Right, this is what I am going to do. I will spend my time, effort and money on my tiny garden and the allotment can just wait in the wings. No more lovely roses are going to be planted there - instead, all the timber I have lovingly hoarded will be used to make deep, movable planters and I will just reclaim the sidewalk outside my house. The garden will be excavated and refilled with decent soil and the greenhouse, where i propagate and sow seeds can, instead, becaome a decorative part of the garden with geraniums, streptocarpus, alpines - no need to sow loads of new seeds to be mugged at the allotment.Won;t be bothering tying it up with vegetables when it can look lovely all year. New roses will be planted in new deep planters and the garden will be stripped of anything which is not totally beautiful and precious. Stuff like fruit trees will be OK without my time and attention, vegetables can be sown directly into beds and I will concentrate my efforts on what I can do something about and not waste anymore time on a project which was always doomed from the start. It will be better to have a tiny gorgeous jewel instead of a much bigger mess. I am feeling guilty because I know lots of people have to manage with balconies and window boxes so it is better to make the most of what we have instead of yearning for an impossible idea. Oh yeah, glyphosate is gonna be my new friend and I will start with a socking great cordon-sanitaire around my poor old raised beds and garden areas at the allotment since, if no-one is around to maintain their plots, they are not likely to complain when someone else (me) decides to deal with it in whatever way I deem appropriate (Roundup death!)

Suzy,
I'm sorry your allotment has been such a source of aggravation and misery instead of pleasure.

It sounds like you have it figured out. One of the true things about life is that you can't control what other people do. I know the effort you put into your own garden will turn it into a jewel, and give you a lot of pleasure.

In the area you have, about 21 feet x 27 feet (language I understand) - you can make into something beautiful. That's about the same size as my garage bed, and it gives me untold pleasures. It will be beautiful, Suzy. You're a talented gardener- go for it!! Gean

And you can have endless fun deciding which smaller roses are going to make the cut in your jewelbox garden.

Jeri

Well, pooh on your nasty neighbors!! I like the "cordon-sanitaire" idea. I was thinking about running a lawn mower around your allotment - just chop it all down since apparently there's nothing desirable growing there, but RU works, too. You do still have to clear out the dead stuff when death finally arrives. Your allotment is very large and must require tons of effort in your "free time". Sometimes we do have to rethink our situations and come up with a more manageable and even better plan. The fact that it was prompted by a journey into the dumps is probably not even unusual. It's a good thing because it prompted you to take control and find a better way, and by the looks of your posting times it took less than an hour. You're a wonder, Suzy!! I like your plan for your home garden. Obviously (but sometimes it isn't), in a tiny jewel of a garden every plant known to man can't be grown, so your plan to reduce your numbers and types is perfectly reasonable. I am excited for you, because I see this as a wonderful new beginning. I am sure you will make your new garden into a perfect dream garden - perfect for you and your space limitations. I don't know how much room you have on the sides of your house, but can you grow climbers on your walls? Or go vertical elsewhere with roses? Well, I don't want to muck up your plan. When you get it more fleshed out, tell us all about it. BTW, you picked the perfect folks to vent to. :)) And don't forget your son's camera. We want to see what a true English garden looks like - especially yours!!

Sherry

I think you've made a wise decision. And then you don't have to do all that jamming and preserving either. I thought you sounded a bit exhausted at the thought of it. A friend of mine has a plot outside her flat the same size as your garden and it's one of the most marvellous gardens I've seen. Others think so too and it's been photographed for our local newspaper. She has an espaliered apple hedge, a small tree, climbing roses and clematis en masse, bulbs in spring, hanging pots. Narrow natural stone paths wind around this jungle, a chair for her cats as I don't think she ever sits down. Of course, secateurs are her best tool.

Campanula, I TOTALLY understand your virtual life-or-death need to garden. For about six yrs in the late 70's/early 80's, I was obliged to live in an 11th floor apartment. After a few months, I was going freaking berserk! One day I simply made a snap decision to ship all the dining room furniture to storage, and turned that space into a maze of industrial-looking light gardens. Within months, all the furniture in the one spare bedroom was out of there too, and in came more tacky light gardens. Then I had to sacrifice ultra-precious closet space to accommodate bags of ingredients for potting media and sundry other indoor gardening accoutrements. In that crampted garden in the sky I grew Gesneriads of every conceivable ilk and a few other things. And there were fringe benefits that I hadn't anticipated: No dinner parties with more than two guests, and all out-of-town visitors had to bunk at the hotel down the street.

