Snip

I agree with Paul, here. I'm still waiting for my first allotment (any
day now) & started reading this thread with some anticipation but it
seems to have decended into a rather unpleasant "tut-tut" listing.

If those more experienced allotmenteers have some tips to offer or
common pitfalls to avoid I'll be extremely grateful, but I'm sure that
the selfish behaviour listed above is in no way dictated by the length
of time someone has had an allotment - rather more due to the sort of
person they are...

Ok, to be fair, Bob did say his aim was to help, and I'm certainly not going
to have a go at him,. I just have a more relaxed attitude. When you look
round our allotment site, the plots range from practically jungle to neatly
manicured with not weed in sight. A lot depends on your circumstances. One
of ours is retired and spends almost every day on his plot, openly admitting
he goes there to get away from 'er indoors. Some others work full time and
squeeze in an hour or two when they can.
Make mistakes and don't worry about them, for two reasons -

1- It's just gardening, nobody dies.

2.- When you've dug it up and eaten it or composted it, the evidence is
gone.

And since you asked for tips to offer and pitfalls to avoid, here are a
couple.-

Grow small amounts of lots of different things, if you grow loads of one
thing, you get a massive surplus which probably won't keep and has to be
given away or dumped. Also, If you concentrate on one thing and that thing
has a bad year, you're toast. Every year you will have successes and
failures. You will learn with experience, we all are.

Ask the other allotmenteers what grows well in the soil you've got, and what
doesn't. there's no reason you shouldn't benefit from the mistakes they made
twenty years ago.

Avoid trying to do too much too soon, you just get disheartened. It's much
better to have half a plot of weeds and a couple of rows of veg than a plot
with no weeds but no crops.


I hope you get your allotment soon and it gives you as much satisfaction as
mine gives me.

And finally, remember there are three things you should do whenever you
visit your allotment -


1 A bit of gardening.

2 A bit of talking.

3 A bit of nothing.

Steve
See our plot (and admire our weeds) here-

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/steveandmaggiesplot