Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

"Des Higgins" wrote
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes
of the the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear
that?.... that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to
get them.

Seen that before but it was well worth another viewing. The very
organised bloke with the super duper bean-pole construction has inspired
my other half to greater things this year. I liked the way the plots
were being cultivated in so many different styles. Made me wish there
was a regular allotmenteers' programme - not that I've got any lottie
plans, but it would be extra encouragement for us inexperienced back
garden veg growers as well. After all, it has been said recently that
vegetable seeds are now outselling those of flowers for the first time
in decades, so there must be lots of people looking for ideas or help.

--
Sue

On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 18:27:58 -0000, "Des Higgins"
wrote:

Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30??

At the most, mine is 7 by 14 metres. Or is it 20 feet by 40?
(excluding my path).

or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

Weird that. We only have one half-allotment left locally. Last
year there were quite a few unoccupied.

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 08:23:52 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:


"Des Higgins" wrote in message
.ie...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

Indeed !!
How on earth can people cultivate so much ground
Maybe they meant feet?
Jenny

OTOH 10 feet by 30 feet seems rather small.

Time for a quick survey of peoples allotment sizes? I have an
allotment that is 5m by 25m which is I beleive about half the
traditional size. So 10m by 30m would seem to be a little bit larger
than the traditional 10 rod size.

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Des Higgins" wrote in message
. ie...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of
the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

I haven't measured mine but it's definitely not feet. I'd estimate it's
about 10 by 30, but I'm not sure if it's metres or yards. The size was
intimidating at first - a definite "what have I taken on" feeling when I
first saw it - but is manageable for 2 reasonably fit people. My
neighbouring plot is cultivated by an 85 year old man, on his own, and looks
superb. I'm sure it has helped keep him fit over the years.

I liked the idea of the guinea gardens but, if I understand the law
correctly, cultivating council allotments as leisure gardens (rather than
just growing food) makes them fall outside the allotments act. If that
happens the council may be able to grab them back for redevelopment. The
value is immense. The plot I'm on has about 90 seperate allotments and, at a
very rough guess, would be worth £millions if it was available for new
homes.

The comments about availability were misleading. I'm in Birmingham and was
allocated an allotment one week after expressing an interest to a neighbour
who has a plot on the same site. The rent is about £24 a year, stand pipes
are dotted around for water, there is a site hut to gather in when it's
raining, but greenhouses and sheds are not supplied. No problem - I'm into
recycling so I'll acquire one at low cost some time this year.

Cultivation, this year, is a case of "do what you can and worry about the
rest next year." My partner and I have dug about 1/4 of the allotment in
less than 3 weeks. We'll clear the rest and throw in some green manure, to
try to keep the weeds down, once we've finished planting food crops in the
part we've already dug.We're told the first year is the hardest - after that
it's continuous maintenance.

"Jasbird" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 18:27:58 -0000, "Des Higgins"
wrote:

Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of
the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30??


That's about the size of ours. We have friends with an allotment in
Bournemouth and theirs is half the size of ours. Our site is somewhat
unusual though, it's owned by a private landowner and administered by an
estate agent. Cheques for the rent (£20p.a.) go to a holding company in the
Virgin Islands. It can't be much of an earner for the estate agents. Also
the site is roughly triangular, so plots on the outsides get smaller towards
the bottom end. We're at the top corner:-))

Steve

"JB" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 08:23:52 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:


"Des Higgins" wrote in message
.ie...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of
the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear
that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

Indeed !!
How on earth can people cultivate so much ground
Maybe they meant feet?
Jenny

OTOH 10 feet by 30 feet seems rather small.

Time for a quick survey of peoples allotment sizes? I have an
allotment that is 5m by 25m which is I beleive about half the
traditional size. So 10m by 30m would seem to be a little bit larger
than the traditional 10 rod size.

