I can hardly believe what happened today. After 3 years of waiting on a waiting list for an allotment, I move to a new city and have one 5 days later! For those that don’t live in the UK, an Allotment is a plot of land you rent in order to grow your own fruits & veggies. You can not sell the produce but can use it yourself or bless others with it! It is a bit like having your own plot on a community garden!
The allotment I have is quite large (!) but comes with a package of support which includes help preparing the plot, sewing seeds and planning what to grow! The cost is a one off payment of £7.50 ($12)!
So I’m hoping this year I’ll be growing a lot of my own produce! The average produce producing allotment takes about 8 hours a week in work and I can’t wait to dig in, pun intended 
Have you ever grown your own? Do you have any tips for this novice?
This is just wonderful news….Growing food, working in a garden, is the most wonderful empowering healing creative healthy things I can imagine! I’m so glad this has come to you!
Congratulations – nice size plot you have there! –
I can heartily recommend:-
http://www.mytinyplot.co.uk/
Great advice and inspiration on this blog.
We are veg gardening for the first time this year in our back garden. Just waiting for some scavenged wood to be available to build some raised beds. Should be finished next weekend.
Can’t wait to see your pictures
Oh that’s wonderful, FT! Can wait to see what you’re going to do with it!
I’m SO thrilled for you!!!
I know this means the world to you and I’m so excited that one of your dreams has come true. 
I have been growing my family’s own food for quite a few years now. I live on a postage stamp size trailer house lot, and produce 75% of my own food to feed 2 plus 2 elderly parents, and barter produce and herb transplants for my staples.
I can, freeze and dehydrate most. I grow herbs, and veggies in very large plastic pots with drainage hole sliced in.
It is not hard, just make sure your soil is ammened with good mellow compost or worm castings which is what I use.
It is a learning experience, and you will succeed and fail for the first few years, you have to try to see what veggies do good for you. Just keep trying and do not give up. A good web site to follow in the US is the Path to Freedom site, (pathtofreedom.com) This family has been urban homesteading for many years and have made it successful but was not done over night.
Much success in your adventures!
Can’t resist commenting again on this exciting news……..I used to be a garden writer……This looks very large. Fantastic….I still have some vegetable gardening going, in raised beds…….I would recommend learning about composting and raised beds and I would recommend great variety – it looks as though you might have room for small fruit bushes and lots of herbs as well as vegetables. Be sure to have a good winter garden too. Study your local climate and ask advice of your fellow allotment growers. Make room for flowers! Remember the best fertilizer is the gardener’s eye.
Congratulations!
My advice – keep plants watered, but not overwatered.
Seedlings can grow through just about anything, including concrete…they are hardier than you think! Plant what you like and even what you aren’t sure about…you can always give it away!
Good luck!
Oh, wow!!
Have emailed you x
How exciting!! I wish we had something like that around here.
When you have an allotment, is there generally a problem with people messing it up when you’re not there? That’s what I’d worry about.
I’m sure that could happen, but there is a fence which locks and most people I know who have an allotment have never had a problem!
ooooh this will be fun to follow! I hope you take pictures of your REAL allotment (I assume those above aren’t yours).
I’m getting into gardening this year for the first time ever, with 6 other residents of my apartment building. We’re going to pool watering duties & the spoils, but each of us is becoming an expert on one of our crops, rather than all of us try to know everything.
I’m learning about tomatos: I saved some heirloom tomato seeds last year, learned what to do so they would germinate, and have been cooing proudly over my 11 seedlings. I know it’s folly to plant ALL of them but I don’t know if I can bear to give any away.
This is so exciting!! I can’t wait to see how your garden grows!!!
So much has changed for the better! I’ve been so bad about keeping up with other blogs! I’m SO glad to hear that things are going so well though. I hope the new job continues to pan out and that you enjoy it! The allotment sounds wonderful. I’ve heard a lot about them but never knew the entire concept behind them so thank you for explaining how it works. I have my lil’ veggie starts doing alright in their containers. I’ve never been very good at getting most things to come up from seed so have always just used small plants/starts…. I know you’ll enjoy your hands in the soil!
Ooh so jealous!!
We do grow on our little patio area (size of a balcony but we are on the ground floor).
Lettuce is the easiest but you must try potatoes, we grew them last year and they were so tasty!
Best of luck.
good luck with your new job…
happy you got a little piece of land to grow your veggies..
Hope you find a little time for knitting in your hectic day..:-)
congratulations!
We grow our own food all year round. Our winters are not as harsh as yours.
It is so fulfilling to serve the family a meal consisting of only home grown produce. This year we are even growning our own lamb and beef.
Sorry to all the vegans out there, but at least I am taking responsibilty for how my animals are treated.
This is fantastic news for you! Hurrah! Enjoy it FT
Congratulations, ft. That piece of land looks quite substantial, you should be able to grow quite a bit on it, maybe more than you need but I’m sure whatever you grow will be put to good use.
