Eek...Do I take it or not???

[RobintheBobin]

Hello Grapes

I've just had an e-mail saying an allotment 1/2 plot is available for lil ole me and they are sending me a key to go see BUT...this one is about 1 1/2 miles away (I know, I know not far but stay with me on this). I am also on another waiting list for an allotment site about 200m from my house and I have found out that on that list I have gone from number 15 to number 6 in about 8 months.

So now I'm unsure of going with the one I've got the key for (assuming it isn't in a dark and dingy patch which gets no light, and is on a slope) or wait until a plot effectively next to my house and in walking or wheelbarrowing distance is free?

Help my brain is fuddled!!!

[weekendwellies]

Firstly I would go see the plot you have been offered already and see if you like it or not.
'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'
Second I would find out if you can stay on the list for the site nearer to you if you decided to take the offered one.
Then I would put the kettle on and contemplate the chances of getting two plots.
If I were to have two plots I would plant things that could mostly take care of themselves on the one furthest away such as fruit trees and herbs.
The closer one is were I would put the more high maintenance crops.

[Nicos]

Just my thoughts weekendwellies!!
You could put fruit trees and bushes into the 1/2 plot ( a good time to plant now)- and then move them to the new one when you get it!
I suppose it depends on how much work needs doing on it if you have to give it up within the year.
The cost of 2 lotties at the same time shouldn't break the piggybank!

2 1/2 ones are good- cos it's not being esp greedy- it's just the same as having a whole one! BUT you'll find they'll have different soil types and microclimates- so you'd be able to grow different things!

[Two_Sheds]

I would take the further away one, while you wait for a closer one to come up. If you can't have your name down for both, put Other Half's name down.

It sounds like there's a good chance you'll get a closer one in a year or two, so I wouldn't put anything permanent in until then. You'll only have to dig it all up and move it again.

[SarzWix]

Yup, I'd agree with that - go see the offered one and take it if it seems any good. Stay on the list for the one closer to home, when it comes up you can decide whether to carry on with 2, or give the first one up.

[RobintheBobin]

Aww thanks guys for speedy advice..I'm going to have a look at the weekend; as far as I know I can stay on the list for the other site. It just feels so greedy having two but I suppose as you say I could give the other one up...so many choices!!!

[RobintheBobin]

Update - went to see the plot today at lunchtime. It looks like it was just grassland that has been ploughed so lots and lots of grass chopped up into the soil but the quality looks good. Nice and humusy.

So in effect it is a naked site but it does seem to get some shade; at one o'clock this afternoon two thirds of the site was in shade because of a big bushy tree - do you guys think this would be a problem...makes me a little concerned. It is however close to the road and has a tap and water trough at one end.

[PAULW]

The sun is low in the sky at the moment, in the middle of summer you shouldn't have any problem with the shade

[Snadger]

'Many a slip twixt cup and lip'................meaning you may not get the chance of a plot on your preferred site as quickly as you assume you will and if you don't take the other one you'll have nowt!

Your choice.............but I know what I would do!

[RobintheBobin]

oops...I meant two fifths so that's not so bad...

[RobintheBobin]

'Many a slip twixt cup and lip'

Deep but true Snadger I'm already thinking that for a grand sum of nineteen quid a year what's there not to take and then I've started to look at green manures and then I thought that the neighbour's plots aren't so perfect I'd feel inadequate and then I felt I could grow proper dahlias in one little bit so I don't have scraggly ones at home and then I had visions of cabbages, courgettes, pumpkins, sweetcorn....all the things I can't squeeze in at home and...BREATHE!!!!!!!

Oh yeah and darling husband has volunteered to help and I would also have a brand new neighbour starting as well so we would be newbies together....

..oh, have I just convinced myself?????

[Two_Sheds]

two thirds of the site was in shade because of a big bushy tree

Mine was the same. Horrible big leylandii, roosted about 2,000 pigeons in it.
It got chopped down last year (someone told the householder it was destroying her foundations )

-----------
Now the sun is low, my plot only gets sun from 11am-3pm at most. Everything grows just fine though, in the growing season

[Jeanied]

Yay - another newbie plot holder methinks! If it is any help one of my plots is 1/3 in shade after about 3 in the summer and earlier in winter - at the shady end I grew rasps and strawberries successfully for many years and am about to plant fruit trees. You could have your further plot as a low maintentance fruit plot and your nearer one, when you get it, for the more intensive stuff!

[RobintheBobin]

Thanks guys...I'm already planning in my head what I would like to grow and getting excited when I think of all those new fruit and veggies I can try

Reading council...here I come tomorrow...garden centre and seed catalogues not long after

[organic]

For what it's worth...
I've got a plot (I went onto the list number 12 and had the plot 2 weeks later - I was shocked at the speed) which I'm clearing now and will be putting in my first crops and green manures in a week or so. That plot is just shy of 3 miles from my house.

I'm also on the waiting list for a couple that are MUCH closer (one is a scratch under 500m from front door to gate) and have been on them for about a year or so now.

If you can stay on the close list and take the further one I'd do so without hesitation. If I end up with a plot near my house and one a fair distance away I'll do what's already been suggested on here. Anything that can look after itself will go at the distant one with me visiting at the weekends to weed and take care of any jobs, and anything that needs a bit more mollycoddling will go in at the local one where I can give all the attention it needs.

All the best with your new plot and for a short wait for the near one too.