[Lee1978]

We have three site inspections a year but on our large site there's often at least one committee member about.

Anyone needing a "bit of advice" is given a few words of encouragement and perhaps a verbal warning if it is considered necessary.

Warning letters can be issued at any time not just as a result of an inspection. A second letter is sent if there is no improvement after a fortnight or if no reason given for a problem plot. After that a third letter goes out giving two weeks for improvement or eviction.

It is rare that someone needs to receive the final letter.... by then they have either sorted out the problem or vanished! 

As well as untidy plots attracting attention, more recently, plots that are unproductive or have too larger an area set aside for picnics / lawns or simply masses of bare earth in the middle of the growing season also receive warnings.

Our committee stipulate that a plot must be 75% cultivated so lawns are a definate no no. The criteria for inspecting needs reviewing at the next agm as there is some cunfusion on the definition of cultivation

[Lee1978]

We have one plot this year where the bloke turned up mid may, rotovated the plot, planted it up with plug plants, and he's not been seen since............not even to harvest. Needless to say it is full of weeds!
I hope that new people get the chance to clear it before April/May.......such a waste of good digging time otherwise

That must be really frustrating, especially when you have a large waiting list. There was a similar scenario when i had just taken on my plot a few years back, another plot holder used to call in a few times a year take a look and leave, the weeds were waist high and spreading to neighbouring plots. It took months to get him thrown off.

Our site is over looked by a road on one side and houses on the other so people from the waiting list could see the untidy plots when they walked past and were thinking they were vacant when in actual fact they were'nt.

[grendel]

well I think we have 3 a year, but the last was in november, just a couple of weeks after we took the plot on and yes it has a full crop of weeds, I have managed a few visits and started trimming the hedges (we have two as we are the corner plot) and they are part of our responsibility (not to mention we gain 3 foot on each hedge that way too).
As to how much we will have done by the april inspection, well that will depend upon the weather and when the ground has thawed enough to dig, maybe we will need to borrow or hire a rotovator to clear the weeds off. but we definately have our work cut out as the plot is almost virgin meadow.
Grendel

[Yorkie]

I really wouldn't recommend a rotavator to 'clear' your weeds, grendel.

They just chop the roots up into lots of new plants 

Slow and steady covering / clearance is the way to go.

[grendel]

that was the reply I dreaded, yes I knew that really, its just I dont see that the plot is going to be very tidy by April. (though it will be an improvement on what it was)
Grendel

[Yorkie]

If you have made a start, kept existing weeds under control, and look as though you are making progress, then that is all that I feel can reasonably asked over the winter - if it remains as wet and cold as it is at present. 

You shouldn't walk on the plot if the mud sticks to your boots (damages soil structure).

If, come April, there are no signs of activity then I'd expect the inspection team to get a little worried.

[Lee1978]

that was the reply I dreaded, yes I knew that really, its just I dont see that the plot is going to be very tidy by April. (though it will be an improvement on what it was)
Grendel

It's surprising what you can achieve in the space of a few hours

[Kleftiwallah]

There is a chap in the Town Hall I go and bleat to about this kind of thing. 

He has done begger all about non-allotment people using the 'gate area' as their personal parking area.  Up to now there has been 4 allotment holders denied access for loads of nanure by selfish parking and had to turn it away.     Cheers,    Tony.

[Zippy]

The problem arises when you get a tight knit committee who have eyes on more and more plots for themselves and will find any excuse to "root someone out" as the OP puts it. Busy body ne'er do wells looking after their own ends.

What is an unkempt plot exactly? To a person who uses chemical fertilizers and sows or plants in rank and file, a plot like mine with its lasagne beds and scattered groups of plants and selectively left self seeders could look unkempt. Should I be rooted out?

I think the term unkempt should be defined before any group starts such an inspection to safeguard peoples' different methods of allotmenteering.

Of course, leaving broken glass, unsafe constructions and the like around is a different matter as is leaving dangerous chemicals around. Our allotments would look a whole lot neater if individuals were to look more to the rubbish lying around the plots than what is growing on them.

