An allotment needs time and love. Without attention it’ll run wild away from you and be almost impossible to keep sweet.
The decision to take on an allotment needs to be considered carefully. Do you have time to lavish upon your plot when you first get it? They’re invariably a mess by the time they get allocated to someone new, so need extra time and care.
Can you spare the hours during the summer when long hours in sunshine need to be endured to weed, water and pick your harvest?
Tending your allotment needs to be done like a relationship. You’d not expect to spend just an hour a month with a loved one and to have a good relationship, so why expect an allotment to be easier?

Your loved ones might feel jealous of your allotment. The time that you devote to it might be the cause of a rift in your personal relationships. Something will have to give and invariably it’s the allotment. Unless of course you can persuade your partner that helping you on your allotment plot is good for them. If you can’t then every minute you spend on your plot pulling out weeds will be the cause of disharmony.

If you have young children then who’ll look after them whilst you’re working on your plot? You might think you can entertain them on your plot – and you might be able to once you’ve spent a few hundred hours making it child safe and removing the hazards of allotments; Unless you do though every second on your plot will be spent admonishing them for pulling up the plants whilst they admire the weeds. Lock up the pesticides, weedkillers and sharp tools too! And whatever you do don’t let them wonder off your plot on to someone else’s where you’ll find them munching on freshly picked prize peas.

Ideally your life can squeeze in a few hours a week on an allotment without making anyone feel jealous or insecure. How many allotments have been listed on divorce papers?