Your Allotment: Is It worth It?

Your Allotment: Is It worth It?

I was reading a gardening book the other day and I was astounded to see that The Royal Horticultural society do not think that it is worth having an allotment to grow your own food.

I beg to differ and there is one crop that pays my rent with very little work. And that is Rhubarb. I have a patch of about 30 Rhubarb plants that keep me going from April right up to the middle of august. That is nearly 150 days of a bowl of Rhubarb a day. If you reckon that each bowl is worth 50 pence then that is a money value of £70 odd and my rent for the allotment is £28/year.

Growing Rhubarb is very easy and takes little work once the plants are established.

1.Grow a variety of early and late season crops.

2. Mulch the crop summer and winter

3. Water and feed on a regular bases. (I use Comfrey tea to feed mine)

4. Harvest when the crop is ripe. This stops the plant going to seed.

5. Bottle your surplice so as not to waste any.

When I am not eating Rhubarb; I am eating stewed apple. Now I do not own any apple trees but I collect other peoples apples that would other wise be wasted.

In Oxford, where I live, people will put apples outside their houses for the public to pick up. I am sure that his happens in most towns. I have taken this one step further by talking to the people who do this and offered to keep their windfalls cleared and rake up leaves under the apple trees. By doing this I get free fruit right through the non-rhubarb time and also make sure my storage, bottles are in use all the year round.

But to get back to the allotment: Of course it pays to have an allotment but only if you use it with a bit of common sense and to do so there are a few thing that your must take into consideration.

1. Plan your crops. Only grow what you like to eat and try to grow as much winter stuff as you can. I believe that it is the sign of a good grower if there is crops ready fro eating in the lean time of the year. There are loads of roots/brassicas/leeks that will do for this job. Using a cold frame during this period will also give you some of the softer crops like lettuce and beans.

2. To run an allotment you must be committed. It is no good going down there once a month and doing a bit. With that sort of commitment all you will be doing is trying to keep on top of the weeds. I reckon on a well-run plot you need two/three hours per week, once you have everything all set up. That time should not be in one visit either but spread over the week. You will need to be harvesting/nurtering/cultervatomg your plot every 48 hours in the main summer season. If you cannot give, this sort of commitment then do not start; you will only stress yourself out by non-achieving.

There are a few reasons for not going for an allotment plot.

1.It will cost you money to set up. You will need to pay your rent. In addition, you will need to buy tools/seeds/plants/shed at the very least. It cost me £800 to set up my allotment. It was that much because I bought a new shed (6feet/8feet) and a small Polly tunnel (10foot/15foot). I also had to buy a second hand lawn mower.

2. If you do not have the time, do not start. If you are really keen to start and do not have the time it might be worth seeing if you could share somebody’s else’s plot.

3. Not everything will come up roses. There will be troubles and things will go wrong. Pest/diseases/weather sometimes seem to be always against you. You must be prepared for that.

4. It will take work however I never find it hard work. I use a raised bed system and never dig. My method of growing involves making compost and spreading the material on my beds. Moreover, if it is hard work, so what! Many people pay a lot of money to go to gyms and the like. By having an allotment you will be getting fresh air and excises.

The reasons for having an allotment far out way the reasons not too.

1.You will be out in the fresh air. This is worth its weight in gold. Most of us spend far too much time inside either working or living. Far better to be out breathing clear air in a semi-rural area. It will bring clam to your soul in an ever-stressful life of our modern world.

2. Allotments are great places to meet and make new friends. These will be people who are not related to your every day work or family.

3. Growing you own food and knowing how it is grown. This is very important. If you go to the supermarket: God knows where and how it was grown and more importantly, what has been sprayed on it! At least if you grow a lettuce you will know that it is clean and wholesome.

4. Learning a new skill. You might well think that growing you own food and learning and overcoming all the problems related with it are not worth the trouble when you can go down to the local store and buy what you want. Well, it might not always be so. I have lived through two wars where the only food we had was the food that we could produce ourselves. This could well happen to you wherever you live.

So the question of: does it pay to have an allotment can only be answered by yourself, all I can say is: It pays me time over.