Thinking of getting an allotment and would like feedback

[CADS]

Hi

I am thinking of getting an allotment but want to establish how realitic I am actually being considering I have a 4 year old and 2 year old. Ideally, I would just like to start with a small one. I think the smallest one we can get around here is about 25sqm. I would like to get others experience on how much time they spend on their lot each day and how they manage with kids. Kids are at preschool 4 mornings a week at the moment but of course will be at home during the school holidays. So, I am trying to gauge how much time I need to roughly fit in amongst other commitments.

Thanks
CADS

[Novice Gardener]

Well depending on where you live, the little ones could be starting secondary school by the time you get to the top of the list

Seriously, It would be a great way of getting the kids interested in growing stuff to eat. If you're worried about taking on too much, maybe you could enquire about sharing a lottie to begin with

[sallyw]

we havw recently acquired our allotment we have broken our backs clearing a lot of rubbish on site and loads of digging and weeding, a few of the plots on the site are recently acquired and by young families. They all seem to spend weekends there together and the kids have a great time playing with worms etc and help digging obviously you need to be on a plot that is safe both in location and whats on the plot itself but it will teach the kids the basics of gardening and think of all that fresh air. maybe take on a small plot and just keep to the basics for now

[Two_Sheds]

There is a lot of work to do, on a very regular basis:

• dig the plot
• clear all the weeds
• dig and clear again. And probably a third time.
• sow your seeds, or plant your plants
• protect them from pests and weather
• water and feed them
• harvesting, which can take you hours if you grow too much!
• there are always miscellaneous jobs to do too, like repairing stuff, building stuff

My plot is cleared, planted and fairly under control, and I still spend 12+ hours a week up there

[heebiejeebie]

I share an allotment with a neighbour who has young kids. If the whole family goes to the lottie she gets loads done but if it's just her and the kids she has to spend most of her time looking after the children and doesn't get as much done. They are lively and interested! Could you get together with a friend who understands that you might not always be as reliable as you'd like to be and share a plot?

As for time - at the moment I'm spending about 6-8 hours per week at the plot. Most of this is sowing, weeding, pottering, staring at things, talking to the wildlife... I could do it in less time but it's a hobby and I'm not in a hurry! Ground preparation was another matter - I did several half-days of forking and weeding over the Easter break to get ready for planting.

[Pootle]

Our children found it pretty dull when we were clearing the allotment (ages 8, 6 and 4) and so ran up and down the paths playing horses (!) which was fine when there was no-one else around but would have got others backs up had it been busier. In fact the first thing I was told by one 'helpful' neighbour was that I should put up a fence to stop my children going onto my neighbours plot (we have 1/2 a plot - the council is attempting to reduce the waiting list!), which I found slightly insulting as the girls would never go on someone elses plot without permission and they are always supervised! I've since found out that this neighbour is a harbinger of doom, so I can ignore her comments

Now that things are going in the ground and the site is busier with other children they are more keen and always either find something to do (planting/taking the heads off dandelions/watering/making mud pies) or someone to play with...one lovely neighbour even has a slide and a swing on her plot which all the children use. I think the old timers like having the children around as they can impart their wisdom without the sceptical looks that us grown-ups give them, its like having extra grandparents...

Having said that, I do get more done when I go down in the week when they're all at school/nursery! Don't let it out you off though - what could be more important than teaching your children where their food comes from? Plus middle daughter eats veg like its going out of fashion so we have to grow our own to avoid bankruptcy

[zazen999]

But; 25sqm isn't a big space; so you should be able to get it up and running pretty quickly.

Ours is 8m by 30; 240 sqm; and because they rotavated; in 14 people hours up there we have;
put down paths making 9 x 1.2mx9m beds
covered 2 beds with cardboard/newspaper and plastic/weed fabric
planted up 2 beds with spuds weeding as we go
dug over and prepared 1 root bed, weeding as we go [being sown today]

that leaves us
1 bed of spuds to dig, weed and plant up
1 bed of roots to dig, weed and plant up
2 bed to cover with newspaper and plastic until ready to plant.

For that size of plot, you could cover it quite easily and just dig a metre at a time and start planting up as you go.

You can even just plant through the plastic/weed suppressant this year, and dig it over next; as the soil will be much looser once it's had veg in it for a year.

Check out no dig gardening [t'internet] and Supersprout's allotment in the Growing Techniques part of the forum.

