experienced neighbour said to me 'take your time, start small, don't try to do it all at once - and don't feel like you have to dig it all'. This was some of the best advice I have ever received on the allotment - and as such I grew to love it and have never seen it as a burden or hard work.

Maybe every newbie should be issued with such great advice from the very beginning?

Paula

That' was very good advice you were given, I shall pass that on to the new neighbours I have on my immediate neighbouring plots.

My plots are numbered 10a and 11a, plot 9 (the one I wrote about being untidy a couple of months back) has been divided into two half plots ( 9a and 9b ) and now has new tenants for each half.
Sadly unexpectedly lost an old friend on plot 12a on 29th Jan so his plot will have new tenant soon

That advice will be passed on

The site manager (Parish Council chap) has told me that there is no waiting list now, so the enthusiasm seems to have passed. I learnt a lot from my father who grow most of the family's veg when I was young and once that thread of knowledge has broken it can be difficult for people to pick it up again.

\

As the last new tenant I spoke to just before Christmas had only been waiting 3 years I would not be surprised if that statement didn't apply to our area soon as well