[Christine]

We get three inspections a year - March, June and September. We also get the three letters - please cultivate, improve or else (usually with helpful suggestions as to where improvement is required) and the third tells you that you've had your chance. If you get one in September you have the winter to pull yourself up.

Usually we manage to get to the eviction stage by the winter so that people coming on have the chance of working through the backend and early spring to make some impression.

There's a 50% cultivation rule which is to fit in with the pigeon men and the chicken keepers. Seems to work fairly well.

It's been working for so long that there's a sort of tradition about it. Must be hard if there is no tradition and you have to build up from a base somewhere down a mineshaft.

[Lee1978]

The problem arises when you get a tight knit committee who have eyes on more and more plots for themselves and will find any excuse to "root someone out" as the OP puts it. Busy body ne'er do wells looking after their own ends.

What is an unkempt plot exactly? To a person who uses chemical fertilizers and sows or plants in rank and file, a plot like mine with its lasagne beds and scattered groups of plants and selectively left self seeders could look unkempt. Should I be rooted out?

I think the term unkempt should be defined before any group starts such an inspection to safeguard peoples' different methods of allotmenteering.

Of course, leaving broken glass, unsafe constructions and the like around is a different matter as is leaving dangerous chemicals around. Our allotments would look a whole lot neater if individuals were to look more to the rubbish lying around the plots than what is growing on them.

The committee would'nt get away with that on our site, there would be a mutiny

It's a good point you have there about defining terms so evryone is singing from the same hymn sheet as they say. Everyone has a different interpretation of "unkempt" My idea of i tidy plot may be totally different to my neighbours.

The trouble is you get too many do gooders who stick their two penneth in where it isn't needed. What ever happened to good all common sense at the end of the day.

[Paul Plots]

The problem arises when you get a tight knit committee who have eyes on more and more plots for themselves and will find any excuse to "root someone out" as the OP puts it. Busy body ne'er do wells looking after their own ends.

What is an unkempt plot exactly? To a person who uses chemical fertilizers and sows or plants in rank and file, a plot like mine with its lasagne beds and scattered groups of plants and selectively left self seeders could look unkempt. Should I be rooted out?

I think the term unkempt should be defined before any group starts such an inspection to safeguard peoples' different methods of allotmenteering.

Of course, leaving broken glass, unsafe constructions and the like around is a different matter as is leaving dangerous chemicals around. Our allotments would look a whole lot neater if individuals were to look more to the rubbish lying around the plots than what is growing on them.

The committee would'nt get away with that on our site, there would be a mutiny

It's a good point you have there about defining terms so evryone is singing from the same hymn sheet as they say. Everyone has a different interpretation of "unkempt" My idea of i tidy plot may be totally different to my neighbours.

The trouble is you get too many do gooders who stick their two penneth in where it isn't needed. What ever happened to good all common sense at the end of the day.

It's not always that common 

[totalnovice]

As to how much we will have done by the april inspection, well that will depend upon the weather and when the ground has thawed enough to dig, maybe we will need to borrow or hire a rotovator to clear the weeds off. but we definately have our work cut out as the plot is almost virgin meadow.
Grendel

I got my plot last March and it was a state (to say the least) the committee on our plot were really good, and took into consideration that i, like you, was starting from scratch pretty much. I started off with a small patch and cultivated that then slowly (very slowly) did a little bit more and a bit more until the plot was clear (2 yrs later ) If the committee are human beings they should appreciate that you have had your work cut out and as long as you are making progress they shouldn't have a problem. Good Luck!

[Aidy]

I can't see why inspections are needed if a commitee exist's, surely as digalotty says, they should have a quiet word if a plot is getting messy, then put it in writing and then kick them off.
This is pretty much as we do it.
The council inspect the site every so often, but its down to the reps and commitee for the day to day running.

[Coach]

We have no plot inspections at all. In fact the present field managers plot is one of the worst. He hardly visits the field and never tends his plot!!
 
Next month we are getting a new field manager and what she is saying is that she going to heavy handed with non-tended plots!!

We have heard all this before!! Hope it happens