Tell us about your allotment!

I know there are several UK permies with allotments;  care to share?  Photos encouraged!

I don't actually have any photos of my allotment, even though I've been growing in it for two seasons now;  if I remember to take my camera up I'll post some.

My allotment is about a 10 minute walk from my house and I'm up there every morning;  it's on the way to my son's school so we stop by on the way, to take care of our ten chickens.  Then he goes off to school while my daughter watches me do any other jobs (from her buggy--she's six months old).  Currently I'm digging out the last of the potatoes, and trying to get a handle on all the grass that's taking over.  Seriously, there is so much grass, and I don't know how it's so thick and long, especially since the whole plot from top to bottom has all been sheet mulched within the last year.

However, having the chickens there motivates me to clear away the grass, so they can have something green and fresh to nibble on.  We only completed their yard and coop a few months ago;  last year they were in a temporary chicken tractor there, but they couldn't keep up with the weeds and grass (and it wasn't a long term solution anyway, as they really needed more space).  So I'm digging the grass and weeds up about a metre at a time, and it's really starting to pile up in their yard;  I guess it'll be great compost next spring.  Then the bare spot gets mulched to prevent new weed seeds germinating--but it's looking like I'll be starting over from the beginning once I actually get to the end.  So much grass...

This year I've grown some good pumpkins and peas (dried);  we had a great haul of strawberries (though they are swamped with grass now) and raspberries;  the potatoes have been moderately productive, as have the runner beans, tomatoes and onions.  The slugs ate nearly all my cabbage seedlings, but we've had two small ones and there are another six or so left--really small though, probably from the excess of grass.  I also have some leeks and purple sprouting broccoli growing away but don't expect to eat them until the new year.

My main focus now is to improve the soil as much as possible by adding organic material;  there's a stable on the site, so plenty of horse manure to be had.  I also do a bit of chop and drop with certain weeds like nettles and horsetail.  And of course as I mentioned it has all been sheet mulched, which did wonders for the soil.  I figure that if the soil is soft enough at least I'll be able to pull the weeds out and not have to dig them.

Edited for spelling.

I'm on the waiting list for one where I live. The waiting list might as well be infinite, with a lot of the allotments held by people for dozens of years, and when finally given up they're usually split into 4 giving a plot of approx 25 foot by 30 foot which, while better than nothing, is extremely disappointing if you want to keep chickens or grow trees.

I too am on the allotment waiting list, I think I just missed out in autumn. I live in a small town of 7000 people. I have been helping at the community allotment which was set up last year. I've been planning ahead, potting up some blackcurrant and gooseberry prunings and a perenial kale cutting in the hopes I get one this year.

I asked my husband to take a few photos of our allotment at the weekend.  Above you can see me in the background next to our chicken coop and run.  In the foreground is some sheet mulch, with artichokes visible behind.  Further along are some rows of garlic and purple sprouting broccoli, and not visible (between the artichokes and myself) are both old season and new season leeks; new season onions, peas and broad beans; and old season lettuces.  There is also a strawberry bed and raspberry patch at the very back.  
I'm still fighting the grass!  It got somewhat of a reprieve over winter when the chickens were back at our house and I didn't have much motivation to dig it.  They're back and I'm digging again every day, if only a few clumps at a time.  I'm also sowing and planting up my the start of the summer crops, and hope to be transplanting out the tender stuff (pumpkins, tomatoes, etc) and autumn and winter brassicas next month.

It's been a few years but I'm still battling the grass at my allotment!  I've given up trying to dig it out and just sheet mulch every year.  It grows back every year no matter what I do, and sheet mulch is less work than digging.  I do some light digging if I replant a bed during the same season--for instance when my broad beans finish next month I'll clear the bed of as many roots as I can, and replant immediately with leeks.  But when the leeks are finished at the end of the season I'll sheet mulch again.

Compare this photo (taken in April 2026) with the second photo in my previous post, with my small daughter (she's now 6).  In the years since, I've almost quintupled my yearly food production (according to my records, I grew 129 lb of veg in 2021 and 578 lb in 2025).  Big winners have been squash and tomatoes:  last year approximately 100 lb each!  

