The message
from "Mel" contains these words:

Hi all, can you please help with my dilemma?

I have to choose between 2 allotments, both of which are in abandoned
states. One site absolutely full of horsetail, and I mean so chock-a-block
that in some places I can hardly get a fork in for the roots. The other
site is full of couch grass and is very wet (I can hear the soil squelching
when I walk on it).

It's between a rock and a hard place! Do I choose soggy couch grass or a
zillion horsetail?

Hang around at the weekend and try to meet some nearby alotmenters.
Ask them if the swamp is wet all summer.

If it had just been saturated by recent rain, it might be fine in
summer, but even if it isn't you can build raised beds for growing in,
and never have to worry about watering.

The horsetail one will be a long nightmare. I would rather wait for
another vacancy than take a horsetail plot.

Janet