A Journal for New Allotment Holders

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Introduction.

This blog will be about our attempts to manage an allotment for the very first time.

Let me give you some background of us first! We are 2 very ordinary people who have not been massively into gardening. We have both owned gardens before that were mainly grass and small borders.

I dabbled with a vegetable plot, very small, for about 2 years. I mainly grew onions, courgettes, sweetcorn and of course the obligatory salad plants.

We met about a 18 months ago fell deeply in love and moved to a fantastic village called Coven near Wolverhampton. As soon as we moved into the village we put our names down for an allotment. This is something I had wanted to do for a number of years but had not been settled enough to do it.

Kim knew less about gardening than I did but loved the thought of us spending every weekend together at the allotment, talking and spending quality time together and with the gardening fraternity.

Within 4 months of putting our names down we had the letter that some people had been waiting over 2 years for. The one that told us we had an allotment in Coven Heath about 2 miles from our home.

We were told to meet with the caretaker the last week in February. When we went down to the allotment there were 3 other people all just starting out with their allotments. All of us, as we were shown our plots just stood in awe at the size of the plots.

The thoughts that went through our heads were ‘oh my god!!’ ‘We will not cope’ and ‘Wow! this is going to be fantastic’. The community on the allotments soon gathered round and were offering all sorts of advice on how to manage the allotment. All of this advice was a massive help. NEVER BE AFRAID TO ASK!!! There is a vast wealth of knowledge and experience on the allotments; it would be rude not to take advantage of it.

Kim and myself talked things over and decided on a plan of action that would suit our lifestyle. This is one of travelling on the road and where we could only get weekends and some evenings on the allotment.

First Steps

We measured the allotment out and was shocked to discover we had approximately 35 metres long by 5 metres wide. This may not sound a lot but trust me when you look at a plot that is covered in weeds and you need to dig it over, then it looks bloody massive!!

• 3 Apr, 2011
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