Friday 4 February 2011

Introducing the allotment.

It occurred to me the other day that I have never really introduced my allotment properly so nobody has any idea of the layout of the plots or the positioning of my plot within the allotments.

Now you have to remember that I am no great shakes as an artist but I can just about manage a few straight lines and I'm great with a marker so this is a bright visual post for you all so that you can really get a feel for my plots.


allotment layout

This is an overall view of the plot though it definitely isn't to scale..lol...my plots are the pink areas and the yellow areas are Dave's...I thought I would show you his too as he has featured on my blog.

So this is a basic layout of the plot....I think all the plots are supposed to be the same size but I know that isn't the case though I don't think this is reflected at all in the rent you pay. My plots actually appear to be square but they are rectangular......I'm not going to worry too much about that though as it is just to give you an idea of how the allotments are laid out. I have to admit to cheating just a little on this as I took a photo off the board on the allotments. This means that it started out as black and white so I coloured it myself...it also means the other plot holders names are on it too but I won't worry too much about it as you can't see them too clearly and anyway if you visited the plots in person they would be there for you to look at as you wished!!



plot 17Aplot 15B



My plots up close and personal...and very nearly to scale!!


So above is the layout of each of my half plots...to the left 17A and to the right 15B....these are very nearly to scale as I went out with a measure and then transferred all this into squared paper using 1 square per foot although the right hand image isn't quite long enough as the paper was a bit too short. Plot 17A measures (approx) 47 ' by 26' and 15 B measures (approx) 51' by 25' at the shortest edge though as you can see it goes off at an angle and at the right hand side edged gains another few feet.
You can click on the images to enlarge them for a clearer picture. Green dots represent fruit trees, red dots represent fruit bushes. Black circles are composters, blue circles are water butts. The brown dotted areas are logs for mushrooms or seats and the brown shaded areas are planters for salad to be grown in.
As you can see there is a pond area on the right hand side and I will fill you more in on this and take some pictures when it's complete.

Journey to the plot
My journey from house to plot.

After I had spent all the time and effort on preparing for this post my most helpful (NOT) Hubby then turns round to me and says...'You could have used google earth!' As you can imagine I was a little miffed but it turns out it wouldn't have been that much good to me as the photo of our area is very old and there are houses and stuff missing and the plots look quite different but I did put the above picture in so you could really appreciate how close my allotment is to home.

This means that as a general average our plot are 100'by25' for a full plot. We have 51 plots available and last year 38 residents...all plots are full but some have multiple plots. This year there will be a few change of residents but only half plots are being issued to new tenants to get the waiting list down which currently stands at 13. I'm not sure how much our plots are going to be this year but will let you know as soon as I have the bill in and then we can all see what we are really getting for our money and how it differs from place to place!

That about sums up this post...I hope you liked my fantastic artwork...and my introduction to our allotments....I had lots of fun doing this so you could all get a better idea for things...I wonder if any of you live so close to your plots...or in the layouts are anything similar??

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8 comments:

  1. You do live close to your allotment. My next door plot holder's house backs right on to his allotment, he just opens his gate and he's there. I could walk to my allotment but it would take about twenty minutes. It's much easier to take the car so I can take all my tools with me too.

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  2. Dave's plot is an awkward shape isn't it! I have some Google map photos of our site here if you want to compare. I never indicated where our plots were so I'll have to do that now you have!!!! You are lucky to live so close - we are about 2 miles away from our plot.

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  3. You can't beat the artist's hand - Go to the top of the class!!!

    (You wouldn't be able to keep me away if I lived that close)

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  4. You did good at showing us the allotment. I didn't realize that yours weren't side by side. You really don't have far at all to get there either.

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  5. Thanks for all the comments...it's nice to know some are still enjoying reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

    GLA...took a look at you plot photos.....they look a bit desolate in them!!

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  6. The top one was before the plots were all taken - do you mean there is no-one about? as I found that amazing too! Or you could mean not much is growing which I think is down to the time of year.

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  7. GLA...I meant as in no-one around....mine are the same...it's weird how they manage to take the pics at the time when not a soul is there!!

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  8. We tried to suss out when it was taken by the sun direction etc without much success. On the last photo there IS one plot holder's car but no sign of him! Pity it wasn't taken when the sheds were being broken into.

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keep it clean...keep it relevant...I look forward to reading your comments!!