Eventually that chapter came to a close, as we knew from the beginning that it would, and I once again had a garden -- albeit a modest one. I vividly remember that day in early March when, at long last and on my knees, I got my hands in dirt again. I d*mn-near wept.

Campanula -

Well, you have every right to rant here - that's part of what the forum is for, in my opinion. I, too, think that you are making a wise decision. All that time, money, and love can now go into a place that will be what you want it to be, with the only aggravation being the normal gardening ones (bad bugs, weird weather, etc.). I'm familiar with the need to go small, since my own garden is confined to a balcony (albeit, a very spacious one - but still, a balcony). I have gotten only roses that should stay fairly small, and every now and then, I fall in love with a too-big, gorgeous, rose, like Mme. Lambard, my latest crush. But I have learned the hard way that I have to stay within the scope of what I have space and sun for. The good side is that I find there is something very personal in one's relationship to the roses when there are only a few smaller ones - you end up getting a closer look at them all and noticing more about them. I expect you will enjoy your home garden and all you do for it much more, now that the vile neighbors at the allotment are out of the picture.

Good luck and fun with it, Laura

After reading your first post, I was going to recommend round-up for your neighbors. After reading your second post, I think your brainstorm of using raised planters and having only plants that you absolutely love and give you joy is a fantastic idea. You will have control, and will not have outside frustrations. As far as size goes, no matter the size of our gardens, each of us has to decide what to include and what to subtract.

oh, thank you all so much. The trouble with an allotment is that it is a bicycle ride away - can't just nip out and have a quick half hour fiddle so once there, I tend to spend a long time. And, in truth, around the beginning of June, I was on top of it all but a tumour had to be removed from our aged collies paw so there were visits to the animal hospital every couple of days (wonderful people!) and then, we got the new cat so there was another round of vets and vaccinations. To make matters worse, we have just completed a design and build job which we are intensely proud of (and deeply envious). It was our final day on Friday and I was really looking forward to getting back into the allotment but weeks and weeks of drought has left everything looking grim (apart from the sodding weeds, all of which have rushed into seeding!)
Jaxondel - a 'few other things' (raised eyebrows - i also know a little about ahem, growing under lights!)
Sherry, yep, I do have high brick walls which are currently groaning under the mass of foliage. Anyhow, if I rip out the puny little beds we put alongside the walls, I can change the soil, therefore obviating the inevitable rose replant disorder, so, hey Jeri....new roses!!
After getting home and venting, I took myself to the greenhouse to sulk and discovered that the new cuttings have struck, much to my wonder and amazement as this is my first time with semiripe cuttings. And guess what still looks green, lush and unfazed by the general disaster area at the lottie - roses, of course. No blooms for sure but, compared to the sad vegetables, crispy and nude fruit bushes, drunkenly leaning apple cordons and fried rudbeckias and heleniums, the roses are looking pretty good. New amendement, fill as much allotment space as possible with roses (which I will now be able to manage if cuttings are viable), plenty of ground cover and sod any attempts at being some sort of nature queen or earth mother - time for idle hedonism and sniffing the roses.
In truth, I had it all backward - the allotment ought to be the working area and my home garden should be the end result and not a garden nightmare so I have only myself to blame. I don't hate my allotment neighbours for being bad gardeners or being lazy but for their selfish behaviour in not giving up the plots when there is currently a 15 year waiting list! The reason why allotments used to be the preserve of retired old men was because they are hard work and take a lot of time but there has been a rash of 'half hour allotment' books leading many people to imagine themselves strewing a few seeds about while wandering up and down in a bonnet carrying a trug (I spit on trugs and people who selfconsciously parade about with them looking picaresque.....oh no, I am at it again.....)Anyway, you are all so right, it is time for a bit more discernment and a bit less trying to have it all. Cheers, folks, you are a tonic and a lifesaver.

Thank goodness for google. I now know what a trug is as well as an apple cordon and cordon-sanitaire. But it's a sodding good thing you speak English, Suzy, or I'd be in trouble.

Sherry

sometimes the most pleasing things can be the simplest. I think you should cut back and just find a way to make the garden at your home more beautiful. You sound overloaded and overstressed to the point of breaking,... a sure sign to cut back.

