Buying a house with large vet plots - to 'rent' out for free

[thisstooshallpass]

Could this be a thing? Would you be interested?

I'd contribute towards materials etc with a simple request of some of the crops in return?

Access to plots can be flexible and I'd also help and like to learn about homegrowing.

Sorry, I don't understand. Is it a typo for 'veg' plots?

Ie you would have a house with land, and you would allow people to use areas for growing their own veg and give you some of their produce in return?

A bit like a private allotment site?

i think this would turn into a nightmare. You know the saying 'no good deed goes unpunished'..

Sorry yes, VEG.

I'm trying to figure out how not to let it go to ruin but also benefit someone else at the same time.

A few years ago I read about an actual scheme like this, possibly run by Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall, which matches people with large gardens, with people with no/small gardens, where the latter wanted to grow vegetables.

I'll see if I can find the website....

It isn't too hard and somewhat addictive growing plants. You might become a little frustrated if you have given half your land away. You could look into chickens which might help to clear and fertilise the land a bit first.

Land share was the name of the original scheme, but it seems to have closed now.

I found this article, but many of the links in it seem to be American. There's still some useful ideas though.

https://www.weekendgardener.net/what-happened-to-landshare/]]

It sounds like something that could easily become a disaster. Where would you find the people would be my concern as they are going to be right there where you live.

What is large?
100 square feet is kind of a minimum, but you really want 400/500 square feet if you're serious. And I'm guessing anyone who would travel to do it, would be serious and want an allotment that's worth the time.

Will you be setting limits on when they can come? Because people will end up moaning about that.

Will you be responsible for keeping pests out? Because they will moan about that.

Will they have a secure area to store their individual things? Because you'll end up with accusations of theft and they'll be after you for the money.

What if someone hurts themselves? You know they'll blame you.

Really; no good deed goes unpunished and people always end up being dicks... even more so when the thing they're getting is for free.

It's a lovely idea; but you'll end up with just a bunch if trouble.

It would be an absolute nightmare , personally I’d partition off the area that you want for your own garden and then turn the rest into a wild meadow / garden or stick some fruit trees in , which would be beneficial to the local wildlife / insect population .

That article is very interesting but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions as well as some good practical points - eg would people have any access to a loo?

At my allotment site, some people like to work until it goes dark, and/or sit out and enjoy the place - they can be there from 6am until 11pm some nights. Would that be ok with you? Can they bring their noisy and unruly dogs/ children?
Who is going to supply the water and pay for it? What about bonfires?
If you have a communal compost heap, it would lead to arguments about people putting the wrong stuff on it.

Produce theft happens on all allotments, sadly.

It might be better if you had an arrangement with just one person or organisation - perhaps a local community group would be interested.

Thank you for the article and all the replies. Lots of food (sorry) for thought.

You'll need to be very clear on expectations on both sides, as PP are suggesting, which means you'll end up needing to write a contract setting out clearly what you provide, what you expect from them, what behaviour would be unacceptable, who is liable, eg, for theft of tools or produce, what state they need to leave the plot in if they leaves, what notice you need to give them if you want them out, what entitles you to kick them out straight away with no compensation for lost produce, etc.

You also need to look carefully at the legal side - you don't want them to feel that a few years down the line they can claim squatters rights or be a "sitting tenant" should you decide to sell - even if they don't have such a claim in law it may end costing you money to enforce your rights.

It's a lovely idea, but you can see why more people don't do it.

I think you would be better partitioning some of the land off and setting up a proper allotment system. Annual Fees for allotments are often very low but by creating a full structure including committee the burden of any issues will be spread and it will be easier to access funding to get started.

As an alternative, look up permaculture forest gardens. The idea is that you set it up according to a set of principles that mimic nature, and grow lots of fruit, nuts and perennial vegetables (lots of which are less well known than the annuals). There should be a lot less input needed for the food return than traditional annual veg growing, and its great for nature too.

If this piques your interest, there is lots of info on google and YouTube. I could also recommend some books.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=GFbcn06h8w4