Janet Tweedy writes
In article , Bob Hobden
writes

Meanwhile we have
all moved to other sites to continue growing, in our case it's and
improvement overall.



But isn't it part of the value of allotments that you are growing on
plots/land that has been fed and cultivated for some years? Unless they
give you that type of land again it will surely take you aeons before
you get the depth of soil and the fertility that many allotment sites
have?

I'm not so sure that the points about feeding and depth of soil are so
relevant nowadays. Surveys have demonstrated that the 'wildflowers' that
are increasing in abundance are things like nettles and docks which like
high nitrogen levels. We've been fertilising so much of everything for
so long that even a virgin site probably has high enough nutrient
levels. If you want to encourage a wild flower meadow that isn't simply
coarse grass and buttercups, the first thing you need to do is reduce
its fertility by repeated mowing and removal of cuttings, or even
stripping off the turf completely to remove the most fertile layer.

Most veg don't root down very far, so depth of soil isn't a great issue
either.

It is a lot easier to take over an allotment which has been in active
cultivation, but I'm not sure there'll be a vast difference, in terms of
yield, between 'virgin' ground and an allotment which has been
uncultivated for more than a year.

That said, the idea that a new allotment on a field somewhere is an
adequate substitute for a carefully tended and cultivated allotment is
ludicrous.
--
Kay