Just been offered a great allotment, ticks all the boxes. Trouble is I’m not likely to have much time over the next 12 months to tend it. Been on the waiting list best part of 10years and its dead mans shoes round here.

So option 1 is to reject it and just wait for next one. Or option 2, take it and do a minimal amount on it. Was possibly even thinking of grassing it, nice park bench, and just go there for pick nicks etc.

Thoughts?

Option 2 would be pretty sad, plenty folk waiting to do what it’s worth.

Maybe a light scattering of landmines aswell.

Start with a small part of it and cover the remainder with cardboard/newspapaper/bark chippings or any old bits of carpet/tarpaulin/plastic sheeting to smother weeds for when you are ready

hopefully you can get bark chippings at the allotment, mine has massive mounds of it dropped off by the council.

A load of weedkiller is very useful as well!

You might be evicted if you do nothing with it.

Hmm. Rejecting it does seem like the right thing to do. Just have to wait for the next one to come up.

Ask if anyone wants to share a plot?

Hilldodger, I thought about that, and will ask round people I know. Though it might be bad form to ask other allotmenters, there is a big warning in the t&c about not letting other use it.

define minimal effort ? There are ways and means to reduce the time required how is the plot at the moment?

There are things you can grow that are less effort, but I would say unless you can spare 2-3 hours a week then dont bother.
Thats a minimum. In summer and spring we often spend a full day planting, weeding, harvesting, weeding, digging, weeding. Get the picture!

Yea, good question Mikeypies. I’m guessing 2-3 hours a week would be do able. At the minimum I was assuming that the grass would need almost that much attention.

Guess I was hoping for a silver bullet of zero effort, larder full of home grown produce. Looks like its a dream till I have some more time.

Fruit trees, rasberries, spuds?

We get away with 3-4 hours a week. Plant some fruit bushes and a couple of fruit trees, they take up a surprising amount of space.

You may want check that you can choose not to take it and wait for the next one. At my site if you are offered a plot and don’t want it you go to the bottom of the list.

Rejecting it does seem the better option. There are many people for whoman allotment offers a bit of peace and quiet, and to occupy themselves with something productive. They can reallly help with a person’s mental and physical well-being. giving someone else a go if you can’t commit, is a decent thing to do.

I’m sure the T&C’s on my old allotment had something about not doing up-keep and weeds, and maximum amount of grass area.

Turn it all over and put spuds on it.

But if you aren’t planning on really using it eventually I’d give it up.

We do a half share with the MiL, though its more 90/10 due to the children at the moment, maybe thats an option? Though I’d suggest NOT with my MiL.

Down here in deepest Surrey. Sub-contract the hard work (digging over etc..) to an eastern European gentleman. I kid you not.

We don’t have an allotment, but have a big garden and my FIL has an allotment.

Depending upon the state it’s in, your first year is likely to be spent getting beds in place, getting rid of the worst weeds, etc.

For weeds, covering and leaving for a year is often the best approach, and requires minimal effort. Plant some fruit trees/bushes and stick a load of spuds plus some courgette plants in the rest of the uncovered beds? That should be enough to count as cultivating the allotment, to cover the rules?

We had one until a few years ago. Easy options, cover a lot of it, put in a herb garden, lots of room taken up, you get stuff from it and it needs little work. Put in a big bed of rhubarb, that needs little effort. potato bed and courgette bed. Onions and garlic are good too. Just uncover each part as and when you want to use it..do not try and get it all going at once.

Sub let out for more money!

Seriously though, potatoes and fruit bushes are your best bet as others have said.

FWIW, you’d usually get a warning before losing it so as has been suggested above, for minimal effort, just cover it over for now to get rid of weeds then in spring turn over and plant potatos. Job done.

This is my first year with an allotment, and I’ve only had just over half the plot cultivated this year. The rest is under sheeting, waiting for next spring. This has not been an issue, but there’s not a waiting list here.
After the initial clearing of the plot, which is a huge amount of hard work, it seems to me that a number of short visits each week are far better than the odd full day here and there. It helps if the site is very close to home or on your commute so you can just pop in.

I shared a plot with a friend (while he waited for one to come up) have you got anyone who could share the work and split the reward accordingly

The more hours you do the longer you will want to be there, became my 2nd home for a few years and miss giving it up and the people there

I was ofered an allotment earlier this year, too late to do much before the main planting season, but indid my best turning an overgrown plot in to a veg patch, then a couple of health issues curtailed my time down the allotment and it got overgrown, ive been issued a warning to tidy it up, so will strip it and cover for the winter esdy to starg properly next year.