How much do you care about appearances?

[pdblake]

The thing is, just because you're using recycled stuff on the plot, that doesn't mean it has to look a mess.

I can make a raised bed out of old decking boards or a compost heap from pallets look just as nice as the ones some people would happily pay a fortune for.

Why pay £50 for a link-a-board raised bed thingy when I can pull a pallet out of a skip and essentially make the same thing.

I like the plot to be tidy. I prefer straight rows too, it makes it easier to hoe, but I'm not going to get a ruler and straightedge out. To me the most important thing is that everything grows well and as organically as possible, without breaking the bank.

[Madasafish]

We have a lot of trees so I recycle the timber to make fenceposts/compost heaps/bean poles and flower supports. I recycle old doors and furniture to make quail houses. BUT

I ensure it all looks in place with the surroundings: no garish colours.. any white paint either stripped off or covered by green/brown, everything neatly tided away.

Clutter and mess encourage mice (we have loads without any help), slugs and snails (we have zillions from the field), the odd mink (escaped) and get in the way.

I like to be clean and tidy...

[Two_Sheds]

Well, you can see what my shed looks like (one of them).

On the lotty I grow lines or blocks of veg, with self-seeded flowers (sunflower, calendula, limnanthes, poppy etc) dotted around in between.

I hate bare earth ... how dull is that for the neighbouring estate to look at?

and even with my old Coke cans on sticks, it's nicer than it was 18 months ago (pics 2-4)

[Creemteez]

I think allotment gardners should all think like you do. If people are going to argue for more land given over to gardening, they need to foster a good image of allotments. Neighbors will certainly prefer tidy gardens to flytipped wasteland, but they won't see the difference if the allotments look like fly tips!

I'd love to see photos of your plot.

Thanks BND, I love to post some photos of my plot, unfortunately, though a tidy gardener, I'm quite useless with a computer! If someone could point me towards an "Idiots Guide" to downloading photos on this site, I'd be ever so grateful!

[jonohanson]

Well, at home I have a large garden, part of which is a raised beds, I landscaped it all using reclaimed sleepers and all looks very tasteful, the rest of the garden falls inline with it and I made it to be functional and pleasing.

Now my 2 allotments(merged to 1) are a bit of a different story, ive only had them 3 months so are still going hrough the transitinol stage, ive built a huge green house 4m*3m, this is made from half brick, half wood. The windows are old double glazing windows, and glazed doors(the internal type with lots little windows in) the roof is clear plastic(for the time being as corrugated was too pricey), its not the best building I have ever built(a few off angles), but it does the job and is very sturdy and strong. Half the plots are cultivated(no raised beds yet) and half is waiting to be cleared. But as its not my home garden I prefer the lottie to be more functional, it will be tidy but if I can get things for free I will. Tyres I dont mind.

[Sweepster]

In the eye of the beholder...

My homemade mini raised beds are painted green, my collection of skip finds (a glass back door and some pieces of wood... OH wouldn't let me have the tin bath) are stacked outside the kitchen window looking, I hope, more 'I'm about to build a coldframe' than 'this is a crack den' and the garden is brimming with flowers... It's just that I happen to like 'wild' flowers more than bedding plants, so there are foxgloves, evening primrose, welsh poppies, meadowsweet, red campion and posh cow parsley (Ravenswing) - and even the more 'traditional' garden plants seem to look wilder, somehow, often growing at funny angles. So I tried not to be offended when a friend of my neighbour's was invited to admire my garden and, apparently, looked at it with horror and proclaimed it 'full of weeds'...

[coreopsis]

I don't give a hoot about what other people think about my garden.Yes,it is practical to get some pallets and use them to build the compost bins,beds,benches and whatever.It's funny to look at herbs or flowers planted in an old wellie,but...collect 10 wellies,scatter them around the garden and it doesn't look funny anymore.