"Colin Davidson" wrote in message
...

"Mike" wrote in message
...

Many of the places around me sell Horse Manure in Black Plastic bags,
50p a bag. Now you cold put that inside another bag and transport it in
the boot of your car ............ as fast as you can :-) to your
allotment. The other alternative, not as fast is the compost heap.

I have no car :-) I transport most things on my back, by bicycle. And
although I am quite happy carrying heavy weights, I'm unconvinced that I
can
carry enough compost on my back to make a difference. I suppose I'm going
to
have to bribe one of my motorist friends

That and the fact that with only about a fifth of my
own plot dug over, the empty patch next to it is also looking tempting,
and
if I don't take that and want more space in future it'll be hard to get
an
adjoining one... And they're so cheap to rent...

Will you have time to run 2 ? ;-} Years ago, just after I was married, I
had an allotment and an old fellow nearby had 5. He 'lived' there!! But
it was his whole life and hobby and was retired.

What you could do now, is to take it and keep it covered with plastic,
old carpets, old cardboard until you are ready for it, then open it up a
bit at a time. The soils 'should' be nice and clean of weeds. In theory.

In theory, yes. The other alternative is to take the second plot and cover
it in a green manure crop, and rotivate it in progressively as I get time
to
plant it. It's awfully tempting.



I used to have two allotments before moving somewhere with a very large
garden. Two plots (assuming they are the normal 10 poles each) are a lot of
work. I saw many new allotmenteers get very enthusiastic at first and take
on a second plot. But the extra work left them disillusioned and they failed
to keep up either plot. My advice is work a single plot for a year or two
and then decide. IMO the one exception to this may be if there is a need to
demonstrate a need for allotments with the council and the more plots that
are rented may help.

Re your need for manure, why not ask if the allotment group/society does a
bulk order and delivery. If not maybe you could persuade them. We used to do
this. Once a large heap was left for people to collect loose, once it was
delivered in individual heaps by peoples plots and another year we had bags
of spent mushroom compost.

Good luck. It's definitely worth the effort but don't underestimate the time
and effort needed.

Jay