Note: wickes has weed fabric - 50m x 1m for £15.99 - we bought 2 and we still have quite alot left after our paths and one bed has been covered in it and we are going to use it for the others and just plant through it this year - sweetcorn, beans and brassicas.

[sallyw]

my 19 year old daughter thought we were a bit sad when we said we were getting an allotment but even she has to admit she quite likes coming over with us she hasn't done any serious work yet but has written labels out to put next to seeds in the ground and she likes to gently rake a bit of good soil now and again. I'm sure that when all the fruit and veg finally comes ripe she'll be there helping to harvest both kids appreciate good fruit and veg and i'm lookin forward to putting my home grown stuff on the table

[firsttimersue]

You'll never know unless you try!

I've had mine since Sept last year, we've got a very busy life style with a hobby that takes up most Sundays even in winter, but I decided unless I gave it a go I'd never know and if I found it was too much then I could always hand it back.

we've digged, (OH did the main bulk!)we've manured, we've planted. I've put in the odd hour or so over the winter, roughly two a week and now I'm down there when ever I can and when ever the weather is good. The plot is looking good with lots of things already in the ground, it's great exercise, you're in the fresh air and you produce something at the end of it.

[Winged one]

We took on ours last spring. We have a toddler (now 2 and a quarter), I was doing a college course (and the OH was teaching one parttime this year), we both work fulltime, and the plot (12' x 50') was uncultivated for a number of years.

We did what we could, dug and planted just under half last year - but followed the spuds with summer brassicas (bought as plug plants) and some carrots, followed the other summer brassicas with autumn sown onions, followed the summer onions with winter brassicas, and I put a number of little bits of peas, salads, and some broad beans into little spare patches.

In the autumn, we strimmed and then sprayed the back half, and covered it for the winter. We have dug a fair bit of that at this stage (spuds are in there now) but even what we haven't can be easily tackled as it is still covered so not actively growing.

Our aim is to get to teh plot at least once a fortnight (I know a lots of plot holders reckon this is terrible, but we managed to keep everything we grew last year OK with that kinda committment) for a couple of hours. We go (either together with the toddler or one of us alone) more often if we can, but can't a lot of the time. If you are careful about what you grow, then it is much less worry certainly in year 1. I am planning on more crops that may need regular harvesting this year, but also hoping to go with the toddler on the way home from work a couple of evenings a week now that she doesn't need a HOT meal exactly at 6pm - she is happy with cold picnic stuff and timing is a bit more flexible, especially if she has her spade for digging - she LOVES going to the "other garden", but isn't always happy to spend hours there.

This year I've also managed to get more plants sown at home, but even buying plugs is more economical and more enjoyable than buying veg from the shop. And might be safer with littlies taking a very keen interest in the "baby plants" - but then again, I have had pot saucers of garden soil placed very carefully on our dining room windowledge (where I have a lot of seeds started off), as someone has sown "matoes and ur-gettes", and then "mushrooms" in another - cos bold mammy wasn't growing any of the toddler's current favourite veg!!

If you do get one, crops I'd recommend with littluns are peas, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots and sweetcorn in particular. (Even if you don't get a plot, try a hanging basket of cherry toms in the agrden - there is nothing nicer if you get any yourself but our toddler used to insist last summer on being lifted 5/6 times a night after her tea, to get some off the plant almost like a desert, so we only got a few ourselves).

I hope that helps, and that I didn't go round in circles too much. In case this was too muddled, I'd recommend trying it out.

[Nicos]

I think it depends on what you grow to be honest.
If you grow fruit bushes and trees,potatoes,perpetual spinach, carrots, beetroot,leeks,cabbage/kale/sprouts and onions then you'll just need to keep on top of weeding.
We have raised beds and mow the grass in between once every 2 weeks.
Keep growing salad stuff at home where you can water and pick easily.
Maybe take a sandpit to the lottie and some toys and you should be ok for at least 1/2 hr- esp if you take a little picnic.

We spend on average 5 hrs a week between the 2 of us and we have a full plot with raised beds.
We now travel to France a lot and have had to re-think what we grow as our children have left home and I can't honestly keep asking allotment neighbours to water our plants on a regular basis.
Planting through membranes and mulching should cut down water loss and weeds.
I'd say go for it, but see if you can find one in reasonable condition so you don't spend ages having to prepare it.
Is your OH going to help out too?? If so....no problem!