Thanks for the pictures Well done on your increased yield. Gardening really does get easier year on year. Only part of it is knowledge based - you are also reaping the rewards of improving your soil.

G Freden wrote:It's been a few years but I'm still battling the grass at my allotment!  I've given up trying to dig it out and just sheet mulch every year.  It grows back every year no matter what I do, and sheet mulch is less work than digging.

Is it just annual grass or couch grass? I guess the organic material it makes is improving your soil as you sheet mulch it. Theoretically annual grass ought to get less year on year as the seed bank diminishes.

G Freden wrote:

there's a stable on the site, so plenty of horse manure to be had.

Unless it has been really well composted, it may be contributing new grass seeds to your garden.  Horse manure can be a net importer of seeds.

It does seem as if the grass you're battling is worse than average. The grass equivalent of Morning Glory in my environment...

I don't have an "allotment", but a friend's husband built me a 4'x10' bed in the backyard of a property they own. They get sunshine, are a bit of a heat trap, and *don't* have bunnies or deer.

The deer already broke into my garden area on my own land and ate most of the forming fruit off both my Fig trees and the Apple tree that hasn't been given a forever home yet. There is simply no point me planting there, so I'm stuck with container growing on my land for the near future.

Yes, there are weed and grass seeds in the stable bedding, and I do get a lot sprouting.  However, it's the persistent couch grass that won't die.  Everyone on site has it (and bindweed/morning glory too!) and the only few people who have it in check are the ones with tall raised beds--like waist height--and black plastic on the ground.  That's not my style, and I know I get more yields than they do, even with the grass.  My soil is better and I have more growing space.

Help, the vegetables are taking over!  Same view as above, taken just last week (mid July).  I spent about two hours in the kitchen yesterday dealing with an overabundance of courgettes (foreground), pak choi, cabbage, beetroots, artichokes, snap peas, new potatoes.  I should have done the same today but for a plumbing emergency in the kitchen--it's all sorted out so I'll be doing double tomorrow I think.

That looks so good G! It's lovely to have a glut of produce - well done!

Fantastic!  You can read about our community allotment here: https://permies.com/t/361314/Plot-urban-Community-garden in central England.  We're growing potatoes, pumpkins, courgettes, tomatoes, peas, runner beans, carrots, rhubarb, gooseberries, damsons, pears - we had broad beans, cherries too.

We're struggling a lot with watering in these hotter, dryer summers, and wetter winters with less of the mild, damp Spring we used to get.

As well as upping our guttering & waterbutts, I'm thinking about how we might work as part of our changing biosphere here.

Any thoughts on perennial crops which might thrive in central England during climate change, gratefully received!

Also, what are annual veg that can cope better (with less watering!) with hotter, drier summers at these latitudes, do we know?

Ac, have we turned into a Mediterranean climate:  hot dry summers, cool wet winters?  It's certainly seemed so for the past couple of years.  This week I picked aubergines for the very first time ever--I grew them from seed on a whim, having received a free packet with my seed order.  

I actually plant for both possibilities:  a hot summer or a wet summer;  this way maybe not everything thrives, but at least I don't lose everything either.  I don't usually gamble with long shots (like aubergines) but I take a moderate risk with things like outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers.  Some years I don't get any red tomatoes, but instead the peas and beetroots go crazy.  

This is my plot in Cornwall. I have only had it for a couple of months most of which has been spent cutting back weeds, very little of what I planted grew but the potatoes that volunteered seem happy.
My plan is to dig out the bramble nodes when I dig out the potatoes, then cardboard, unfinished compost compost and wood chip as much as I can on the cheap. Then find something to act as a cover crop for the rest, maybe wildflower meadow it.
I also want to install a cold frame, twist the shed 90 degrees and actually attach the water butts to the shed roof. So very busy autumn and winter ahead of me.

This is my plot in Cornwall. I have only had it for a couple of months most of which has been spent cutting back weeds, very little of what I planted grew but the potatoes that volunteered seem happy.  

When my teenage son and I were forking over my newly harvested potato bed about a week ago, removing couch grass and runners, another allotmenter asked what were we harvesting?  Grass:  I grow the most lovely grass!  

Actually we had a good crop of Charlotte potatoes too