A community shed is in fact a good idea. However, Brits tend to be 'isolated' 'what's mine is mine'. I'm not....happily share anything, and I do. Here, most allotment sites are owned by the local authority (the Council) but some are privately owned. I like your thinking Brooklyn :)
In the end it is a gamble. Depending on the amount of theft and vandalism in your particular allotment. You have to weigh up the value of your tools, which ones to keep there and the convenience of not carrying them all the time... and be prepared to buy replacements if they get stolen.
If your tools do get stolen you may be lucky and find identical ones going cheap on a car boot sale ;-)
Some do, some don't. I don't lock mine because I don't have (or need) one.
May also be worth while getting some ghastly coloured paint and protecting the handles with it.
A fork with a bright pink handle has less value to a local tea leaf wanting to flog it at the loacl car boot than and ordinary looking one. Also runs the risk of you or someone else spotting it there and reporting them to the old bill for some explaining.
I'd not bother locking a shed, it's not going to stop a thief and you could end up with more damage to the shed (lock or hasp jemmied off). I would keep anything other than some cheap basic tools in there though, decent stuff I'd transport from home. An old army kit bag could be useful for that, tough as old boots, big enough to take most of a spade, fork, rake hoe.
I cannot imagine how you will get any benefit from asking this question here. How on earth would anybody be able to give you a sensible answer? What's next?
Should I invest in shares or property? Should I join the local library or go to the pub? Should I scratch my arse in church even if nobody is watching? Can God see my arse even if nobody else can, does He know that it is itchy, would He mind if I scratched?
Try alt.delphic.oracle
David
I had an allotment in Reading for fifteen years until last year. Although others on the site had sheds and rarely had any burglaries, I didn't like to do this and kept all my tools at home which was about one and a half miles away. If I'd had a shed on the allotment I could have cycled to the site instead of spending half an hour loading up my car (and my trailer if I was taking the cultivator) with tools and then another half an hour unloading at the end, not the mention the fuel I used which, because of the short journey, was a very inefficient way of using the car.
Because of this I found I had less and less time to devote to the allotment. As I get older and despite being retired, I'm getting more and more work (I'm an organist) and so going out on the allotment for a few minutes here and a few minutes there became impossible and so,last year, I felt so guilty about keeping an allotment which was not being used properly when there were so many people on the waiting list to get one, I decided to give it up. Or putting it another way, I thought I would jump before I was pushed!
However, as some here may remember, I do have a large garden here in France where I have around a hundred vines and a cider apple orchard as well as a kitchen garden. I don't have to load the car up to go anywhere and I can just go out and do a few minutes here and there when I feel like it. However in practice I spend a week over here every four or five weeks in the summer months which, though not ideal, works well enough for me to keep the grass and the weeds under control and keeps us not only in wine and cider throughout the year but supplies most of our vegetables as well.
And as I'm in France at the moment I'd better not waste any more time sitting at my computer and get out and clear up the grass I cut yesterday before doing some rotovating! Rain is promised for this afternoon but French forecasts are so inaccurate in this area (the Suisse Normande) that I'll believe it when I see it!
David
When I leave the house to go shopping etc. I always lock the shed. I have two dogs that probably are a bit of a deterrent but my side gates are also locked so that the gates can't be simply opened to allow my dogs to escape and then close the gates again to block reentry by my dogs.
My reasoning is that someone with only a handkerchief in their pocket could gain entry to my back yard by climbing the fence and if the garden shed is already open, they would then have immediate access to a variety of tools and implements.
There is often an amount of garbage in this newsgroup but I considered the above to be a reasonable question.
Thanks David,
In the five lines below "What's next?" you identified yourself.
We just stepped out of the front door to take the dogs a walk and the skies opened, drowning us. As you say it is impossible to rely on the weather forecasts here; they often seem no better than guess work.
I also like the luxury of stepping out of the house and straight into a large garden. It is so convenient. I grow most of our own veg too. I just wish the weeks didn't come up and go to seed so damn quick. There is a variety of grass that comes from nowhere and sets seed while it is only a couple of inches high. Similarly another weed with little yellow flowers - I must look up it's name.
By contrast, here the mist is clearing and we have a lovely sunny day. How long before your rain reaches us, I wonder. Can't quite remember where you are, David, but our postcode is 14690.
Shows you're getting older! I have the same problem.
What gets me is that grass here grows twice as fast - literally - as it does in Reading.
David
We are near Vire. It is bright and sunny here too now. The weather forecasts often contradict one anther too on different television channels. One says thunder storms this afternoon and the other says cloud / rain.
one way around that is to buy cheap second hand tools. If they are worn they may not be so attractive to a chancer and not a huge loss if pinched.
rob
Let me equivocate for other's knowledge. An allotment is in the public domain. Like a parking lot in a public accesible retail store. You have an enclosure in that parking lot that has your personal belonging, and you want to know if you should lock it up... Yawn....
Before going for the big guns of the ad hominem why not show how my point is wrong. How could a stranger from anywhere in the world give sensible advice in this case? Or is it a case of global democracy, the most people who know nothing about it who vote the same way decide?
David
Dave: Take Two
Let me (equivocate = use ambiguous language so as to conceal the truth or avoid committing oneself) for other's knowledge. An allotment is in the public domain. Like a parking lot (IN?) a public accesible retail store. You have an enclosure in that parking lot ((IN?) a public accesible retail store) that has your personal belonging, and you want to know if you should lock it up... Yawn....
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Huh?
Right-wing nut case, the first Boston tea party was as much a farce as Michael Savages reprise.
It was a well known fact that John Hancock had made his fortune through smuggling Dutch tea, which was cheaper than East Indian tea. A commonly forgotten fact is that East Indian prices were cut before the introduction of the three pence tax, in effect making its price, even with the tax, cheaper than Hancock¹s tea.
Good gardening.
In the UK an allotment is a parel of land rented, usually from local government, (the council) usually by an individual. I have my plot of land. In the UK the local authority is obliged in law by a number of 'enclosure acts' to provide such land as may be neccessary in a particular area. This is because of riots after the landed gentry enclosed the common land and made it their own in the 1800's. Leaving poor people nowhere to graze their animals or grow food for the table.
Allotments are usually collected together in a site managed by a committee, and in any site there may be a handful of allotments or dozens. On my site there are about 150 plots. each managed by an individual, or family or group of friends. I have my own plot, with my own shed, as does the man next to me and the couple next to him and the couple over the road. It is not the same thing as a community garden. I farm my own plot as do the other allotment holders on the site.
Go here to see the site that I have a plot on:
Baldymoon
I don't want to arrive at my grave in an attractive and well preserved body, hopefully I will be skidding in sideways, Gin and Tonic in one hand -- Cigar in the other screaming YAHAAAY!
A dark day with the loss of the commons. A model that many counties seem to mimic. :((
Bill where is Chief Seattle ?
"If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit." -- Lawrence Lessig
What size are these allotment plots, are they all the same size? How much is the rent? Can one actually grow enough useable crops on these plots to make it worthwhile to cover the rent and ones time, labors, and incidental expenses... or is this more a fun hobby for most? Does the government supply water? I suppose the government is the landlord?, for what purpose is the rent monies used?
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