I'm on the waiting list for an allotment!

[Nykied]

There are 9 people on the list before me and the secretary said, 'It's not very likely you'll get on this time round'. Should I take that to mean, 'Or next year, or the year after, or the year after...'?

They start at £15 or £20 and they're in a small village about ten minutes from me, so it'd be really handy.

[organic]

One of my local allotment sites has a waiting list which, at current turnover rates, should see me on a plot there in 8 years.
Another has be about 25th on the list with a similar waiting time expected.
Yet another (and the closest of all) has a few plots held by people in their 70s and 80s who can't really tend them properly but stubbornly hold on (and I can't blame them) - the plots might become available in a year, or in another 10. It's impossible to say.

However, I got on another list a bit further afield and was, number 13 on the list. I expected quite a long wait and the secretary said something similar to what you've been told.

It took a grand total of about 2 or 3 weeks for me to get a half plot (which was all I was ever going to get - they don't like to start newcomers off with a full plot because quite often they can't handle it and just give up).

It turns out that a few people had been given their marching orders for one reason or another, and a good few above me on the list had either moved away or couldn't be contacted so I was the next in line.


The "this time around" probably means that if a few plots become available at the end of the current tenancies there's a good chance they'll be taken by people above you. How long it will take is entirely dependent on how quickly the plots become available and how many ahead of you on the list still want a plot. You might end up with one this year, or it could be a few years.

Really it's anyone's guess (which is why the people running the waiting lists are always so vague about it all - there's just no way of knowing!)

My suggestion is to just be happy about being on the list and hope it doesn't pass too slowly... in the mean time start growing in your garden, on your patio or on a balcony... or even in a window box if that's the only option you've got. It'll keep you ticking over anyway. It was after a season of growing fruit and herbs in a home-made planter on the patio that I got my plot.


In the mean time - is there any land in your village that you could use? Maybe there's a farmer who'd let a corner of his field out to local growers. Maybe they have an awkwardly shaped bit they can't use easily anyway and you or a group of you could get that. Maybe they'd even be interested in letting people use it for free, whether directly or as part of the landshare scheme.

You might even be able to negotiate a small plot of land just for yourself as have a few others on this forum (see creemteez thread here ).

All the best!

[Two_Sheds]

allotments *tend* to become available at the start of the growing year, when the rents are due (Jan for us).

They don't often change hands at any other time, unless you become aware of an untended plot and you badger them about it (that's how I got mine: I went onto the site and had a look round, saw one that was 6 foot high in nettles and said I'll take it)

[StephenH]

I'm on the waiting lists for three local sites, and was told when I first went on them that I could expect to wait 2-3 years. A workmate who's also a fellow-member of the local allotment and leisure gardeners society tells me that the three I've applied for are the three most popular in the town, and therefore have the longest lists. There are two other sites not too far from me, so I wonder if the council'd let me go on their lists too? No harm in asking, I spoze. I did let the council know that I'd be willing to take on a badly overgrown plot if it'd get me on to a site sooner, but all the three sites are. or appear to be, fully cultivated. Oh well - if I get one by the time I retire, which should be in six years, I'll be happy.

[greengas]

allotments *tend* to become available at the start of the growing year, when the rents are due (Jan for us).

They don't often change hands at any other time, unless you become aware of an untended plot and you badger them about it (that's how I got mine: I went onto the site and had a look round, saw one that was 6 foot high in nettles and said I'll take it)

Thats what I did TS kept ringing the council office everyday until they got fed up hearing my voice and gave me half a plot, then got the missus to do the same thing and we had a full plot within 6 weeks!

[Nykied]

Excellent advice from everyone. I live practically in the middle of nowhere (three streets, no shop, no pub, nothing) so there could be a possibility of renting out a field.

I'm growing veg in a 6x8 foot plot in the back garden this year, so it's a start.

One of the people I spoke to about the plot that I'm on the waiting list for, he said that I was ringing at the right time, so I took that to mean that it's now that people give up their plots.

I am excited but I'm also impatient. Probably not a good mix, but I'm going to look on the net at other sites further afield.

I think that this one only caters for 'local' people, as the first question I was asked was do I live in the village. I'm ten minutes down the road, so I think that counts. And it is quite a small village, one of those ones that you only notice as the road goes from a 60mph to a 30 for all of a minute ;o)

[organic]

6x8 foot could net you a rather large amount of food if you're using the space efficiently. It assumes beds no more than 4 feet wide but you could probably get a lot of ideas from the Square Foot Gardening method. Have a search for it on Google Books and you'll get a preview with a decent amount of useful stuff in it even though a fair few pages are missing.
Your local library service might have it in one of their branches too.

[Nykied]

Thanks organic,

The Square Foot method is the one I'm using, although some of the crops I'm going to be growing aren't mentioned on any of the sites I've looked at (I've also looked at that book on Google) and I have no idea how tall things are going to grow, so planting taller things at one end is something that's passing me by ;o)

I may have to take a trip to my library one lunchtime. I'll have to take my purse too, as I owe them fine money...

[organic]

Nykied
I had the same situation - I had to cough up rather a lot before I was able to get my GYO type books out a while back.

Heights can be a tricky one - I've done most of my variety-picking based upon what I can get in the Garden Organic catalogue and they are quite good at mentioning heights. Where they don't and I don't know - I tend to just get on google and have a dig around for some more detail. In general I'm taking a "not too big a deal" view of it, because the sun gets so high at midday through the summer that I figure most things will get a really good dose of sun anyway. I'm still trying to put tall things to the backs of the beds though.

I'd definitely recommend getting your hands on a copy of the book - the preview on Google books is great, but some of the most helpful things are left out, like sowing and planting in relation to first and last frosts, details about the different things (all in general terms - but there's a section for tomatoes, another for courgettes and so on).

Personally, I'm referring mainly to "Your Allotment" by Clare Foster and dropping what I learn from that into the Square Foot system. The only real reason I'm doing that is she mentions specific varieties and explains certain things better for my way of learning... she's writing about traditional rows though. Generally I'm taking the final distance between plants (often expressed as "thin to 10cm" for example) and putting that into square feet.
I also refer to "The Concise Guide to Self Sufficiency" by John Seymour for some things but not as much as the "Square Foot" one and "Your Allotment".