Allotment Guidance

Cultivation and Maintenance of Plots

Keeping an allotment is a leisure activity. We do not demand rigidly straight rows of vegetables but it is only fair to expect a reasonable standard of cultivation.

If a plot-holder fails to cultivate the plot, we will contact them about it. Mostly this is a temporary phase and people get back to work. If not, the reminder prompts them to give up and the plot is offered to the next person on the waiting list.

Time commitment

Allotments can be enormously satisfying but please be aware that keeping one is a major time commitment. Allotment holders spend from 10-15 hours a week during the summer, to 2-3 hours a week during winter, regularly tending their plots. The rewards may be fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers, and good social contacts with other gardeners - or a weed-grown wilderness and mutterings from neighbours if you cannot find the time to maintain it. The Allotments Service will require a good level of cultivation on all plots.

Use of Pesticides - What are the problems?

Pesticides are primarily chemical substances prepared or used to destroy harmful pests. By their very nature pesticides pose a potential hazard to the user, others in the area during and after use, and can have a bad effect on the environment if used incorrectly. The actual risk can be reduced by the careful choice of pesticide, the time and methods of use, weather conditions and the knowledge of the person using the pesticide. Chemical pesticides should only be used as a last resort.
Pesticides include:

• weedkillers (herbicides)
• agents to kill fungal growth (fungicides)
• insect killers (insecticides)
• rodent (rat) bait (rodenticides)
• soil treatments
• wood preservatives
  and a number of other preparations. It is always wise to check before buying and using. Pesticides are used by members of the public, often in the garden or on allotments and the potential hazard can be the same as for pesticides used in agriculture and other large scale operations. Pesticides used by the public are likely to have been obtained from the local garden centre or hardware store, and be approved, with information on the label. Please ensure that you read all the information on the label. You need to know how you can protect yourself, others, children and animals, and how to safeguard our environment. Before selecting a pesticide consider the following:
  
  • Always identify the pest before any treatment is applied.
  • Do you really need a pesticide?
  • Can the problem be solved by changing environmental conditions, for example cleaning up or preventing damp?
  • Is there a way to deal with the pest without using a pesticide, for example using a hoe or hand fork, cultivation or catch and trap?
  • Chemical pesticides may often kill beneficial organisms which help to keep pests under control.

Best of all do not use a pesticide

More information is available on the government web site - http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/safe_use.asp

GREEN ALTERNATIVES Alternatives to herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are plentiful.

Farmers and gardeners alike have employed these treatments for hundreds of years, if not millenia. Concepts such as "good insects eating bad insects", companion planting (where herbs and other plants decoy or repel pests from the plants they "guard"), proper soil management and perhaps the most fundamental of all, bio-diversity, are drawn from the master gardener, "Mother Nature"! Nature supplies its own defences for survival, if only we would pay closer attention to discover them.

Allotment Bonfires

Each year the Royal Borough receives a number of complaints regarding allotment bonfires, most come from people living nearby who are affected by the smoke and fumes.
Often the problem is made worse by several allotment holders lighting fires at once and leaving them to smolder and smoke. Not only is this unpleasant for people living nearby but you may be risking prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000.
As well as nuisance from the smoke, there is always a risk that a fire left unattended can get out of hand. Always douse it thoroughly to ensure that it is out before you leave.

Alternatives

If you can, compost as much of your allotment rubbish as possible. Composting produces a valuable product that can be used as a soil conditioner and is a much better alternative to burning. A properly built compost heap will deal with most garden waste, leaves, grass cutting and even paper and cardboard in small quantities.

DO'S

Compost whenever possible
Burn only dry rubbish
Burn as quickly as possible
Burn as infrequently as possible
Find alternatives to burning where possiblePlease consider your neighbours' before lighting a fire.

DON'T

Burn in foggy, damp or still conditions
Burn when the wind is blowing towards houses or roads
Burn when the neighbors have a full line of washing
Leave the allotment until any fire is out
Bring refuse from home to burn at the allotment
Burn damp or green materials

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