Help I have a tarmac drive on my allotment ?!@

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi there peeps

Hope you're all having a good day.

It seems i am finding out why my allotment has had so many previous tenents. From chest high weeds, to filling a midi skip full of rubbish, finding the remains of an Anderson shelter to now a tarmac drive under 6" of soil.

We are going to have to build raised beds to be able to plant anything, I know that, but we have access issues so any soil is going to have to be in bags. Does anybody have any cheap ideas to fill the beds or what to do with the area and how deep do my beds have to be. The area is a bit bigger than a garage size.

I was thinking of splitting the area into 3 and having a 3rd with wild flowers and then planting in the raised beds. The beds were goung to be 2.4m x 1.2m with a 1m ish path between

Thanks in advance x

[Thelma Sanders]

You aren't expected to pay for the plot are you, if it's as bad as that? I'd be getting the council/land owner to sort it out. It is not reasonable to expect an allotment tenant to put that kind of thing right..

[4Shoes]

If a reasonable area of tarmac and good top soil. Either use it as a path and build beds to either side or build the beds on the tarmac and use the soil recovered from between to fill along with muck etc.


if at all possible

[veggiechicken]

You waited 18 years for a plot and you've been given a rubbish dump and tarmac! That's appalling.
Complain and ask for help - and don't pay for it!

[Ruthie_Q]

Yeah its a council one. Was used as a builders yard for 6 years. The coucil dont care in Wigan. He's let me off with 12 months & given me a skip. Thing is ive waited 16 years for this

[Ruthie_Q]

Right Ive sent a mail. It will get ignored but at least ive made a point & Im a woman who likes to make a point........ lol x

[nickdub]

As its a Council plot, how about nipping in to their yard and "borrowing" a JCB one Sunday ? - hopefully no one will notice, if you put it back promptly :-)

[Logunner]

Similar kind of thing on my plot, concrete shed base. I’ve used pallet collars to make raised beds ( got them from a place in Golbourne, so not far from you ), filled the bottom with cardboard and any compost I could beg off other plot holders. Topped of with manure that I’ve bagged up at local farms.

[Chestnut]

It might be possible to remove it with a pneumatic drill and skip, but it’d be a lot of hard work ( a concrete shed base took me 3 full days, and I only had to cart the concrete about 10m to the skip...).

However, I personally would go for the less hard work option and try to work with it as much as possible
If you wanted a shed, or greenhouse, that’d be a good solid base to fix it/them to. It can also be handy to have a bit of a patio/flat working space for construction projects, somewhere sheltered by the shed/gh to put a cold frame or two, a couple of chairs etc. Then, there’s some stuff quite happily grows in shallow soil (maybe a dedicated salad bed?). Then if you still have space, a couple of deeper raised beds for stuff like onions, beetroot which don’t need huge soil depths.

If you make your tarmac ‘ground level’ in that patch, and scoop all the soil which you do have into the raised beds, it’ll save you carting quite so many bucketfuls of soil/organic matter to your plot ;-)

[Baldy]

Good luck.
I'm using anything organic at the base of my latest raised beds - I've got a base of cardboard followed by weeds/spent compost/wood Ash/ shredded hedge/soil then another cardboard layer. Judging by last year's efforts if I finish it off with a couple of inches of compost or much it will work and next year more compost will make it better still.

[veggiechicken]

Yeah its a council one. Was used as a builders yard for 6 years. The coucil dont care in Wigan. He's let me off with 12 months & given me a skip. Thing is ive waited 16 years for this

Right Ive sent a mail. It will get ignored but at least ive made a point & Im a woman who likes to make a point........ lol x

Looks to me like they're trying to fob you off with the worst plot - the one nobody else will take. Are there any more empty plots there? Tell them its not fit to be called an allotment - I would 'cos I'm a chicken who likes to make a point - preferably with a stick.

[Nicos]

Gosh!...I'd be thinking of putting a greenhouse on top of the driveway

Maybe makes from old pvc doors and windows?

But I agree...that's an appalling specimen of an allotment.

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi veggie chicken
Oh yes yr right. I believe in the last couple of years 2 other plot holders walked off due to the amount of work on it. Unf there are no more plots so it would mean going back on the list. A neighbour has been so lovely said weve done more in 3 months than 1yr plot holders buts its a bit dis-heartening at the mo coupled with my impatience x

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi.
Is that the pallet place at the back of Asda?

[lottie dolly]

what a horrible bit of land,is the tarmac an actuall old road bit,or is it bits piles of dumped stuff,either way,they should be ashamed off themselves,maybe they give everyone a free 12months,it beats them having to clear it,good luck with it,are you able to post any pics yet.