[Greengage]

Hey James were you trying to keep this a secret to keep me away
http://www.allotments.ie/?page_id=63

[Greengage]

been on a couple of allotments recently is the fad dying a slow death

[davidk]

One not far from me is closed this year.

[Dirt Digger]

Quite by accident I acquired an allotment 3 years ago.
It’s a Dublin City Council allotment, and one of the prime advantages of our little
Allotment community is that we happen to be situated in an old walled garden. The overall size of the garden is just over 2½ acres, and with 90 allotted spaces, the allotments are, as you can imagine, reasonably small by allotment standards, but that does not detract from them as an amenity. I’m not sure if you could say that allotments are a passing fad, and allow that statement to be the catch-all. Like many other public amenities there are peak and trough periods of interest and public uptake,
and with allotments (a past-time/hobby which requires getting the hands dirty and going out in all weathers) unless the tenant is aware of the level of commitment needed, even for a small patch of 35 sq meters, the initial beginners enthusiasm soon wanes and gives way to the couldn’t-be-bothered anymore approach, resulting in neglected and overgrown plots which are not only an eyesore, but on an ongoing basis may undermine the overall allotment site; a neglected plot allowed to seed, guarantees your neighbours 7 years of weed…
There are many good allotment sites around the country, some are council run, and many are privately operated, and some of these have an almost exorbitant yearly licence fee, but, so long as the fee is met, the rent remains the same: imagine upwardly only rents for allotments…By and large the council run sites are reasonable enough, but being bound by council policy and procedure, they often have many prohibitions in place which limit what the serious allotmenteer may achieve and thus, they elect to take a plot on a private site. But even the private sites have a fair percentage of defaulters, and even in our small and potentially idyllic walled scene, we have a fair amount of abandonment and neglect of plots, but we work through it, as most allotment sites do….

[Dirt Digger]

A photo of part of my allotment in St Anne's ParkPlot 49...

[Lius]

I never understood how you could trust the other gardners not to pinch crops from your patch in an open allotmet.

I keep my veg safe in my walled back garden protected by my Jack Rustler.

[Dirt Digger]

Lius I suppose allotmenteering is multifaceted:
There are those who use an allotment because they have no choice; they may be limited by living in an apartment block or flat complex and simply wish to have a patch of earth in which to grow some flowers and/or vegetables; then there are those for whom the average sized suburban garden will not meet requirements and they source an allotment to help meet the extent of their gardening demands; there are those for whom the allotment simply presents an opportunity to meet and mix with other like minded individuals and as such, the allotment becomes a social outlet; and there are those whom, like yours truly, came to allotmenteering quite by accident, but have managed to persevere with everything that encompasses the experience and challenges of renting an allotment.
Allotments, by their nature, are communal; and the level of personal interaction is dictated by each of the plot holders. And being a communal activity Trust plays a big part in the overall concept of communal gardening or urban agri-growing. Occasionally things go awry; plots are frequently abandoned and allowed to run to seed, tools are borrowed and not returned, wheelbarrows are punctured by someone else, and there is always someone who’ll forget that rocks and stones don’t compost but still insist on dumping them into the communal compost bins. They are many small and nagging things about allotmenteering, which, in an ideal world would be sorted out, but in general, the plot holders produce is never touched, and in the 3 years that our little allotment garden has been growing away, there was only one occasion when someone’s produce was interfered with: a rhubarb patch was stripped of a lot of its stalks. we put it down to accidental damage by a vehicle and an attempt to hide the evidence...
Generally our plots are safe enough, though, situated as it is in a public park- albeit an area to which the general public have little or no access-the greatest threat to our produce is the fantastic array of wildlife: foxes, badgers, rooks, jackdaws, crows, pigeons, pigeons and pigeons…

[Lius]

I hadn't considered the other nuisances that you have mentioned.

The pinching of a few veg would be a minor annoyance to me compared to the other things you outlined. I would not last a week in that environment.

Her indoors an myself have a fine demarcation line in our garden, she does the flowers and shrubs in the borders, I do the vegetables in the raised beds and greenhouse. I allow her to start-off her flowers in the greenhouse early in the year when it's empty. That keeps us out of each others hair until it's time to sit on the deck with a chilled glass of home made Mead and admire each others hard work.

