Ed wrote:

I like having the shed . It means I can leave all my tools and stuff
there and I can sit inside if there a bit of rain. So, I can then just
cycle up there on my push bike and not need take the car .

Ed (Herts, UK).


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 ;-)

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?

"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...

"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?

Assuming you're in the U.S, you would probably call it a community garden.

Steve

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...

"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?

Assuming you're in the U.S, you would probably call it a community garden.

Steve

Thanks. Then I would definitely lock my shed.

Ed wrote:
On 14/04/09 18:13, Pete C wrote:
Ed wrote:
Got my new shed now on the allotment and am well pleased with it and
use it to store my tools (spade, fork, hoe, rake, etc.) and all the
other small bits and pieces that are essential for gardening work.

But should I lock the shed door with the key when I leave? Or just
leave it unlocked with the wheelbarrow upturned against it?

What do people here usually do?

Ed
There is no proper answer.........depends largely on the level of
vandalism in your area. Ask fellow plotholders about the history of
the site. I'll be putting up a shed on my plot in a couple of weeks,
and my intention atm is not to lock it. Atm, as I clear and dig over
the plot, I leave all my tools in a water barrel with a cover. So
far, so good. As for comments about 'why' a shed........ a pee bucket,
chair to
have a break if it rains, a camping stove and kettle for a
brew.........all very nice

Agree totally with you as to why have a shed!! Boil a pan of water,
pick some sweet corn cobs, plunge them straight in, cook n eat!!
Magic!!
Ed (East Herts, UK)

Oh Ed, you got me drooling now
--
Pete C
London UK

brooklyn1 wrote:
"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?
In the UK, an allotment is a bit of land away from your house used for
growing fruit and veg. Allotment sites vary in size, mine has only 16 plots
and is securely fenced. Other sites have over a hundred plots. Does that
help?
--
Pete C
London UK

"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...

"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?

Assuming you're in the U.S, you would probably call it a community
garden.

Steve

Thanks. Then I would definitely lock my shed.

I don't lock mine, just put a nail through the hasp to keep it shut. Our
site is open, not even a gate. The one time in 7 years we've been robbed,
the sheds with locks were simply bolt croppered, in some cases the hasp was
cut. So we all lost our tools, but those with locks also lost a lock or
hasp.

Interestingly, one of the other allotmenteers called the police, and a
detective came out to the allotments, and he was not best pleased because A,
someone had just had a delivery of manure, which he didn't like at all, and
B, because 8 sheds had been robbed, which meant 8 separate victims, and 8
separate crimes, with very little chance of solving, natch. So that was his
statistics banjaxed for that month.

Steve

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:14:08 +0100, Ed wrote:

Got my new shed now on the allotment and am well pleased with it and use
it to store my tools (spade, fork, hoe, rake, etc.) and all the other
small bits and pieces that are essential for gardening work.

But should I lock the shed door with the key when I leave? Or just
leave it unlocked with the wheelbarrow upturned against it?

What do people here usually do?

Ed

That depends on where you live. I live in a small town in Massachusetts,
I leave my barn door unlocked and I've never had a problem. On the other
hand I grew up on the South side of Chicago (two blocks from Obama's
house), anything that wasn't nailed down got stolen in seconds there. In
fact things that were nailed down were stolen.

In article ,
Ed ex@directory wrote:

On 14/04/09 17:54, Billy wrote:
In article ,
Ed ex@directory wrote:

Got my new shed now on the allotment and am well pleased with it and use
it to store my tools (spade, fork, hoe, rake, etc.) and all the other
small bits and pieces that are essential for gardening work.

But should I lock the shed door with the key when I leave? Or just
leave it unlocked with the wheelbarrow upturned against it?

What do people here usually do?

Ed

Locks only keep out honest people.

Or dishonest people that can't be arsed to find an unlocked shed? Do
you have an allotment shed? Do you lock it?

Ed (East Herts, UK)

I live in the US. I suppose there are some community plots here but not
like I've seen in France and Germany. Seems like 30 years ago, around
Koblenz, no one locked anything. Used to be like that in Northern
California, when I arrived 45 years ago, but times have changed, here
and there.

