Need advice allotment delivery

[Collywobblewobbles]

I'm ordering 500l bulk bags of compost for my allotment and don't think I'll be able to get them delivered straight to my plot.

So how do others go about dealing with this? Do you just leave them where they are & empty them over several days?
Do you enlist people to help?

I've looked at trolleys but garden ones are too small & big ones don't have wheels suitable for muddy ground!

Feeling stuck between a rock and hard place & allotment committee being unresponsive.

Is this an access thing or an address thing?

More of access thing & wondering how other people manage it, it's my first allotment.

We have a parking area & I think that's where they'll end up delivered to, I need to work out how I get them from there to my plot.

I really would not bother, bagged commercial compost won’t benefit an allotment like you think it might. Other soil improvement measure such as mulch with straw or grass cuttings or home made compost made on site is a much better idea. It will take a few years to get the cycle going

Ask around for a well rotted manure delivery, our allotments has an arrangement with a local stables and they deliver a truck load to your plot.

enjoy your fresh veg and fruit

Wheelbarrow it on over a few visits, shovel it out of the bags, with help if you have it and are allowed site visitors. Depends on your tenancy agreement (have you checked this) about vehicle access on site and if it's safe to do for a delivery without causing damage to surface es or getting a lorry stuck at this time of year. Might not be allowed in your terms. Most people here have deliveries to the main gate hardstanding outside and shift it onto their own plot manually.

I agree if they drop off bags of compost then it is likely people will think it is a free for all and it will be gone before you know it.

Bagged compost will go nowhere on an allotment. Are you using it to top up beds or something?

The other problem with having manure delivered is knowing whether it has aminopyralid contamination or not.

Agree its better to shift it all in one session so it all ends up on your plot, depends on your area. Why do you need so much in one go? Have you shifted that much of anything before? Unless its a really poor site with barely an inch of top soil then don't think you need to start off with brand new deep raised beds all over your plot, brim full of bought in topsoil/manure or compost, it doesn't need to be instant. You can grow in the ground without spending that much money and build your soil up and save the labour, if its just you shifting it its energetic work. Not trying to put you off, but you might think you need it and dont really.

I haven’t had anything delivered to y allotment as there is no parking. When I have had something larger delivered to home (cold frame) I parked the car as close as I could and then carried it. The first year I just went with the soil that was there, then this year I have added some smaller amounts of bought compost, my own compost from the compost bin on the allotment and manure which is delivered by the farmer for the whole allotment area to use.

Can you not club together with other allotment holders, perhaps through the allotment committee, and get an even bigger bulk delivery that you can share then share the work of getting it to your individual plots? I'd be much cheaper.

We used to do this on our allotments with compost, manure and bark chips.

Just looked up how much 500l of compost is! Seems a massive amount?! And very expensive! I have bought 2 of the small ones(eg about 60x30 cm bag not sure of size) for potting things to start growing from seed on the windowsill before planting in the allotment. There must have been someone in the allotment before you?

If you can order less then do that. But otherwise I'd just ask around the other plot holders for help - depends what your site is like. Usually people like pitching in to help others in my experience

This.

You Will get much better value this way.

I've looked at trolleys but garden ones are too small & big ones don't have wheels suitable for muddy ground!

You need a good, old fashioned wheelbarrow. Again, we used to share these on my allotments.

Argo and all the DIY stores sell them but they are also the sort of thing people give away/sell cheaply second hand on Freecycle or local facebook buy and sell pages.

My best advice to you would be to get chatting to some of the other allotment holders on your site, especially the old folk who will know all the tricks of the game and will LOVE to give you all the advice you need (and a lot you don't!)

I'm doing no-dig so I need the compost to create the beds and I've found a good deal for bulk bags locally- works out much cheaper than buying the usual sized compost bags.

I think I'll have to see if the allotment committee will let me have it delivered to the entrance and enlist some friends to help me shift me it!

I do have a wheelbarrow, got it secondhand :)

No dig is about building up over years of cultivation. Commercial compost will not be heavy enough and will blow away very quickly.

where are you getting your information from, because I have only read a bout using spent mushroom compost

you start by just sowing seeds into the top bit of the soil or planting in to the top and then mulching round the plants. I have been growing this way for years and use just one bag of commercial compost to start my seeds off.

i use compost from the lot, grass cuttings from home, straw and sometimes put news paper under the mulch.

OP: I had 1000l delivered to thre kerbside near my allotment. Two of us wheelbarrowed it all down in one session. It acutally wasn't as hard and didn't take us as long as I thought it might. Probably about an hour to do it all.

Entirely possible for a relatively fit person to do 500l by themselves, I think.

@TheDowagerDoughnut thank you that's really helpful

@isthewashingdryyet Charles dowding

You really don’t need compost to go no dig. Start with your actual soil and mulch it each year. Make your own compost so you don’t needs to buy in mulch.

Charles Dowding bless him, isn't trying to go no dig on an allotment. He carefully manages his plot in his garden/plot next to his house. Also he didn't start with a huge allotment, he started with smaller beds and built them up over decades. And has huge amounts of compost nearby to use.

Take it from me, the compost will disappear, and all you will get are weeds that have been fed with a nutrient rich compost.

The only real economic solution to an allotment is to cover with cardboard, plant through to the original soil and just use every bit of anything you have to mulch on top of the cardboard so that when it breaks down, you don't see any soil.

And put permanent paths in, that way you don't walk on the beds, and only mulch where it is needed.

I'm not very fit, but can easily barrow about 40 litres of compost on flat ground, so you are looking at around 12 trips. Unless your allotment is miles away from the entrance, or wherever the lorry's crane can leave the bag, it's an easy afternoons work.
Not much fun in the rain though!

I’ve had 1200L bags oof mushroom compost before - its only about 15 big wheel barrows and doesn’t weigh much if its not wet.

Agree with @AlisonDonut

Bob Flowerdew has much better advice. And I even read the Wikipedia page on no dig and it makes more sense than spending a lot of money on compost you won’t benefit from

but a wheelbarrow is the best way to move stuff on allotments