A gardening body has issued a threat of legal action on the basis that some councils are not fulfilling their legal duty to provide space for allotments.

In Wales, the ever increasing demand for allotments is not being met. Some local authorities apparently have waiting lists of over 1,000 wannabe allotment holders. The reason behind the lack of response appears to be a concern that the current popularity of holding an allotment may soon fade, leading to a waste of resources.

The secretary of the Wrexham Allotment Association, Andrea Evans, stated “About seven years ago you couldn’t give allotments away. Now people want to know where their food is coming from and a lot of people garden organically. Also the price of food is going up daily. So to grow your potatoes, your carrots and so on, helps the family. We’re now seeing much more families taking on allotments. Just before Christmas we cleared 70 off the waiting list. At the moment we’ve around 35 on the waiting list - which is fantastic.”

Despite this boom in allotmenting popularity, not all authorities are meeting their legal obligation to provide plots where there is demand. It appears to be due to a fear that taking on and preparing land for this purpose may lead to problems when the current trend for growing your own passes.

Although the current weather is warm, the soil at your allotment may need some assistance in getting up to the right temperature to allow seed germination. Cloches or polytunnels can be placed on the beds a week before you intend to sow your seeds. These will help to increase the soil temperature, which will give the seeds you sow the optimum conditions for growth.

Some thought early on can really help to get your crops off to a flying start.

Cloches can also be used to encourage some plants, such as strawberries to flower, and hence fruit earlier. Cloches can be used year after year and are an essential addition to any allotment holders equipment.

A small town in Hampshire is taking the lead in finding new ways to increase the available outside space for residents who want to grow their own vegetables. The waiting list for an allotment in Alresford is about six years, but many people have large overgrown gardens that they do not, or can not tend themselves.

The town is launching a share your garden scheme, where greenfingered residents who have a small or no garden can use space on other peoples’ gardens to grow crops. The scheme will primarily be aimed at the elderly who have gardens and need help to keep them in order. This will help both groups of people, and will keep elderly residents feeling a part of the community and keep them in contact with people from different age groups.

This is a great idea and similar schemes have already been started around the country. Hopefully allotment waiting lists will be reduced and community spirit will increase.

Unfortunately as many of us that own an allotment knows, they can be prone to vandalism. Whether it is just children who are bored so try to pick your crops and are essentially just playing, or malicious damage caused in an attempt to steal your allotment tools from your shed, the consequences can be upsetting for the allotment holder.

There are many things that can be done to discourage such activities, such as painting anti-vandal paint on fences around your site or protecting your valuables by locking your shed securely, unfortunately if the intruder wants to get in they inevitably will.

The only way to try to stop such occurrences is by educating the general public on what an allotment stands for, and the upset caused by damage and theft. Many allotment associations have allotment watch schemes and signs and deterrents at most of their sites to warn potential intruders, and the police at some sites take an active role in discouraging theft by arranging meetings with allotment holders on how to discourage theft.

It can be a good idea to have some sort of basic alarm system fitted to your shed, these are similar to home security systems but not as advanced and battery operated. They act as a shock tactic because the thief will panic when the alarm sounds.

It is unfortunate that sometimes events like these can happen, if they happen to you do not be upset or put off your rewarding hobby. It is a sad indictment of our times and something we all have to live with.

Living in the UK, some people may wonder why we face so many problems with water shortages considering all the rain that falls. When you grow produce on an allotment you always need a constant water supply to water your seeds and spray on your beds during periods of little rain.

Some crops needs more water than others like tomatoes and some types of gourds. It can be difficult however to have a constant source of water at your allotment. Most allotment associations provide free to use taps that are usually switched on in early spring and switched off in October to prevent problems due to extreme cold and icy conditions. This can be annoying if you need water through the winter season to either plant seeds or to water the plants in your greenhouse.

If you have a shed it is a good idea to rig up some sort of water collection device that will collect the rain water from the roof of your shed in some sort of container so that it can be used later. It is always better to use collected water if you are growing organically as it will not have any additives that have been added at the water purification plant.

Water butts are available from most garden centres for this purpose and most come with attachments so the job of fitting it to your shed is made easy. You can however use any type of water collecting or routing materials you can get your hands on. Old gutters from the local council or pipes from disused fire sprinkler systems can all be of use. Whatever option you choose you should try to have access to clean water all year round, as your produce will thank you for it in the long run.

