So how much work is an allotment?

[SoundofSilence]

I'm in an allotment club at work sharing three raised beds at the back of the site (about 15m2 between us), and I'm struggling not to hog the space. After a Christmas break in the company of a Marshalls seeds catalogue (I should know better) I disappeared into a green-tinged fantasy of all the things I could plant if I had enough room.

With a shiny fantasy allotment wedged in my head, I googled my council's allotment sites. My youngest is six and I work full time, but I figured by the time my name got to the top of the long waiting list for the nearest one, he'd be a bit older and I'd have more time.

Then (because I get a bit carried away when I have a shiny new idea in my head) I felt compelled to ring up and find out exactly what they mean by long.... and it's not really. I might get one this year.

And now I'm wondering if this is this year's expression of winter insanity (my colleagues greeted winter 2017's avalanche of office houseplants with slight bemusement. 2016's raspberry plants and morello cherry tree are staging a hostile takeover of my tiny garden). DP thinks it's a terrible idea and wants nothing to do with it. The kids don't care either way. The dog would no doubt be thrilled but wouldn't be allowed on site. Maybe I should rein back the big dreams and settle for the shared beds plus what the dog doesn't pee on in the garden.

So, people who have allotments: how much work is it really? Could I make it work with a few hours at the weekends plus the occasional lunch break? My fantasy allotment has no-dig raised beds and lots of fruit bushes for home made jam but that would be quite a lot of money to throw away if I'm taking on too much work.

I took one on 8 years ago with younger kids and dependent parent. Still have it. If you have the urge to garden it’s a great thing to have. Nothing to lose except a bit of face if you can’t manage and have to hand the keys in. Compared to most other hobbies it’s cheap. Go for it!

It's quite a bit in the spring/summer. My mum has one and she works full time. In the height of summer she goes in her lunch break every day to water it and again in the evening to work on it/water it again.
She has lots of fruit bushes and presses jars of jam on everyone she meets. She also has a lot of flowers which raise eyebrows with the serious allotmenters but being her lots of joy.
If you love gardening, go for it - like bob says, if it's too much, hand it back. At least then, you'll know.
I hate gardening, so I dread being dragged up to help, but mum loves it!

I had one, life got in the way (sick parents, wave to Bob) but took on another last year. The original was a bit far which didn’t help matters, this one I can have a shed which adds another element to it.

Got it in March and was expecting to have op soon after which ended up not being till August. I’m a lazy gardener and will do the minimum so watering was twice a week during height of the heatwave and it was pretty much all fine though the lettuce hated the heat.

It’s divided into beds and paths but nothing edged currently, just the soil heaped up as gets very wet in winter. One section was very grassy so I flipped the turf upside down, got barrow loads of fresh manure and dumped it on top then the contents of a compost heap. Was much to fresh really but squash thrived in it with pots sunk next to them for watering. My strawberry bed was extended this way and ready for this year.

I might need further op this year so am going low maintenance as possible. Bed of summer fruiting raspberries and one of autumn,fruiting, strawberry bed, soft fruit bed, rhubarb bed, shallots, garlic, sweet corn, oca, potatoes, parsnips, rainbow chard, pepettual spinach, kale and leeks. Maybe beetroot and Florence fennel and borlotti beans.

I inherited a lavender bush and calendula has self seeded. This year i’m absolutely not going to grow courgettes there as you turn your back and the fuckers are marrows. Beans go berserk so will hold off them though may do broad beans.

Wolf Garten tools do a great push pul hoe which is worth the money and quick to tidy things up. I hadn’t been for a couple of months but went just before Christmas and it stillloojed pretty decent. Came back with huge sack of perpetual spinach, chard, kale, some parsnips, a carrot and some leeks . Lovely bunch of people down there too and was given a lot to get me started.

Give it a go!
You'll need a lot of time to make the beds and prepare the soil. Plant some potatoes (easy) and some stuff that needs more work. Consider what you'll do about slugs.

Another thing just thought of is in the spring a lot of people do there garden and give top soil away. It is heavy work but if you can recruit some willing helpers then you can sort a new bed pretty quickly . I got 20: sacks of manure from a Gumtree as as well. You will need a wheelbarrow for this !

Waves back to @PostNotInHaste! I can identify with what @LizzyBennett says- my kids have to be bribed to come to the allotment. It's so boooooring mum! Sadly I think it's only in allotmenteering books that you see idyllic pics of kids enraptured by the magic of growing a carrot.

Thank you. I think I'm going to go for it. Form is printed and ready to fill in

It is done . This is hopefully a 'before' picture of Chez Silence, with a very excited MiniSilence (Squeak?) in front.

It's five poles in size, Google Earth suggests about 100m2. It already has a little apple tree, three healthy looking blackcurrant bushes, a row of raspberries, a thorn-less blackberry, supposedly a gooseberry but I can't find it, a tree which has no name but may be a cherry, and some massive sprawling vine-y looking thing which I have no clue about but which looks big enough to grab an unwary child if it's in a bad mood. If that's the gooseberry, it already ate the goose and had another half a gander for dessert.

First step is to clear the rubbish and cut back anything which looks big enough to play a game of Carnivorous Plants with MiniSilence.

That doesn't look too bad at all! We took one 2 years ago. Ds was 3, dh works fulltime, I work part time from home but also have ponies and other animals so er are pretty busy.

It's been one if the best things we have ever done. It is a fair amount of work but I have small beds, 1.2m x 1.2m, and 3 long probably 1m x 3m. We planted 15 rasperry canes last year and 3 rhubarb plants plus about 20 strawberries which we will add to this year. We also have 6 laying hens and a pair of Peking bantums. Which means daily visits even through winter.

Summer and spring we spend maybe 3 or 4 hours on a Saturday morning, then maybe the odd hour here and there after work.

Only grow what you will eat and try something new each year to keep the interest. We grew pumpkins last year and had 15 huge ones from 3 plants! They took an awful lot of ground space up but we had the space anyway. Sweetcorn is easy, beans are easy, potatoes are easy and reallt break the ground up for you.

Just clear it bit by bit, put a bed in and plant stuff. Cover what you aren't going to use to keep the weeds down.

it’s a lot of work, but I wouldn’t be without it. Most sites will let you take on a fraction of a plot at first which would be a good way to start - a full plot can be overwhelming if you’ve not got much time. Good luck!

Ah missed your post! Congratulations!!! You’ll not look back. Get the ground covered if you can - it’ll kill the weeds and give you a head start when it’s time to get planting - cardboard is great, usually easy to get hold of and will just rot away. Keep it simple for the first year - stuff like courgettes, pumpkins, runner and French beans and potatoes are super easy. Instagram is fab for allotment accounts and advice.

5 poles is a great size. I have 3 kids, a dog, work 30 hours a week and a husband who is normally away. And its manageable. I just stick with things that are easy and dont require lots of tlc. In winter i cover empty beds. Look up no dig

its my haven. i go there to destress.