[Blowin]

If you ever have a chance to drive down the coastal motorway behind Calais, the authorities have laid out a great allotment system - why are the continentals always so well organised?

There's a large area of flat land, split up into uniform rectangular blocks of land. Each block is divided into four (2x2) with a brick built block of four small sheds in the middle so that each hoolder has somewhere to keep his tools. The plots are divided by paved paths and, from 100m or so away, all look in pristine order - certainly no wildernesses.

However good their system, as Lius says there's no substitute for your own 'allotment' outside the back door and we should always sympathise with those who aren't so blessed?

[Lius]

Blowin,

That allotment looks fab, you can see a sattellite image on Google Maps and there is also some comments and ground photos on http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/1046/french-allotments/

An allotment like that might tempt me out of the back garden.

[Blowin]

Well done. You obviously know how to use this technology.

There must be more than one lot because, in trying to follow your lead, I used Google Earth (becasue it's on my computer) and found the lot I used to see. If you're interested, go to map reference 50deg56'10.16 N/1deg50'29.77 E where the layout is more obvious.

[Lius]

Yes Blowin I see the Allotment you referenced, if you pan back (east) along the A16 you will see the one that I referenced. They look very similar in size and layout, there must be some very eager gardners around there.

[Dirt Digger]

I suppose “the grass is always greener…elsewhere.”
And if we were to be perfectly frank, well then Yes, the concept, and more importantly the practice of allotmenteering is very different on the continent.
By and large the provision of allotments in Ireland just about meets demand, but that is accounting for the fact that over 65% of all allotment sites in the Republic are private businesses. (My estimation BTW).
On the continent and in the UK especially, the bulk of allotment sites are provided by council or municipal authorities, and in many of these countries there is a legal and in some cases a constitutional obligation on the incumbent council/authority to provide set aside land for allotments.
Generally, the local authority takes its function and role quite seriously and will expect the licensees/tenants to strictly adhere to certain condition in order to maintain the overall allotment site. In parts of Holland/Germany/France/Denmark, especially Denmark the policy and procedure regarding site upkeep is very strict, and it shows.
In the UK, the countrywide borough councils and municipal authorities differ in their approach to allotments; some take the practice very seriously, whereas others are glad to divest authority to a site committee and are just happy that their vacant and redundant patches of ground are being utilized in some way.
And if you consider that the code of practice for council allotments is fairly strict right across mainland Europe, believe you me, the privately run concerns are almost policy driven from the land; but then, because the municipal allotments are of such a consistently good standard, generally speaking, the private side of this business doesn’t really flourish on mainland Europe;
But here, in Ireland, the privately run allotment sites have somewhat flourished over the last 20 years or so. And to be fair to them, they certainly provide their tenants with options, and generally keep the overall sites in a good state of repair. They have to; it’s a business after all.
Council run allotments can be very hit and miss, some are well kept and well supported by the relevant council, others are a disaster with no support, no infrastructure, no supervision at any level, and no idea how to promote and maintain the concept locally, and practically every council now attempts to legitimize it’s hands off approach by pointing to lightened purses and dwindling and non-existent fiscal resources.
The intent is good, but Irish council authorities have quite some way to go before they will match the ability of some of our continental neighbours to provide really 1st class allotment facilities with all that that entails, but that said, there are some really good projects nationwide at present, and perhaps the 1st thing they need to realise??
They should not take their renting schema from a comparison with the privately run allotment businesses, and should only consider such if and when they are willing to provide the same range of facilities as the privately run allotments…

[sirpsycho]

Wow Dirt Digger, that's a savage allotment you have there.

I was up looking at a new Allotment Scheme (with a view to renting a plot) in Balbriggan run by Fingal CoCo. They even have pigs! The only drawback - and it's quite a large one - there is no topsoil on the site! It's all sub-soil. Someone appears to of stripped the site of topsoil. Wouldn't fancy trying to grow stuff in that...

[Dirt Digger]