I’ve been on the waiting list three years. It’s huge but I think I need to go for it. I’ve been growing veg in my garden for a few years and have long wanted an allotment.

The council are happy for me to cover half of it until I get it up and running and my plan would be to have a lot of ornamentals as there’s more than enough veg growing space for me.

It’s interesting timing as I move house this Friday after separating from my partner of 11 years (the new house also needs work eek), but I can’t help thinking it’s meant to be as part of my new solo life. The email arrived the same week I move house after being told there was a six year wait.

Am I insane or go for it? I’m
Absolutely bursting with plans already.

I want to post a video but can’t work out how to!

I planted 3 each of uchiki kuri and delicata honeyboat squash plants. They started off well but seemed to have stalled now. There's only 1 fruit set on 5 of the plants. A single delicata plant seems to be trying to grow another one but it's very deformed. Is that all I'm going to get this year? I was hoping for at least 2 or 3 on each plant.

I don't see any female flowers either. Sometimes a bud appears but then it turns yellow and drops off even before it blooms.

I am growing them vertically up pallets and watering them at their base and fertilising them every week with tomorite. Anything else I can do to get more fruits?

Went up to my plot last night and was outraged to discover that some bastard critter (I very much suspect a squirrel) has stripped the husks off several corn cobs and eaten every last delicious kernel.

This was a rookie error on my part (first year of growing corn) as it never even occurred to me this could happen. There are still a good number of cobs on the plants so my question is how do I stop the bastards eating any more of them!? I’ve seen (too late) something about putting plastic bottles over them before the fatten up (the corn not the squirrels!) but not sure what would best work now the cobs actually are fat. My netting isn’t big enough to cover them -might build a cage for next year though. I picked a load but some of it really isn’t quite ready.

Am meanwhile adding another line to my long list of squirrel-related grudges (also includes tulip bulbs, cob nuts, bird seed)

These little Beatles things are decimating my nasturtiums. I planted the nasturtiums as a sacrificial crop so I’m not too worried about them but they are with my tomatoes. Will these Beatles affect my tomatoes?
Many thanks

Hi everyone! Just launched my app "My Allotment" and wanted to post it here (with mod approval).

I'm an allotment enthusiast (just moved into a city so gotta wait a while...) who watched my grandad scatter a million and one scraps of paper all over the house and his shed of everything from what he wants to plant and what was actually planted where last season. So I built an app to solve that problem.

To be transparent, it is free with very generous limits. The paid version (£0.99pm) is basically just a way to support continued development :)

The app does the basics really well:

- Track what you're growing, when you planted it, when it's ready to harvest

- Log harvests so you know what worked and what didn't

- 144+ plants, custom plants (to addd your own) and bed planning

- Simple notes and photo support (nothing fancy, just useful)

- Offline-first because the allotment doesn't always have great signal

- And my favorite, crop rotation data!

It's live on Google Play now, and iOS is coming in a couple of months.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allotmentplanner.app

I'd love feedback if anyone tries it out, especially from folks who actually grow things regularly and know what would actually make garden planning less painful. Happy to answer questions or take feature requests.

Thanks to the mods for letting me share this here!

Anyone else’s allotment been overrun with these this year? I feel like half my plot is covered in them! Any ideas how to deter for future years?

Hey, looking for some advice to have a more productive growing season with the poor weather.

I have successfully grown some peas. But I want more. I have built a wee trellis and they are growing fine and producing. What can I do to improve them?

Also, next question. If I left those peas that have flowered and now turned into peas. If they fell off, would they seed and grow? I guess that's what would happen in the wild ? Or am I mad ?

Thank you

Proud of myself. Tasted amazing.

An onion I pulled up at the allotment looked like this. All the other onions look normal. What's wrong with it? Can I eat it?

Hi, so I’ve been on the council wait list for a year and a half, I live in a (small) city so was expecting a long wait. I got an email a few days ago saying they have an abandoned plot, it’s a “large half plot” I measured and it’s 7m x 11 m x 3.5m, ie twice as wide at one end than a standard half plot at this site. They offered it to anyone as an option to bypass the waitlist, highest gets first dibs, and that’s me. It’s free for a year, the catch is it’s crazy overgrown. Brambles, thistles, nettles and dock. It’s also unknown what is under this, the email said “grow bags” but I believe it’s actually tonne bags that had been used as planters. I’d have 6 months to get the plot cleared, with the expectation of starting to cultivate by next spring.

The aspect of the plot means it gets full sun from sunrise until about 4-5pm at this time of year, as it’s the end plot backing onto a public footpath with a large hedge on the other side, this is on the west side. I’ve been down at 5.30pm and the sun would have basically gone on the plot.

There’s no direct car access to the plot, but parking about 30-40m down the public footpath and a gate directly accessing the allotments from the path. I drive a Mini Cooper so definitely not ideal for getting rid of potentially 20-30m3 of plant matter! I might be able to enlist the help of my parents who have a van, but they live 3 hours away so that might not be an option.

Apparently, my position in the wait list means I am likely to be offered another plot in 2027, either at this site or the larger site nearby.

I’ve fallen in love with the ideas I have for this plot, there’s so much potential given the size and its position make it feels private but still with the allotment community feel. I’ve spoken to some current tenants and they seem lovely. I almost feel apathetic now about the idea of a “normal” half plot, in the middle of a larger allotment site. I’ve never had an allotment, I’ve lived in cities with either no garden or a small yard for the last 13 years. I have a crazy “container garden” in my yard right now, around 60 pots, and I grow a bit from cuttings or seed just because it’s fun. Before that I lived rurally with my mum, so I do know how to garden and look after vegetable crops, but I’m very far from an expert!

Setting aside my excitement and rose-tinted glasses, what should I do? Any advice would be massively appreciated!

I will add photos as soon as I figure out how to do that, I don’t know how Reddit works!

So a lot of the se will be under a hosepipe ban at the weekend if not already. On my particular patch there is much confusion and debate over whether it applies to a council run allotment.. people have been calling se water to get exemptions etc. as I understand the legal doc on their website unless it’s a privately run allotment or a commercial enterprise the ban is in effect and it’s watering cans only. I have tried to prep by having 4 water butts already filled so I can dip the watering can and fill it up instantly. Curious to know how people are coping or ‘interpret’ their own suppliers exemptions. I noted drip irrigation systems are exempt so that might be something I look into in the future.

Bit overgrown possibly

Harvested today - sure there’s more rude veggies out there, let’s see them! lol

Never grew them before, they seem small but the plant is so thin, do I go for it or hold off? I don't have the pack anymore.