I have only paced mine out, but it is around 7-8 paces (yards?) wide
by around 80 paces long
it was very overgrown when we took it over
around 18 months ago and we have only dug and used a little over half yet
I guess we will probably never use it all??

Dave H

"JB" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 08:23:52 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:


"Des Higgins" wrote in message
.ie...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

Indeed !!
How on earth can people cultivate so much ground
Maybe they meant feet?
Jenny

OTOH 10 feet by 30 feet seems rather small.

Time for a quick survey of peoples allotment sizes? I have an
allotment that is 5m by 25m which is I beleive about half the
traditional size. So 10m by 30m would seem to be a little bit larger
than the traditional 10 rod size.

LOL - I suppose you grow bushels of stuff :~))
Jenny

"Crazy Dog" wrote
"Des Higgins" wrote
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of
the the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.
snip
Cultivation, this year, is a case of "do what you can and worry about the
rest next year." My partner and I have dug about 1/4 of the allotment in
less than 3 weeks.......

Is it a good idea to get a rotary digger in to do the initial dig?
Jenny

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Crazy Dog" wrote
"Des Higgins" wrote
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those
uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of
shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes
of
the the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear
that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.
snip
Cultivation, this year, is a case of "do what you can and worry about
the
rest next year." My partner and I have dug about 1/4 of the allotment in
less than 3 weeks.......

Is it a good idea to get a rotary digger in to do the initial dig?
Jenny

I decided against that. The message I got, from other plot-holders, was that
perrenial weed roots would get chopped up with a resulting plague of
perrenial weeds of biblical proportions. As I'm still, very much, on the
start of the learning curve, I'm happy to grow edible crops on about half of
the allotment this year and take care of the rest when I have a bit more
knowledge and I'm more up to speed.

Another factor in the decision was that one reason for getting the allotment
was to help me get some exercise and lose some weight. Letting a rotovator
take the strain won't help me achieve that!

Since making that decision I have read that rotovating a plot doesn't cause
significant problems with perrenial weeds.

My plot was cultivated until late last year. A lot of weeds are appearing
now that spring has, just about, sprung. If I can get those out before they
become monsters I'll be happy. I'm pulling out potatoes, spring onions etc
that the last guy abandoned. No point in wasting them. I'd have had to clear
all of that before rotovating anyway, as well as digging out cabbage,
brussel sprout, whatever roots so rotovating wouldn't really have saved much
time or effort in my case. It might have been a different story if I'd
rented 10 poles of couch grass and dandelions ...

--
Crazy Dog

The message
from JB contains these words:

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 08:23:52 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:


"Des Higgins" wrote in message
.ie...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh
sizes of the
the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear that?....
that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get them.

Indeed !!
How on earth can people cultivate so much ground
Maybe they meant feet?
Jenny

OTOH 10 feet by 30 feet seems rather small.

Time for a quick survey of peoples allotment sizes? I have an
allotment that is 5m by 25m which is I beleive about half the
traditional size. So 10m by 30m would seem to be a little bit larger
than the traditional 10 rod size.

8m x 10m here in Boston.

"Des Higgins" wrote ...
Had Monty Don and a pile of allotments. It was one of those uplifting
touchy feely programmes that made me wish it was Summer; lots of shiny
vegetables and immaculate vegetable beds. I was amazed at teh sizes of
the the patches (something like 10 metres by 30?? or did I mishear
that?.... that is HUGE!). I can see why there is a waiting list to get
them.

A normal allotment is 10 sq.Rods (or Poles or Perches).
A Rod is 5.5yards or in modern language about 5 metres (or Metric Lettings
to use Council speak).
So a normal allotment is 302.5 sq.yards or 2722.5 sq ft, say 250 sq metres.
Our last 10 sq Rod plot was 100ft by 27ft including paths either side. (we
also had a 5 Rod plot too)
Our present one is approx 20 metres by 12.5 metres with a path down the
middle (and we are concerned about the lack of space!)

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK