Free to Good Home

The trouble with wanting an allotment but not having one is  that you cannot begin to plan it.  Granted we had daydream ideas of picket fences, neat and tidy rows and beds of fertile soil, a nice shed with perhaps a veranda.  Mrs Allotmenteer was musing about bunting and what would make a good pattern.  All well and good but with no plot to push forth our creative juices the utopian dream was pushed aside .

When the time arrived and we accepted the plot the need to clear, develop and plant all happened in a bit of  a hurry.  Cue the 5 sheets of graph paper cut out to scale, the coppering up of spare money to fulfil the dream.  So we had a plan but no brass to implement.  so what to do?

The scouring of freecycle began (https://www.freecycle.org/browse/UK ).  I cannot express how important this site is.  We have helped many a person out being able to pass on old TVs, sofas, baby seats, clothes and the odd random bookcase but had never been the recipient of "goods".  So I posted  the "wanted shed for allotment" add.  There always seems to be hundreds of wants and not many available.  Alas all was lost until Andy from the next town over emailed me to say if I wanted his shed it was ours!!  With help from our friend with a big car we squeezed the shed in and also bagged some paving flags as well!  Good old Freecycle.


Add in a bit of neighbourly / fellow allotmenteer assistance (waterbutt, old industrial door panels, fencing, crop netting and industrial pallets) as well as some allotment gifts (pumpkin plants, spare wood & pallets) and we were well on the way.

A nominal spend of about £50 bought us enough wood to make multiple raised beds which form the back bone to our plot - the local timber merchant, albeit from West Yorkshire, was able to supply (http://www.wakefieldtimber.com/ )

Raised Bed Anyone?

Some old bricks and paving slabs from the in-laws (who by the way have nicknamed us "The Goods" as in the Good Life) were gratefully received.

By far my favourite freebee was the drainage  pipes up-cycled from the waste pile of a Civil Engineering Contractor working on a site nearby.  The pipe lengths cut down provide protection of new plants.  the winter winds had no effect on my Spring Hero or my Pak Choi!!

Upcycling Landfill Bound Drainage Pipes