From Waste to Wonder: Our Allotment Makeover Journey

It’s been another brilliant community day at the allotments. We received a huge amount of help from our fantastic plot-holders. They were both old and new. This time, the focus was on getting our donated shed and polytunnel up. There’s still quite a bit to do, but we’ve made some real progress.

It’s not been an easy journey to get here. Just a few months ago, we had a site full of abandoned tyres. There was a huge pile of wood and rubbish. The committee and existing plot-holders felt very overwhelmed. The space now is all cleared away. New raised beds have been installed. A brand-new (to us) 16 x 9ft shed stands proudly. This transformation reflects how the influx of new plot-holders has helped the site advance significantly.

The shed looked absolutely enormous in its previous home. It’s amazing how small it seems on site, which just shows how much space we have to fill and maintain. There’s still a bit of finishing off to do. This includes adding more roofing felt to make it fully weatherproof. It’s already clear how useful it will be for storing tools. It will also be useful for hosting community activities.

Work also began on assembling the polytunnel, though we discovered we’re missing a few pieces. Nothing we can’t fix — it’s just another little challenge along the way! We are going to take a little bit of time to decide exactly what we want to do with it. The area where it is going to sit needs to be flattened. This will make assembling it properly much smoother.

It’s been incredible to watch the transformation of the site over recent months. We have cleared piles of waste. We built new growing areas. Now, we are putting up proper infrastructure. Every step brings us closer to a thriving, welcoming community space for everyone to enjoy.

A big thank you once again to everyone who turned up to help. Thank you to those who lent tools or brought a bit of good humour to the day. Your support really does make all the difference.