2026 Allotmenteers - have we lost the plot?!

[Seaitoverthere]

A thread for those of us with new allotments to discuss progress and swap ideas. All welcome , established plot holders and wannabe plot holders too!

@blackheartsgirl
@hockityponktas

It’s lovely to read everyone’s plans for the year! @Frumpyunicorn its so nice to hear someone has given a fair bit of their plot to fruit, all of the other allotment holders here grow mainly veg and I sometimes feel I am doing it ‘wrong’! I had rhubarb and established redcurrant and gooseberry bushes when I took over the plot. These are a joy to pick with children and so I have planted a a goji berry, pink currant, red gooseberry, 2 blueberries, a patio cherry and 2 jostaberries. I have also put in a raspberry bed and a strawberry bed. All the other beds are for veg. There are also 2 well established apple trees on a path which are for anyone to pick from. Strangely, apple trees and plum trees are not allowed to be planted in plots, according to the allotment contract.

Does everyone have running water and/or electricity? We don’t have either and I’m always a bit jealous when I hear about other allotments elsewhere that do but we have learned to adapt.

Lots of plots have fruit at our site which is great. Good to have some areas which don’t need “looking after” as much. When we first got the plot, someone kindly gave us a blackcurrant, a raspberry, gooseberry and a rhubarb root. We added a blueberry and another raspberry. Not sure about pruning so we left them this year but if anyone knows what we should have done do let me know and do it properly this time!

I love reading everyone’s plans!

We have a water tap but no electricity- imagine the luxury of that! Endless cuppas instead of limited flasks or using the camping stove.

I agree with you about fruit growing- double joy of lovely spring blooms then the fruits. Our allotments allow tree planting but the tree must be able to meet maturity within 20 years. I've put four in, (two pears, a plum and an apple) and have ordered a fig tree which arrives in May. We were given a gooseberry and a blackcurrant, and I've put two blueberry bushes in . They are all in one area, which we grandly call 'the orchard'. 😆

I love fruit @tealandteal and it is expensive to buy so a winner in my eyes. My next plan is to get an arch and grow a thornless blackberry over it too, and add a path through the middle. I also really want to get a quince tree.

Have to say I keep most of the fruit in my garden as it’s pretty! Don’t want big row covers and nets in my garden so that goes to the allotment!

Still have rows of strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries etc, that are messy on the allotment. And some mature old fruit trees that were there unpruned, a mess, and smothered in weeds and ivy. Thanks for the advise, I’ll try the card and mulch around the base and see what happens. Some are up against the fence hence why I can’t get around to dig

I’ve got a fair amount of fruit in it so far with what I had and what I have added. I have 2 beds which were going to be for flowers but after a couple of posts about site rules I think I may need to make sure something edible in every bed to be on safe side so thinking of adding more and whacking more herbs in.

Still windy here, debating whether to go down or not.

@tealandteal We have loads of fruit- Autumn and summer raspberries which go mad, cherry tree, 2 apple trees and 2 plum trees, gooseberries, redcurrants and rhubarb, loganberries and blackberries . (the person we work with planted 2 pear trees last year but I think it will be a while before they fruit)
Raspberries and redcurrants are really expensive in shops so these are an easy and good value crop.
Just been planting 40 chitted potatoes in the hail
We gat water from May, and also have a green waste dump area which is really useful.
We have gone for solar powered irrigation systems out of water butts which are great.
No electricity here- battery strimmers are great. Have a gas hob for tea!

Back from allotment. Cut the grass, paths, weeded and watered. Tied up my peas, DH sorted support for the broad beans and made a wigwam which will be for peas and beans.

My plum tree has green shoots coming off the trunk but nothing where they should be. Peas are flowering , a few broad beans are and the blueberries. An id app says that the mystery trees I inherited are a crab apple and pear, time will tell. Also inherited 2 cherry trees, a thornless blackberry and found rhubarb in brambles.

I have added a plum tree, 2 patio apples and a pear, more rhubarb, blueberries, jostaberry, black currant, summer and autumn raspberries and strawberries.

Garlic and shallots look ok and comfrey is coming up. There is a massive rosemary bush covered with flowers. No sign of my parsnips but fingers crossed. Potatoes will be next to go in.