[Mikey]

I have a three year old, and go down the allotment after she has gone to bed. So I get about an 1 1/2 in a night at the mo. You don't say whether you are a single parent or not to know if this is feasible in your case.
I would check your local area and see if there is a waiting list for a plot, you may find that you have a few years wait to even get one, in which case the kids can give you a hand.

[CADS]

Hi everyone

Thank you for all your feedback. I have decided to go ahead and take on an allotment.

I grew some veg in pots last year so have already got the 'grow your own' bug. Unfortunately, my husband didn't pick up the bug and is going to think I'm insane when I tell him of my decision. He isn't into vegetables but the kids enjoy them and my eldest even started to eat different veg last year because it was home grow. Hopefully, my husband might get the bug too but at least he can look after the kids in the evening and weekends.

I contacted my local council and the good news is there are 3 allotments in my local area but the bad news is that there are 20 people on the waiting list some of which have been waiting a few years. So, I guess I won't be getting a plot anytime soon.

Take care
CADS

[sallyw]

we were obviously very lucky we decided to get an allotment i phoned a couple of sites after getting allotment holders assoc. lists from the council 2 or 3 more popular sites had waiting lists which i added my name to one on a very busy main road had several overgrown plots up for grabs and our one had a couple, when we went to view it i was disheartend to see it full of mounds of grass and rubbish right next to a massive tip which was full of various rubbish some mud but a lot of scrap metal i didnt want to take it on but it was a big plot and my husband saw the potential, its cost us £33 per year we got it easter weekend hired a mini digger the following week (on the wettest windiest day imaginable) and we cleared it it feels like we've been working it for years but last sunday we actually felt we had got somewhere, the whole plot has been rotavated now we have 3 large raised beds with more planned, a shed water barrels.fruit planted spuds in and peas onions in just to name a few we are getting there!!

[CarolineW]

Hi CADS,
you never know. I was on the waiting list for one site for 1 year. But then I broadened out to be on the waiting list of several sites, after deciding that I'd be willing to travel. One of them had a waiting list which they thought would be about 2-3 years. I put my name down anyway. I got a plot 2 weeks later! (Plus another one at another site, but that's a different story...)

Once you do get one, here are the tips I've learned from keeping my 4 year old daughter happy:

- If a neighbouring or nearby lottie holder also has children, get pally with them. Try to organise to be there together anytime you want to have a longer spell at the lottie.

- Get child sized tools, and let them get stuck in. give each their own 'plot' that they can grow stuff on.

- Make sure that you let them 'help' you. There usually are things that they can do which are genuinely helpful, otherwise, relatively harmless stuff which makes them feel like their helping. Esther is good at thumping clods with her rake, for instance, when I'm digging a bed, and breaking it down for me.

- Have something they can play with there. Bury a washbowl as a mini sandpit, for example. We have sharp sand in ours, so that it's good for our clay soil when it spills out. At one of our allotments we're blessed to be able to put up a swing in a tree there. She loves that!

-Get creative - is there a temporary den that they can use? For example, we have straw bales waiting for use as mulch / paths / etc. She makes dens from these until they're used. Or climbing frames, or ... imagination is the limit. We even made a 'see-saw' from a scaffolding plank and a couple of flag stones until the plank was needed for the raised bed. Keep it changing. If it's fresh, it's interesting.

- ring the changes and change the pace. We can stay at our 'big allotment' basically all day, and she'll be happy. There's enough to do, and a child to play with some of the time. She spends 20 minutes helping, 20 minutes in the sand, 20 minutes on the swing, 20 minutes killing crocodiles with her stick sword, 20 minutes with Mum hunting for the South Pole, 20 minutes with Dad seeing what insects/flowers/whatever they can find, another 20 minutes helping out again, and so on. And there's usually another little girl for her to play with there (also bring plenty of snacks and drinks). Does this work? Yep - she asks if we can go to the allotment. And if we say we're going to the big allotment, she starts shouting hurray and doing a dance.

At the small allotment where there is no space to give her a 'play area'/kill crocodiles, etc, we can't spend longer than an hour. And of that, she's genuinely happy for 30 minutes. If there are children there, that's another story - then we can stay as long as we like.

Hope this helps, and good luck in finding an allotment. You'll get one eventually if you stay on it. I'm so glad we got ours, it's one of the best things to ever happen to our family.