If there was something solid, I'd chain my wheel barrow to it and only
leave the most worn out tools in the shed, and chuck the good stuff in
the boot of your car. Maybe get a duffel bag to consolidate them into.
Maybe you have a mate that lives nearby, where you could store your good
tools? Here, likely as not, here someone would move in at night to get
out of the cold, and clear off in the morning. They may not mean to
break anything or to burn the place down, but accidents happen.
Homelessness is more of a problem here than there, especially with so
many people being made redundant now and our lack of welfare compared to
Europe. Wouldn't leave anything I'd miss. Theft isn't the only problem.
Vandalism is a diversion for some adolescents. Trashing your shed and
garden, just for something to do, would appeal to some miscreants.
--

- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being
is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the
moment of conception until death." - Rachel Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI29wVQN8Go

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html

"Pete C" wrote in message
...


brooklyn1 wrote:
"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?
In the UK, an allotment is a bit of land away from your house used for
growing fruit and veg. Allotment sites vary in size, mine has only 16
plots and is securely fenced. Other sites have over a hundred plots. Does
that help?

Yes, it helps, but what size is a plot, and does each participant need their
own shed... I'd think in such a situation a community shed would be more
efficient (not so redundant, I mean 16 sheds is a bit much, a 100 is
asinine), and with many community tools as well, as I can't imagine everyone
needs say a wheelbarrow, or a rake, or a shovel at the same time... probably
easily get by with half as many tools or less, I can't imagine 16 plot
caretakers need more than 2 wheelbarrows between them, I'd think no more
than half are ever there at the same time. Okay, the big question, who owns
this farm land, is there a landlord who rents/leases out the plots, and at
what cost, or?

Thanks.

brooklyn1 wrote:
"Pete C" wrote in message
...


brooklyn1 wrote:
"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
et...
On 14/04/09 17:41, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
Got my new shed now on the allotment and

Meant to ask, what's an "allotment"?
In the UK, an allotment is a bit of land away from your house used
for growing fruit and veg. Allotment sites vary in size, mine has
only 16 plots and is securely fenced. Other sites have over a
hundred plots. Does that help?

Yes, it helps, but what size is a plot, and does each participant
need their own shed... I'd think in such a situation a community shed
would be more efficient (not so redundant, I mean 16 sheds is a bit
much, a 100 is asinine), and with many community tools as well, as I
can't imagine everyone needs say a wheelbarrow, or a rake, or a
shovel at the same time... probably easily get by with half as many
tools or less, I can't imagine 16 plot caretakers need more than 2
wheelbarrows between them, I'd think no more than half are ever there
at the same time. Okay, the big question, who owns this farm land,
is there a landlord who rents/leases out the plots, and at what cost,
or?
Thanks.
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
--
Pete C
London UK

Ed wrote:

I like having the shed . It means I can leave all my tools and stuff
there and I can sit inside if there a bit of rain. So, I can then just
cycle up there on my push bike and not need take the car .

Ed (Herts, UK).


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 ;-)

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:31:20 +0200, David in Normandy wrote:

If your tools do get stolen you may be lucky and find identical ones
going cheap on a car boot sale ;-)

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.

http://www.camo.co.uk/b25.htm

--
Cheers
Dave.

Ed wrote:
Got my new shed now on the allotment and am well pleased with it and
use it to store my tools (spade, fork, hoe, rake, etc.) and all the
other small bits and pieces that are essential for gardening work.

But should I lock the shed door with the key when I leave? Or just
leave it unlocked with the wheelbarrow upturned against it?

What do people here usually do?

Ed

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

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, Ed wrote:

Got my new shed now on the allotment and am well pleased with it and
use it to store my tools (spade, fork, hoe, rake, etc.) and all the
other small bits and pieces that are essential for gardening work.

But should I lock the shed door with the key when I leave? Or just
leave it unlocked with the wheelbarrow upturned against it?

What do people here usually do?

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
--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France