As to advice, it’s difficult because the growing conditions are so different to what I deal with here is Australia.
Main thing – feed the soil, compost, manure, worm castings etc. If the soil is healthy, your plants will be healthy too.
Talk to people,seek advice, but experiment too. Be prepared to be surprised. Sometimes things happen in a garden in a most unexpected way.
Have fun!
FT, so much in your life has changed and your hard work and determination is showing the fruits now! I’m very proud of you and can’t wait to read more!
Woohoo!!! What a exciting new endeavor to have ahead of you!
Woohoo! Congratulations to you! That’s is fantastic news!
G and I started a small winter garden in our back yard that we have just upgraded to a full on back plot for this growing season. Like you, we are excited!
We are novices, too, but thought this tip might be helpful: If possible, try to grow what you eat most often. G and I have a list of veg we pick up every Saturday at the market –> that’s the same list we used to choose the vegetables we’d plant. All, of course, assuming these veg can grow in our climate.
Am sure you’ll do your homework and end up with something you’re incredibly proud of. Just remember, things can be slow going at first. Plants are resilient, though.
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Very excited for you. I know you’re going to have a geat time learning and digging!
Lisa x
How lucky are you!! I’ve heard about how hard it is to get an allotment these days.
Teresa x
I’m so excited for you!!! Wonderful news.
It’s all falling into place now isn’t it?
Yay! This reminds me of my allotment experiment in Hampshire! It was a lovely time but the plot was a bit too big for me – what I did was cover certain sections of the ground with plastic or carpet which kept the weeds from growing rampant! And made the plot more manageable. I didn’t have a shed on site which was a hassle – trekking gardening implements back and forth. I grew potatoes, broccoli (rapini I think), tomatoes, comfrey (for compost and plant feed), american watercress, courgettes (they were very successful and not a lot of work) … it was a very fulfilling and enjoyable time. But I wasn’t holding down a f/t job and a volunteer post – I was working p/t and studying p/t. If you are really committed to making it work, start small but you will have to spend a fair amount of time to keep it in order – it is a lot of work so you’ll have to figure out your time commitment and plan what you grow accordingly.
Wow, lucky you!
It will be lots of work, but very rewarding, I’m sure.
Oh congratulations! I am sure there will be quite a bit of trial-and-error to it (I don’t have a green thumb to save my life) but I can’t wait to see what you harvest! This could help quite a bit with your budget so that you don’t have to buy as much produce at the market!
I can’t wait until I get backyard someday so I can have a little garden of my own.
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My advice is to remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Weeds pop up like crazy, and sometimes seem to take over, but your veggies will still be there, growing too. Lines don’t have to be straight, mine is never as planned. But even with my at times negligence, I have always come out with lots of veggies for my efforts.
Good luck and have fun!
Here we have growing zones. I planted my seeds in Feb and they’re really taking off. They look great now. I’m afraid to plant them as it may cause their demise!
this is awesome!! your recent posts have been so inspiring!! i’m thinking of you as i take stock over here in the u.s. … reprioritizing and such. hope you’re settling in well!!
I worked in Tanzania this past January with some amazing guys whose NGO is called Development in Gardening. You might enjoy their site. We were at St. Lucia Orphanage. Congrats on all the wonderful opportunities that have been coming to you lately.
awesome allotments! i’m gardening on my sunny patio, using the thermal mass of my house as a big ‘greenhouse’ to get veg grown in a short season – i love the blog xx
congratulations. I’ve always wanted to have a plot of land to garden. Can’t wait to see the photos.
I got a community plot for the first time this year too. 10×20 space. i can’t wait to dig in and just went and looked at it for awhile today – until the kids begged to leave LOL. I’m so excited. Can’t wait to hear about what you grow.
It’ll be great! I have greatly extended my gardening space by accepting two other yards to garden. My first failures were not growing problems, but that I planted things that I didn’t actually like to eat all that much. Plant what you eat! Don’t plant squash if you don’t eat squash, plant lots of tomatoes if that’s what you eat (and basil and parsley to go with it).
You’ll figure it out and you’ll have fun doing it.
FT-So happy for you to be able to dig in! After reading all the comments and having had experience with a community garden two pieces of advice stand out. Use black plastic or carpet to cover areas of the garden you will not use right away, this will prevent weeds from taking over and causing much more work for you to get rid of. Plant what you eat and what you can reasonably preserve. With a full time job and the garden not in your back yard mulching your plants is so important for weed control. Leave your hoe, a spade and a watering can on site covered under a tarp. I have never lost anything at my garden and it is not locked in. Good luck and have fun!!!!
Karen in CT
How easy is it to get to an allotment? Yours, specifically? Is it convenient enough that you can spend weekends tending it?