I'm an elderly allotment holder

We also miss Wilko's. My husband is looking for onion sets and Wilko's used to sell really good quality for about £2.

These days they cost £10, or more.

Good luck with your allotment, my husband grows tomatoes, onions, strawberries, and tries other vegetables. We both love being outside in the fresh air.

My son has an allotment but someone got in the other day and caused damage and killed some of his fish.

He is really upset and has reported it to the police but their chances of catching anyone are zero.

How do you make your allotment secure? Or is it impossible?

Do you have a local B&M? Ours has an extensive garden department, from seeds to garden sheds.

We found that larger ‘pound shops’ sold seeds and gardening items including compost, rose feed etc. we bought several roses for £1 and they bloom every year without fail.

Wilko still sell online.

I love my allotment and get my seeds from The Range or Band M
I too loved and miss Wilko

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

keepingquiet I'm so sorry for your son. Allotmenting is hard work and he must be disheartened. As for hurting his fish - well what is wrong with people?

It's pretty impossible to make an allotment secure. I try to keep mine as plain and simple as possible and leave nothing of value, not even tools there. I figure that the less stuff to steal/break then the less I'll be bothered. That's ok if you can drive to the allotment with your tools.

tanith

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

He made his own pond. Six months work and more. I told him he was silly for doing it but that allotment is his safe space and sanctuary...

Some of the fish are still there so he hasn't given up.

I do hope karmalady reads this thread. She’s just got her allotment and attacking it with gusto almost daily.
A font of knowledge too.

Ahh, so nice to read about another `elderly` allotment holder. Aely, mine is a half plot and was terribly neglected with nasty deep weeds. I have been working with gusto, so that I will be able to cope in my 80s, being 77 now. I am almost done with the groundwork and my shed is filling fast as I want to cycle to and fro

£42 for me and I had a 5 month wait. Lots more people on the waiting list since then

Libra10, I got onion sets (white and red but no brown) from Poundland. good quality by the looks of them, £1 each, with 30 sets each. About the right number for me.

No B&M or Range here.

We aren't allowed fish (or chickens). They now even dictate that we can't burn stuff, even infected plants and that nothing can be planted that doesn't reach mature size in one season. So, theoretically, not even a blackcurrant bush. I was allowed to keep my fruit trees but only if I cut them down to 8 feet high. My delicious Golden plum is now a topless trunk. Luckily my apple tree was on a more dwarfing stock so not too badly damaged.

KarmaLady - My 2 quarter-size plots cost me over £70. And our Council is still nearly bankrupt!

Aely have you seen the `pretty` metal raised beds that a few are putting up, thin cheap metal and very twee to be honest. Not by men or the knowledgeable. No-one has the heart to tell the three newby plot holders here that they will get very hot in summer

keepingquiet

tanith

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

He made his own pond. Six months work and more. I told him he was silly for doing it but that allotment is his safe space and sanctuary...

Some of the fish are still there so he hasn't given up.

Did your son check to see if he can keep live stock on his allotment, a lot of them don’t allow it. We aren’t allowed to keep any animals, including bees on ours. We also aren’t allowed sheds but can have a lockup for tools. Our parish council frequently do spot checks and contact people who haven’t followed the rules.

I just have a large tool holding box and never had anything stolen or touched since I had the allotment

The large 570 litre keter storage boxes are excellent, easy to assemble and have potential for locking. They never leak, I have some at home, old and watertight. I am locking mine on site, although I am very safe, a long walk from the gate. I am keeping good tools in that plus a strimmer, rolls of weed fabric etc

I have a shed, which I have preserved, plus a new window, I fixed angle brackets to hold it on the base, put slabs on the base and fixed wooden batons up to hold lots of hooks. Min use for the shed is as a rainwater source

It has been quite lax on my site but no longer because of the increasing waiting list. Re chickens, there are some on my site but are attracting rats

nandad

keepingquiet

tanith

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

He made his own pond. Six months work and more. I told him he was silly for doing it but that allotment is his safe space and sanctuary...

Some of the fish are still there so he hasn't given up.

Did your son check to see if he can keep live stock on his allotment, a lot of them don’t allow it. We aren’t allowed to keep any animals, including bees on ours. We also aren’t allowed sheds but can have a lockup for tools. Our parish council frequently do spot checks and contact people who haven’t followed the rules.

As far as I'm aware it is a privately owned allotment and I don't know if there are rules for livestock. Are fish considered livestock?

keepingquiet

nandad

keepingquiet

tanith

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

He made his own pond. Six months work and more. I told him he was silly for doing it but that allotment is his safe space and sanctuary...

Some of the fish are still there so he hasn't given up.

Did your son check to see if he can keep live stock on his allotment, a lot of them don’t allow it. We aren’t allowed to keep any animals, including bees on ours. We also aren’t allowed sheds but can have a lockup for tools. Our parish council frequently do spot checks and contact people who haven’t followed the rules.

As far as I'm aware it is a privately owned allotment and I don't know if there are rules for livestock. Are fish considered livestock?

Only if you eat them! Think trout farm.

libra10 Simply Seeds are excellent, onion sets £3.29, I’ve used them for a few years, great products and customer service.
Setting up an allotment now from scratch, including a shed, can be very expensive, the one I share is quite ramshackle, but established.

I second Simply Seeds Jaxjacky.

25Avalon

keepingquiet

nandad

keepingquiet

tanith

You can keep fish on an allotment? Who knew!

He made his own pond. Six months work and more. I told him he was silly for doing it but that allotment is his safe space and sanctuary...

Some of the fish are still there so he hasn't given up.

Did your son check to see if he can keep live stock on his allotment, a lot of them don’t allow it. We aren’t allowed to keep any animals, including bees on ours. We also aren’t allowed sheds but can have a lockup for tools. Our parish council frequently do spot checks and contact people who haven’t followed the rules.

As far as I'm aware it is a privately owned allotment and I don't know if there are rules for livestock. Are fish considered livestock?

Only if you eat them! Think trout farm.

He doesn't eat them, but fish poo makes good fertiliser! The problem is you have to have enough fish...

I am the secretary of our allotments and we don't allow fish ponds. We do allow a limited number of chickens. Also new plot holders aren't permitted to have fruit bushes but can have an apple tree on a dwarf rootstock. In the past some plot holders have put all their plot down to fruit bushes, they then don't prune them and the whole plot gets into a jungle. We don't allow plot holders to have bonfires but our field committee orgaise them occasionally, in drums and in an area where there is a water supply nearby and well away from the houses. We have a field owned shredder which plot holders can use. We also have regular inspections to ensure plots are being cultivated and that plot holders are not using plots for storage of materials. We are allowed a shed and polytunnels and greenhouses but size is limited as is their position on the plot. We do have bees but the hives are on a separate plot which has a hedge all round - three plot holders each have three hives here and they are responsible for maintaining this plot.

I think allotment groups can make their own rules? I know councils have strict rules regarding allotments but I think anyone can let land out to be used as an allotment am I right?

keepingquiet if it’s privately owned, then the owners can decide the rules. Where we are the allotments are either owned by the local council or the church and both have a long list of dos and don’t’s. I’m pleased he can have them and they are so calming. Is he sure that it was vandals? Here we have a huge badger problem and they frequently destroy fences and poly tunnels. We also have otters and they get into people’s gardens are decimate their fish.

By livestock I meant any animals, or fish (I was watching a farming program at the time!