Hi folks, can I join you? We just got offered our allotment, after a 3 year wait and a bit of letter writing/complaining! Needless to say we are very excited. We got an email regarding the plot and have been to see it, and its fabulous. Now we just have to wait to see how we sign up, get keys etc, but may have to wait until next Sunday to buy a key.

Also a little bit nervous now we finally have it. We have a toddler you see, and everyone is telling us how much work it is and we wont manage it :( But we plan to start slowly, but organic where we can. There are fruit trees and some nice beds already so we will probably plant some lower maintenance crops for the now and enjoy the space at the same time as there is some grass for the little one to play on. I really want her to see food grow and pick fruit from a tree :) I grew up with this and think its great if you can get it.

Needless to say, whilst we are currently digesting a book or two, we will have lots of questions. So just wanted to say 'hi' for now :)

ooo congratulations, you've had a long wait - which site are you on ?

Allotments are hard work, but they are perfectly manageable if you do little and often.

Get some easy seeds for your toddler to help with - sunflowers, climbing beans, nastursiums, pumpkin etc.

You can buy vegetable seedlings in garden centres, that will help you get started this year if you've not got time / space to sow your own.
Good luck
mc :)

congratulations SamMT ,as mc55 says thay are hard work yours sound like it in pritty good shape mine wasent ,was full of glass at lest a few tons of the stuff,im sayin this as you got a toddler, go round your plot a few time to see if yours is the same state before you let the kids start to do ant diggun. and good look with your plot ,i dident like any veg at all before gettin mine ,Know ill try anything that i have grown

as far as i know the council are giveaway free seeds hope some 1 sees this and knows the tell no. or has a link for you

dont know about anywere else but at catlane allotments there is a shop for allotmentears cost just £3 for a year memdership cheep seed ect... cheek with your allotment nabbers to see if there is 1 near you

Hi
congratulations..I was so excited when I got mine (jumping up and down kind of excitement).
We have 2 kids, now 4 and 6, and it is hard with kids but we have taken them down for short periods of time, had picnics, built scarecrows, bird scareers etc and taken it in turns to work on the site, and now this is our 2 year. I love it !
It only takes up as much time as you want to offer it.
Good Luck
Ps off there now with the kids

Thanks folks. We are really loving it. Spent all day there today and a few hours Thurs & Fri. My little one happily potters around 'digging', copying me, fetching water for the dog (in a watering can which the dog doesnt seem to mind!). It so peaceful, well it is when just me and the little one, but today we were all there and it wasnt very peaceful at all. I hope the two children, punctuated by the dog, are not driving people too mad.

I think we may buy some seedlings, good idea, we also got some sunflower seeds today! We have also requested the free seeds & joined the local allotment society so we can use their shop. Thanks for the good tips!

Its nice to hear it can work well for a family. We are looking forwards to picnics. Today we rediscovered the compost heap and burned a lot of rubbish. Lots of progress but lots more to do. Except we discovered bindweed- eek. About to post about that!

ps we are at Woodseats