TOUR OF A LONDON ALLOTMENT SITE / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Hello, welcome to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma, these are my allotment diaries and this is my allotment plot in South London. I've had it for about three years now and this video is going to be a little bit different from my usual stuff. I'm going to show you, typical, I'm going to show you around my allotment site. Now I know that a lot of you who watch these are on the waiting list to get an allotment plot and you haven't quite got your plot yet and you're all interested in allotment sites, what they are, what they involve, what they look like, what to expect when you get your plot. So I am so sorry about them, I just, I don't know what's going on. I thought today I'd show you around my site, just show you generally because I think this is a pretty typical allotment plot. So I'll just show you around. So this is one of the entrances to our allotment plot. They are padlocked gates and you need a key to get into your site and then this is the long pathway which takes you through a kind of woodlands which makes the site feel a little bit more secure and I just love it, especially in the summertime. So this is our free wood chip and manure piles. The wood chip doesn't get topped up that often but when it does it's a real godsend because everyone just comes down and grabs a pile for themselves and then just next to it, this is normally where we have manure which is just delivered to us free from some local stables and it's horse manure. I don't know if that makes the difference to be honest, that's just what we get here. At this time of year this is when everyone comes and grabs it so the pile is a bit low at the moment but I can see there is some wood chip left which is excellent. And wood chip is obviously something that's not free and available on every site. I feel really lucky to have it and I've been able to top up all of my paths every year with free wood chip which has just been amazing. So we're just about to pass the community allotment plot and this is just a plot that's for all the local community and they have like two days a week where it's open you can just come and just do some gardening. They also have a lot of volunteers come here and they work with a lot of the local schools as well and it's just really nice. It's nice to see what they're growing as well because I take a lot of ideas from it and it's always good to look at what your neighbours are growing and they are particularly good I think. So there are over a hundred allotment plots on my site alone and there are quite a few allotment sites in the London Borough where I live and all the plots kind of vary in size as well so some people have a very big plot and some people have a much smaller plot. So my plot is 130 square metres and I pay £61.10 for the plot for the year. I love walking around my allotment site because I get a lot of ideas for things. A lot of people are very creative with how they protect crops and the kind of things that they create out of pallets and wood and stuff so I'm always getting ideas from people and then going back to my plot and just executing them terribly. I enjoy it. I like seeing what other people are growing as well and what's working for them. Sweetcorn seems to have been particularly good this year on the plot. I've seen a lot of people with sweetcorn. Unfortunately mine didn't work. This is my neighbour's potatoes. They don't look anything like my Christmas potatoes and actually he planted these out after me so no idea why his have come up and mine haven't. Just down here I can see that so you know when you do tomatoes and you want them to ripen and it's getting quite late in the season and they say to remove all the leaves. Well I've just suddenly realised that I'm not removing half the amount of leaves I should remove because look at these. They're the weirdest things I've ever seen but it does seem to be working and they are actually starting to turn orange and red so there we go. There's some more over there as well. Bet you've never seen a naked tomato plant before or maybe you have and it's just me been doing it wrong all this time. Now we do have access to water on my allotment site. It is turned on and off during the winter and spring months but I prefer to use these tanks which collect rainwater. A lot of people collect their own rainwater as well from their sheds and their greenhouses to use on their plots. Rainwater as we all know is better for your crops anyway. You are also allowed a shed as long as it is not too big. I think the maximum is 8 by 10 and you are allowed a greenhouse or a polytunnel or even both. I love how creative people are when creating their greenhouses. It's quite common to see old conservatory windows being used and I think it is just brilliant. And the rules state that you're not actually supposed to build a fence around your allotment plot but many plot holders do. To be honest I don't really blame them. In my first year I got most of my pumpkins stolen from my plot. I just got stung by a stinging nettle. Yeah I got most of my pumpkins stolen so I've decided to put this little fence up as well around mine. I think when you're in a London allotment plot what more can you do really? You don't want your stuff all being stolen so I mean this one's a bit more like a fortress but each to their own. Now while most people on my site keep their plots absolutely beautifully maintained and there's such a joy to walk past and I see all the pleasure they get, a lot of the sites around the back still look like this which is like an overgrown jungle. It's actually really sad to see sites like this when I know how long the waiting list is. I think people are perhaps a little bit intimidated by the amount of work needed to maintain these plots. I mean there is no denying that an allotment plot is a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort. You don't actually just have to grow fruit and vegetables. A lot of people turn it into a nice little garden for them and their families with play areas and seating areas. You can kind of be as inventive and creative as you like on your allotment plot and that is one of the beauties of it. I mean you can even put in a statue of an elephant if you like. Not sure what that's all about but hey that's just the kind of thing you see here. Don't be put off by the amount of work that needs to go into it. A lot of people quite happily cover over their allotment plots over the autumn winter and then just come back in the spring and start growing all over again. It really is just your choice what you decide to do and of course my allotment plot is so much more to me than just a piece of land that I rent. I get so much joy from growing and seeing the changes through the seasons here. Allotments really are magical places. I really hope this video has inspired you and given you a good look around a typical London allotment plot. If you are enjoying my videos please subscribe to them. I would love you to be along for my journey. I'll show you all the highs and the lows of having your own allotment plot. Thank you so much for watching. See you next time.