Manchester City Council has announced plans to introduce fruit trees and bushes across the city in response to the fact that children from the city did not know where different types of fruit came from. The fruit will be free for the community to use as it wishes, whether just to pick and eat or for community projects.

The £200,000 scheme will see about 20,000 plants introduced to the city’s parks with signs and labels on them to tell the locals the right time of year to pick and eat the fruit. As well as fruit bushes and trees the council will also plant herbs and introduce more beehive sites, with park employees being trained on how to look after the plants and bees.

The plan will also see a number of vegetable plots created; with waiting lists for plots of land at a premium in the Mancherster area this will be a welcome relief for people who want to grow their own produce.

A statement from Manchester parks and leisure stated.

“Historically there have been very few fruit trees in our parks and we were amazed by the number of young people who told us they didn’t know where fruit and veg came from. These are public areas and there is no reason why people shouldn’t be able to help themselves to the produce grown.”

If you get permission from your allotment association, one thing that you might like to install at your allotment this spring is a pond.

Ponds attract wildlife including frogs and toads; these are great things to have on your site as they eat all the slugs and snails that normally eat all your crops. If you want a pond you could start with a basic design involving nothing more than inserting an old washing up bowl into the ground on an unused part of your plot, or you could be a little more adventurous and use the old bath from your bathroom for a larger water area.

If however you want to impress your allotment friends and are planning to stay at your allotment site for a number of years, and after seeking appropriate permission, you could choose a beautiful Koi pond. These ponds are aesthetic, relaxing and provide your site with a beautiful talking point.

Keeping a Koi pond is however a difficult task, you must research the installation carefully and install items such as a suitable pond liner and pond filter and pump. Also the pond environment should be established before you introduce the fish. Koi are gregarious and will often overturn and eat any plants that you may have put in your pond to increase its aesthetic nature. Koi can also grow to large sizes so the pond size should be carefully considered before the installation process.

Although these things may put you off, having a beautiful pond at your allotment will give you a great deal of pleasure for years to come.

A wind turbine has been installed by a group of allotments holders in Leicester to provide power to the plots. Rowley Fields decided that a wind turbine may be appropriate due to its raised and open location. The funding for this project came primarily from the council. The 20ft (6.1m) turbine cost approximately £7,000.

The power can now be used for lights and to power tools. There had been concerns raised by nearby residents, which lead to relocation of the turbine from its original intended site, but it appears that the current site is now ideal.

Mr Howgill, Rowley Fields allotments’ society secretary said:

“The wind turbine has some maintenance issues and the battery needs replacing in about nine years, but when we flick the switch, it is not going to cost us anything. It will give us lighting so we can do more work in late summer and autumn but also for laptops, which we increasingly use for record keeping and educational sessions.”

As every allotment holder knows, it would be nice to have a connection to some sort of electricity source, to power tools such as a lawnmower or strimmer or for some sort of lighting during the long winter months. However many of these tools can be bought that rely solely on battery power so you can charge them at home and then bring them to the site whenever needed. There are many battery suppliers that specialise in rechargeable batteries that are perfect for this type of use. They can be recharged hundreds of times so you save money and save the planet.

By using organic methods whilst maintaining your allotment, you can help to reduce harm to the local wildlife and ensure the natural balance on your plot is maintained.

The use of a compost heap can be beneficial both for your crops and is also wildlife friendly. The benefit to the soil and hence the crops are well documented, but they can also provide shelter for wildlife including insects and other small animals, such as hedgehogs.

Whilst it can be annoying, fruit bushes are fantastic for birdlife. Thrushes and blackbirds enjoy the crop, but they may well harvest all your berries before you get chance to enjoy them yourself. It is important to remember that there are a number of allotment associations who do not allow such fruits crops.

In order to maintain the natural balance and minimise the effects of pests, many allotment goers use a technique known as companion planting. A classic example of such includes planting marigolds near your tomatoes. The scent produced by the flowers discourages pests including greenfly and blackfly. In contrast bees and butterflies will love the marigolds, as they will benefit from the flowers nectar.

Successional sowing is a technique which involves sowing seeds of the same plant on a number of occasions over a period of time, at regular intervals.

This is a useful technique used by many allotment holders. This ensures crops become ready to harvest in a staggered manner, over a longer period of time, preventing the classic glut and famine problem often experienced. This technique can also reduces the problems associated with a crop failure due to climatic changes, as hopefully only one of the batches will be affected at any one time. Try successional sowing with your peas, salads and carrots.