What's a good size for an allotment?

[Gryfon]

Was looking at a patch of land today (currently under glass) that is going to be made into allotments. I'm trying to work out how much area ideally would be reasonable to see if I can get.

We're a family of 5, and the children love their fruit and veg. Trouble is I just can't envisage how much space we might need!

Thanks

P.S. Or would I be best working out what I want to grow, then how much room I'll need for each veg and go from there? I'll probably do raised beds so I can fit more in

[Hazel at the Hill]

Was looking at a patch of land today (currently under glass) that is going to be made into allotments. I'm trying to work out how much area ideally would be reasonable to see if I can get.

We're a family of 5, and the children love their fruit and veg. Trouble is I just can't envisage how much space we might need!

Thanks

P.S. Or would I be best working out what I want to grow, then how much room I'll need for each veg and go from there? I'll probably do raised beds so I can fit more in

Lovely to see you, Gryfon.

I think that a traditional 'allotment plot' was always designed to feed a family - I think that this is about 120' by 25' (about 250 sq yds) - I don't know what that is in poles and rods and traditional measures - I think that someone will put me right tomorrow.

I have a half plot split into 8 raised veg beds of 16' by 4', and 5 fruit beds of 4' by 8' - which feeds me with all veg all year (and plenty left overs for family & friends)*, and some fruit for eating and also jam/wine making.

Of course this does mean you are very much into seasonal eating - no tomatoes in salads in winter for me - but you don't half appreciate the first of any crop when it's ready when you haven't had it for months!

*except carrots. Can't grow them - I don' tknow why not - and I love em, so succumb to the charms of Tesco every now and again. Mind you, I love walking round the fruit section shaking my head and saying 'HOW much for 3 sticks of rhubarb?! Robbery! Knowing that I have armfuls of the stuff growing at the Hill.

[Snadger]

A good size for an allotment is one you can manage reasonably easily and big enough to grow the ammount of stuff you need!

10 rods/poles is a standard size. I should know what this equates to in square metres........but I don't.

I have two full size plots and although I manage them ok I doubt whether I could manage anything bigger without giving up my daytime job and devoting more hours to them.
You will never be totally self sufficient unless you are prepared to live there, which I'm not.
I would suggest, forget about maincrop tatties and grow what your family like to eat and what veg/fruit are expensive in the shops. Chooks are also a good addition if allowed on the site!
Each of my plots are roughly 7 metres wide X 25 metres long.

[hawthorns]

my allotment plot is 10 metres by 20 metres

[baby_blue]

my lottie is 300 sq yards, i think roughly 12 meters wide and 25/26 metres long. it was double the size of this but the person before me had it split as it was too big for her! i inherited some things on my lottie when i got it, i have a rather large tattie bed, a metre by 4 metres of raspberries and 6 blackcurrent bushes, and i have managed to mark out 12 beds, which are 4 metres by 1.2 metres (roughly, it does look like i might have had a few when i marked them out!) and i have plenty more space, which i plan in the future to grow permanent crops, like strawbs, asparagus and rhubarb.

i must say, that this feels to me like a massive plot, and its probably lucky that i only work 3 days a week and my eldest boy is at school and the baby likes to sleep in his pram alot! otherwise i'm not sure i would be able to manage the area otherwise! so i woud def agree with snadger, be realistic about what you can manage. i would have been happier with a smaller plot, but i'd been on the waiting list for about 4years!

[Gryfon]

Thanks all! When I get more info through I'll know what sort of size I'll ask for now. All depends on the price as well.

At the moment I only work part time two days a week, rest of the time I have my smallest one still at home. When she goes to school in 2011 then I'll have even more time! Although I plan to take everyone down there to help out.

[Lazgaot]

My plot is 10m x 20m too and is half a proper sized plot. With more organisation/planning/ it could easily keep 2-3 people all year in veg. I'd need more space for a decent amount of fruit.

[rana]

Traditionally an allotment plot was 10 rods. A rod (or pole or long stick) was measured at five and a half yards.

So five and a half squared = 32.5 square yards
32.5 x 10 (rods) = 325 square yards = 1 standard allotment

This is exactly one sixteenth of an acre.

[Paulottie]

....Sorry to be a pedant..... but 5.5 squared is infact 30.25 thus an allotment (x10) is infact 302.5 Sq Yards....so as you rightly said 16 to an acre (4,840 Sq Yds)


a square yard = 0.836 sq. metres and so in new money... that is 252.89 square metres.

