Kitchen Garden Forum

...when I see plots like this:-

or this

and this

When there are ones carefully tended next door.

And the cared for plots look like this.

and this (this one is in its first year)

So disheartening for the gardeners who care who have to put up with all the weed seeds and thistles being blown onto their plots.
It doesn,t say much for the supervisory powers of any allotment committee in situ, but sadly age, disinterest and other factors mean that the necessary discipline just isn't being imposed. Doubly sad though if there's a waiting list for plots and keen gardeners, even newbies, are prevented from coming on board and gradually making a difference.

Our allotment many years ago, fell victim to this kind of nearby indifference (as well as produce theft) and in the end we had to give up because we simply didn,t have time, with biothb of us working in full time jobs, to keep on top of the ever invading army of weeds from other plots nearby.

In a garden, with surrounding fencing partly protecting you from neighbours ' weeds blowing in on the wind you have a better chance of counteracting the tide of weeds but sadly on open plots like this it can rapidly become an overwhelming problem to which there are no easy answers. Apart from spraying mass areas with potentially toxic weedkillers.

Perhaps bringing in a couple of pigs and fencing off small areas at a time would sort this problem out. I,ve de been watching Mossy Bottom videos on YouTube (lovely chap doing a self sufficiency thing in Ireland) who uses his two pigs very effectively to clear his overgrown areas of land of every scrap of scrub and weeds to prepare it for next season's crops growing. If you haven't seen these Mossy Bottom small holding self sufficiency videos I recommend them. - they're a joy to watch!

Our council has a policy of no dig your gone it works on most plots then you get a position like I’m in ,next door to me is worse than the pictures about but he is serving 18 months for assault with 2 other charges waiting sentence now normally the councils policy of no dig would take care of it so his mother contacts social services and he get left alone I’ve asked the council to spray but they won’t for some technical reason the plot in front of mine is the same as the pictures and has been for 2 years he has finally been evicted but when the plot is given out to a new tenant they have around a month to decide if they want it or not meanwhile the weeds get bigger

That's depressing robo. Could you have a "sneaky spray" when nobody was around to try and keep the weeds under control a little? I suppose it would probably be obvious what had happened but the urge to take things into your own hands is sometimes very strong, isn't it?

When we had two abandoned plots on our small site, the other tenants scythed/strimmed the weeds, simply to avoid all the weed seeds blowing over everybody else's plot. It also meant that anybody new wouldn't be TOO put off by the sight of a jungle!

That,s a very kind and sensible thing to do Monika but Qi have the sense these days that there are fewer people around who are prepared to go the extra mile to help their fellows. Sadly we seem to live in increasingly selfish times where not many people are now prepared to go the extra mile, no what environment they,re operating in.

It,s pity these areas can.t be covered over in some way to keep the weeds at bay.

Primrose, the urge to do something is very strong.

Monika, I'd love to do that but suspect there would be more rancour from intervention than laissez-faire. Wierd world we live in.

Robo, you have my sympathy. Two of the plots I have shown are adjacent to mine.

I'm not even going to say anything to the allotment rep. I'm afraid of what I might say.

How do others feel Stephen. surely you're not alone with all this supressed anger at the effect it's having on everybody else.

I'd be tempted to stick up a placard on a pole in the middle of the affected area deManding "ACTION THIS DAY PLEASE !"

I have spoken to one set of neighbours, who feel as I do.

The most annoying part? A waiting list of, apparently, 40! Now that may be slightly inflated with people putting their name down for all three sites in the town but still shows there is plenty of demand.

I think the sites are a bit too cheap, (£36 p.a. for a full plot) but even doubling it wouldn't make much of an impact.

A call to your local newspaper, with a plea for a photographer to come down, take a photo and highlight the long waiting list may force a call to action somewhere.

We,ve often found that this shifts "bums off seats" somewhere in local campaigns. Organisations don't like to be named and shamed. Sometimes even the thought of adverse publicity is enough to get things moving.

It is tempting.

It is a real pain when the allotment committee's try to be all PC with warning after warnings, then the folk come down clear a bit & wait for the next letter, while someone could be there really enjoying the challenge of growing. We only have an 'acting' chairman currently so little going on at all, except a lots of turning a blind eye to the rules in the contract.

I currently have great neighbours on both sides, but prior to that they were neglected & the weeds were a real challenge! I'm afraid I took into my own hands and just took my shears & cut down the plants that were seeding. I don't think anyone noticed but I was all cloak & dagger with my hops over the fence. I did spray the actual fence line away from my crops as bindweed & stuff was invading by the roots & even now I am trying to get rid of it. Again no-one seemed to notice.

An example currently is someone (I should not mention friend of previous chairman), who actually got a digger in & took all the top soil off in a big truck, took down loads of sheds & greenhouses in bits & has never touched it again - that was 2 years ago! His last visit was just moving all the shed pieces to another spot on the plot, obviously after a warning letter. Absolutely nothing has ever been grown on that plot, but the neighbour on one side put membrane down on that side along his fence row, nought said.

Stephen our full plots are £99 so more money than sense it appears. I would at the minimum mow a border on those ones just to give you a barrier of sorts, but the worry is what is creeping over from that mess underground. Are they council plots? Report directly to them if you get no joy from the rep & maybe get a few others affected to do the same???

Sounds like a job for this lot.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done !!

robo wrote:Our council has a policy of no dig your gone it works on most plots then you get a position like I’m in ,next door to me is worse than the pictures about but he is serving 18 months for assault with 2 other charges waiting sentence now normally the councils policy of no dig would take care of it so his mother contacts social services and he get left alone I’ve asked the council to spray but they won’t for some technical reason the plot in front of mine is the same as the pictures and has been for 2 years he has finally been evicted but when the plot is
given out to a new tenant they have around a month to decide if they want it or not meanwhile the weeds get bigger

Some years ago, we had a similar problem. Council helped us out by using lads doing community service. Most enjoyed it as it made a change.