@Seaitovertherewow your peas are flowering already, that’s amazing! Mine are just straggly and about a foot high

Just back from 5 hours down the plot. I went at 9 this morning and left at 3. Met some more of my neighbours and had a good old chat, one told me the history of the fields and that was so interesting, goes back to the Second World War and prisoners of war gardens apparantly

I cleaned out and painted the inside of my previously rat infested shed, that was awful and I’d been putting it off, it had been making me feel really down tbh as I can’t afford to replace the shed, half the floor is rotten and one side of the shed is also rotten with big gaps. So patched as best as I could and put a pallet down over the top of the worst bit. But at least I’ve got somewhere clean and clutter free to sit if it’s raining or I need a rest

I also think I’ve pissed off one of my neighbours. Nothing that I’ve done, but he’s annoyed that I’ve been given a half plot and the council rule of thumb is quarter plots allocated only unless there’s a valid reason.

he threw his rubbish onto my plot (it backs onto the bottom of mine) and I asked him nicely where the boundary was between mine and his as I genuinely wasn’t sure and he said well it doesn’t matter about the rubbish as that’s an empty quarter plot. I said no I think that’s my plot as I’ve been given a half. He wasn’t very happy and said ‘how come, I asked for that plot’ However the officer gave me the half plots as mines really narrow due to trees and a huge shed taking up a lot of space. He’s got a really wide quarter plot as he has no trees and he can go right to the allotment boundary wall and I can’t! There’s 5 foot of space I can’t use along the wall! Hence the half plot.

He’s just one though, everyone else I’ve spoken to is really pleased that I’ve had the half plot, as it’s nice to see it being worked.

There’s always one @blackheartsgirl maybe plant a tall row of runner beans so you don’t have to see or engage with him😂

Sorry to hear your allotment neighbour isn’t very sunny natured @blackheartsgirl but don’t let it put you off! I am wondering if we will be getting some new allotment neighbours as I haven’t seen her recently and everything is looking very overgrown. I hope she is OK.

I had a lovely morning at the allotment tbh is morning while DH and the kids were out on a bike ride. I planted my potatoes and was so pleased with how the bed looked as it was two beds I had turned into one this year. I also saw another little slow worm and some tiny little flowers on my cherry tree. Then we had a picnic lunch at the plot after they’d come back from their bike ride even though it’s only 10 minutes walk from home!

@january1244 my peas aren’t very tall at all and very surprised to see flowers.

Wondering if I may have a new plot neighbour too @tealandteal as one of surrounding plots looks awful and the person who had it is no longer in the FB group.

@blackheartsgirl sorry about the neighbour. I find killing them with kindness often works with grumpy buggers like that as I think they like to get a rise out of people and for they give up and revert to being a bit more civil if they find it doesn’t work. I have pond liner tacked up over back of shed where there are loads of holes and it helps. You’ve made a good start on it and keep an eye out for old decking to patch as you go along. Look on Marketplace and find some free chairs to get down there then when you have a moment paint it with the spare paint I think you said you had. Paint makes everything look so much better. Make sure you do take the time to sit in it sometimes, have a cuppa and survey your plot from it, an important bit of allotment life!

All my seeds are up! Except the cosmos. They were old and might be dead 😵

Also went on a bit of a wildcard purchase and got a perennial sweet pea. I have planted it at the base of our pallet compost heap hoping it will climb its way up and decorate it 🤷‍♀️

And planted a big rosemary next to it. Hoping the smell will be glorious as you brush past on the way in.

It sounds amazing @Seaitoverthere they’re obviously flourishing!