A traditional plot should be adequate for your needs...sounds a lot at first(especially if it's a weed patch) but it is amazing how you can fill it up!....however, There are some efficient folk who can get a fantastic yield from less than half that. I think it is important to be realistic about the time you have to spend at it ....better to enjoy being on top of a smaller patch than to be demoralised by taking on too much.

[Alison]

I would suggest, forget about maincrop tatties and grow what your family like to eat and what veg/fruit are expensive in the shops.

I'd disagree about not growing main crop tatties, by growing and storing I haven't had to buy now since last May when I dug up my first earlies. From one standard sized plot we have more fruit and veg than we need and it's not all up and running yet. Have concentrated on the essentials to start with and future beds will be for the add ones such as asparagus, maybe some cranberries and the like. Probably put in some more fruit trees along the fence too to go with the cordons I'm already establishing.

As far as growing space is concerned, in addition to a long row of raspberres, 24 strawberry plants (will increase to 36 next year with runners), 3 gooseberries, 1 blackcurrant, 2 red currants, 1 white currant, 3 blueberries, 2 rhubarb, a trough of herbs, some horseraddish, a corner of comfrey and a wildlife pond I also have a series of edged beds and a 10' by 20' polytunnel. Think the area of veg beds currently in use is 13 No 10' by 4' and 6 No 6' by 4' so 664 square foot (about 74 square yards) outside plus what I grow inside. Tis amazing what you can get from this area and to be honest cropping is taking me so long that I hardly have time to weed etc and as you can see there is still loads more to cultivate!

[Snadger]

I'd disagree about not growing main crop tatties, by growing and storing I haven't had to buy now since last May when I dug up my first earlies. From one standard sized plot we have more fruit and veg than we need and it's not all up and running yet. Have concentrated on the essentials to start with and future beds will be for the add ones such as asparagus, maybe some cranberries and the like. Probably put in some more fruit trees along the fence too to go with the cordons I'm already establishing.

As far as growing space is concerned, in addition to a long row of raspberres, 24 strawberry plants (will increase to 36 next year with runners), 3 gooseberries, 1 blackcurrant, 2 red currants, 1 white currant, 3 blueberries, 2 rhubarb, a trough of herbs, some horseraddish, a corner of comfrey and a wildlife pond I also have a series of edged beds and a 10' by 20' polytunnel. Think the area of veg beds currently in use is 13 No 10' by 4' and 6 No 6' by 4' so 664 square foot (about 74 square yards) outside plus what I grow inside. Tis amazing what you can get from this area and to be honest cropping is taking me so long that I hardly have time to weed etc and as you can see there is still loads more to cultivate!

We must eat a lot of maincrop tatties then! I reckon I could devote one allotment plot to maincrop tatties and still not have enough! Spose it depends on how many you eat?

[Alison]

We must eat a lot of maincrop tatties then! I reckon I could devote one allotment plot to maincrop tatties and still not have enough! Spose it depends on how many you eat?

Fair point, there's only the two of us and we eat quite a bit of pasta, rice etc so 4 big sacks of spuds did us more than we needed over the winter until I had the throw the last few away a couple of weeks before the earlies started

[Guzzik]

Mine is five by 35 yards.....................I would say that the size depends on how much one is able to do in weeding etc and so forth but, for a ravenous family of five, the standard 5 or 10 by 35 yard plot should be enough for the basic five a day stuff. Then again, I have never had to feed a family of five so.....................................

[snakeshack]

[QUOTE=Gryfon;706118]Was looking at a patch of land today (currently under glass) that is going to be made into allotments. I'm trying to work out how much area ideally would be reasonable to see if I can get.

We're a family of 5,

BIG is the size you want.
my plot is 27 m by 8m and its still not big enough ,although a little creative slash and burn to the right of my plot has yielded an extra 3m which I have covered in black plastic and straw and am allowing my pumpkins and squash to invade.
havent seen the owner of the plot but then I've only been there 2 years and I probably missed his last visit by at least 10 years.

[Kittypickle]

I have a half plot, 3.8 x 28 metres. Got it in February so new to all this but I don't think on its own it would give us totally what we need as a family of 4. We've Bern lucky enough to get a temporary 7 x5m plot somewher, have a greenhouse and 3 raised beds of 2x2 metres which bumps up the growing space and is great. There's no way we could grow enough potatoes, onions and carrots to keep us going though.