Ben & Pip’s garden retreat

1. How long have had you had your allotment and where is it?
We have just begun our 4th Season. We first got our plot about three and half years ago. We’re very lucky in that our local allotment site adjoins the bottom of our back garden, so we’re made a little walk-through so we can go straight in. It’s like an extension on our garden.

"What a dump" reported the local newspape

2. Did you have to wait long on a waiting list?

When we first viewed our house when we were looking to buy we noticed the convenient location of the allotment site, and as soon as our offer was accepted we got ourselves onto the waiting list. We were on the waiting list for about 6 months.

3. What sort of state was it in when you got it?
It was in a used but very tired site, most of the plot was covered in rotten carpet and was riddled with bind weed and cooch grass. Someone had recently complained about the state of all the plots on our site and there was a photo in the local paper with the tag line ‘what a dump’ it pictured our plot! So you can imagine what state it was in.

4. You share your allotment with some friends don’t you – how do you make that work and does that have benefits over going solo?

It is good sharing with friends. We started with 7 of us, and at that point there were no kids around, so everyone had more time to put in lots of hard work to get the site established. During our second season 2 of our group then received their own plot elsewhere on our site and another couple had a baby, so work on the plot has had a few peaks and troughs. Now we have the plot in such a state that it is fairly low maintenance, in the summer we have a watering rota and most people can manage that. We are now back up to 7 helpers again. The general rule is that when you go to help you pick the food, so the more you help the more food you get. We tend to only share out and deliver big gluts of food, otherwise pick as you weed is a good policy.

5. How much time would you say you spend on your allotment and how much does this change throughout the year/ seasons?
Winter – general maintenance (hard landscaping/clearing)
Spring – land prep, manure, and seed sowing
Summer – masses of work

In the beginning

– planting, sowing, weeding, watering, and of course harvesting!
Autumn – still quite busy – harvesting in full flow, less planting but still watering/weeding

Plenty of veg all summer long

6. What are you growing on your allotment this year?
Mange tout, Broad beans, runner beans, French beans, courgettes, butternut squash, spring onions, onions, potatoes (new), garlic, raspberries, gooseberries, red/white currents, spinach, beetroot, rocket, chives, mint, rosemary, tarragon, coriander, tomatoes, red cabbage, white cabbage, sweet corn, flowers (many kinds including sweat pea and sunflowers), parsnips and carrots.

7. What’s been your biggest success?
Courgettes have always worked very well – we use a hot bed system of old wooden pallets made in to large containers, each spring we fill them with fresh manure, and a couple of inches of compost, then plant the young plants early May, they grow like monsters and we have courgettes until October.

8. What 3 pieces of wisdom would you give to other people wanting to grow their own?
Consider sharing your plot with friends, there will be enough food to go around, and it will help a lot in the early days when there will be a lot of work to do.

Putting in the raised bedsork to do.

In the beginning if your plot is in a mess, have a 2/3 year plan, so you don’t try and tackle your whole plot in the first year

Plant potatoes, as this will do a lot of your digging for you.

9. What have you learnt from having your allotment?
It’s a great environment to relax and escape from the world in. It’s great for meeting new people and sharing advice and produce, other plot holders are very welcoming and friendly and we received a lot of produce from our neighbouring plots when we first began. We’ve learnt a lot about growing veg, about our ground and soil, and what grows well and what doesn’t.