Just a few random thoughts - based on my experiences of choosing the allotment plots I and my children work.   Some we saw in time - and they worked for us; some we missed - learn from our mistakes!

Choosing an allotment

• Before you take on a plot, visit the site one Sunday afternoon; look around and ask some of the allotment holders for their advice.
• Some problems are not worth the hassle.   Intractable, without very hard labour - watch for them, and avoid.
  • Drainage problems - does the plot flood, or get seriously waterlogged?   Watch for weeds like sedges, which like waterlogged conditions!
  • Excessive shade, from trees or buildings.
  • Exposure to wind.
• Some things are just inconveniences - avoidable, or acceptable?   Your call!
  • access to water (how close are the standpipes; can you use a hose;)
  • has the plot been recently rotovated?   Where there was one dock plant, creeping thistle, or couch grass, there will now be several hundred growing from each sliver of chopped up root;
  • has the plot been "worked out" and abandoned?
  • problems with vandals;
  • problems with pests and disease (rabbits and club-root are the main ones I can think of);
  • was the previous allotment-holder a DIY freak?   Worse, a hoarder?   Worst, downright lazy?   Look for remains of cold frames - and shards of broken glass; or piles of glass bottles, plastic bags - or other debris.   We have all these, plus broken radios, bits of 1950's car, bottomless watering cans, two-sided buckets, sheets of rotting chipboard, miles of rotting hose, bizarre bits of "fencing" (some is recognisably refrigerator shelves . . . but the rest?).   Such debris may show the plot at one time was worked by an enthusiast, but it can be a real pain to clear.
• And some things are a real bonus, which may well outweigh possible problems.
  • plots which have been well-worked recently;
  • empty plots with a very healthy crop of weeds - if you are going organic, this could be the best to choose.   The soil has lain fallow and will be fertile, and any chemicals used by the previous allotmenteer will have diappeared. In addition you get the material to start a compost heap;
  • what do the council provide? Here in Leeds, for example, they used to deliver an ample supply of horse manure every year;
  • a site where part has gone wild can give the children a safe area to play independently, - set up dens, explore the Limpopo, or whatever - not far from where you are working.   They can move easily from playing, to helping on the plot, and back again;
  • consider taking an allotment with some mature fruit bushes.   They could well be reclaimable, and my kids love picking and eating the fruit - and the jam-making process;
  • other allotmenteers are, in my experience, very welcoming, and VERY keen to see a beginner succeed.

Spring-time?   The sap is rising; the birds are singing and randy; ancient blood rhythms course through our own veins.   "Let's take an allotment," you say.

And you're a bit too late!   On the allotment, late February, March and April are one of the busiest seasons of all - preparing seedbeds, sowing, and planting.   Get up there in late summer or early autumn - you'll hear about what works well, and what doesn't.   And you'll have time for all the peparatory clearing and digging, manuring jobs.   If you can, take on your plot in autumn, work it, prepare it - and enjoy spring!

If your blood rhythms are irresistable so that you HAVE to take on a plot in spring time, plan to to take only a small part of your plot into cultivation, and work it well.

Getting started

Don't try to take on too much at once.   The first year for any bed is HARD work - the investment of time in preparation pays off later.

Look around you at the other plots.   Everybody else comes in for a couple of hours, an apparently aimless potter around, a chat, and a leisurely flask of tea - and then they produce magnificent crops!

There you are, sweaty, sore back, faced with an intractable 100 square metres of jungle, - brambles, thistles, couch grass, and worse.   Life ain't fair!

Read on! In a year's time, you too could be coming up to the allotment and pottering!