Im so excited, I have little plums appearing on my allotment tree and one of my garden ones. It’s on the branches where I hand pollinated them, as the blossoms came so early I thought the bees wouldn’t be too active yet. Now hoping they stay on. It’s the first time I saw these ( new to gardening) and so I took photos and checked with AI that they are indeed plum starts

Nice thread! I’m about 15 years in and have narrowed it down to the varieties I like most: tomatoes are my absolute favourites, aubergines, courgettes, onions, garlic, green beans, spuds and pumpkins mostly. I hope things settle down with your neighbours @blackheartsgirl . . I had a confrontation with mine ( he’d probably say I was the grumpy neighbor ). It’s taken 18 months to repair relations. I find it is easy to start feuds, we have a few on our site. If you can, stand your ground but don’t allow it to get personal as things can escalate. And hopefully he’ll back off.
Im experimenting with no dig in parts of the plot, quite successfully. Only issue is you need lots of compost, either home made or commercial stuff. For slugs I use pellets as I find nothing else really worked for me. Or I squash them.When I can’t bear to kill any more I bag them up and release them by a nearby river.

I had a perennial sweet pea @ Plotment, pretty and hard to get rid of once established which it took its time to do.
Well done @january1244 , baby plums are extremely exciting !
Welcome @TheGander . I’m going to start a feud if I am the only one cutting the grass paths 😳 Feeling I may have been a bit keen on that front so will leave it for a while and see if anyone does it.

Went down earlier. Got spuds in plus a bit of sage and chives I cut off some in a pot here to go into what was going to be a flower bed. The council are now more involved and I think it might be sensible to make sure every bed had veg or fruit in it so the sweet pea wigwam is now going to have borlotti on too.

Was left a gooseberry in a pot when got the plot which has come to life and now replaced the 50p one I bought last year which appears to be extremely dead.Stuck another bit of comfrey in the comfrey patch and dug out lots more bindweed and horsetail . I don’t think just chucking membrane everywhere as someone did in the past has helped with this really.

Found what I think it is red campion growing out of a clump of ox eye daisies which was a nice surprise, it has a solitary sad looking flower. Also made planted up a couple of pond plants for the edges that people kindly gave me and saw a pond skater so hopefully the pond is starting to do its thing. The marsh marigold is absolutely beautiful and I am so glad I got over my antipathy to yellow plants and took it when offered.

I sowed my sprouting broccoli too early and have lots of leggy seedlings, anyone know if I can rescue them or will I have to start again?

My broad beans are doing well, my tomatoes and sweet peppers are finally germinating. Next door started his in his conservatory and are around 6inches

Spuds-Charlotte and Maris pipers (I know, a bit pedestrian but they grow well) are in- we've used potato towers this year, fashioned from tall shoppers we were given from Lidl. They look like laundry baskets on wheels.

Putting up a greenhouse this year- we struggled with a very hot and crowded potting shed last year and am looking forward to space and automatic windows!

@Sproutlingi think purple sprouting broccoli can go out this month? I’m waiting until next week as our night time temps warm up here, and then planting them under a fleece

Had a busy few days, I’ve planted out the brassicas and peas and although I may be a bit early (and impatient!) I’ve put in a row of carrots and beetroot too.

this is a great book, lots of info month by month🪴

@hockityponktas DH also got me that book for Christmas, I find it helpful. I have put more strawberries in to the expanded strawberry bed. I put some pineberries in earlier this year as well. My ranunculus have also made a come back very early with some lovely flowers. Hoping to get some time in this weekend to Strim the paths and dig over the remaining beds.

What a gorgeous colour @tealandteal

When would everyone put their seedlings in an
unheated greenhouse?

I have window sills full of tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, cucumber and chilli plants! Keen to get them in the greenhouse but is it still too soon with low night temperatures?

@tealandtealthose are gorgeous! I need to cut my overgrown paths also, but only have hand shears so not looking forward to it 😂

@hockityponktasI feel you there, I have SO MANY seedlings all over the windows. My neighbour has his in a polytunnel already (south east) and they’re flourishing. I don’t have a greenhouse though so mine are staying for another couple weeks at least. Night temps here are 10 degrees apparently from next week

Ooh I don’t know whether to risk it🤣 I’m south east too. I might take half as an experiment!

Mine are out in greenhouse as bought some last Saturday and chucked them straight out there. I sowed some peppers out there 14 March and I think one is just starting to germinate. I’m generally not very kind to my plants though which pays off sometimes and not other times.

What a gorgeous ranunculus, never grown them but now I want to.
I have the book, £3.70 inc postage from EBay so worth a look there if anyone thinking of buying.

Off to my favourite garden centre later, am going to try to be restrained.