And you'll enjoy it so much. You will. Think of how beautiful it will be and you can just walk out your door to see it.

but first, take a break and just try to relax a bit and get your ducks in a row. :)

I hope you will forgive me for a bit of trug-envy. I work very hard in my own garden, but I do like to pick my tomatoes into a nice basket or other attractive old-fashioned container, and not into something made of (eww) plastic.

In any case, I wish you every kind of luck with your new plan. It sounds very sensible to me.

Rosefolly

campanula, I've thought for some time that you seemed to be sinking under the weight of everything that had to be done or that you thought had to be done. At times it's made me tired just to read everything that was on your agenda. I do believe you had to hit bottom before the truth of it all hit you. You're only one person, a person who's been spreading herself wafer thin, and now you've had a revelation and it's time to regroup and refocus. If there's such a tremendous waiting list for allotments, why not give someone a great gift and donate yours? It could feel like an albatross being loosened from your neck. As mentioned, you cannot change people but you can stay away from people and situations that make you ill with frustration. Perhaps it's time to focus on yourself, to pamper yourself a bit by slowing down all that frenetic activity, and stopping to smell YOUR beautiful roses in YOUR beautiful garden. You have my best wishes and keep us posted on how you go on (as I think the English say).

Ingrid

I wouldn't give up the allotment, ever. The trendy faux gardeners will fade away; true gardeners will endure and emerge. Just use the allotment for tough plants for which you have no room at home, and go for exquisite beauty - a plantsman's garden, as you English say - at home. Every plant special and dear to you.

Your resiliency reminds me of every gardener I respect - that's why I'd rather hang out with gardeners than any other type of person. Gardeners always come up with solutions to adverse conditions and regain optimism after brief fits of despair. At 12:31, you were deeply, deeply demoralized - at 13:25, you had a plan!

Sorry that your summer has been so tough. I remember that you lost a beloved cat earlier this year, in addition to all of the other adversities. You've gone through a lot - now is time to just reorient your thinking about the allotment and your home garden, and enjoy them both on the terms that you set for them.
Anita

I suppose that is a drawback of long narrow gardens, that if you end up with crappy neighbors, it is very difficult to maintain the crap that is creeping to your side. Fences and digged in borders to prevent the roots coming to your side is one option, round-up should work too. You could probably move your vegetable growing to the allotments and have beauty garden near your house - that is, if you do not have a problem with thievery in your allotment (sometimes if garden is close to the city it can be an issue). But in general things like greenhouse should be fine in your allotment, since weeds do not seed out in it and it should fare fine if left unchecked for a week.

i knew i could rely on my forum mates to sort me out! A bit of thoughtful advice, a cup full of kindness and empathy, a trug filled with insight and erudition, even a metaphorical slap on the wrist - what a wealth of friendship and wisdom.
Elemire, we do get the odd bit of nicking but, as I am at the slackers end of the lottie, bad intentions don't seem to reach up to our end since there are no visible temptations. Anita, you are so right. Grow your own fashionistas will quickly tire of the workload - I just hope the council will take this on since there is such a long waiting list. After gardening in a tiny space, the amount of sunny, open land at the allotment was a dream and has been the focus of my efforts for years while my tiny home garden has become a green and rambling jungle. Oh yes indeed, time for a change. Ingrid, thank you for your advice - I am also going to be using both you and Sherry as inspiration and getting rid of everything which is not up to scratch. Aimee, I am lining up the ducks right now.(bewildered, but grateful) Thank you again, my lovely, lovely rose friends.

Well at least your slacker neighbors work as a thief deterrent. :D My old garden also was half an hour away from the city, so in that situation at some point I started planting something that does not require extensive care and does not get overrun by weeds that quickly. Shrub corners are good for that, since not that much stuff grows in shade under them, also some perennials that make huge clumps are fairly immune to weed-o-topia.

It is not the same though as having a garden near your house, but I wish I had allotment for all the optional plants, something I would like to see in person, but just do not have a space for it, roses included. Especially, big roses. :D

I was so happy to read yor second post. Gardeners are nothing if not resourceful and persistant. It is a need like you said, a part of your life. I remember so well the garden I had once at a slum apartment. I grew things in what ever pots I could afford. It was immensely satisfying and important. I think you will be happy doing what you are doing. I can completely sympathize with your frustrations about the lot. I wish you joy.

I think you've made a very wise choice and will enjoy your new, lovely garden at home. I can't believe the amount of fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables people get out of small potagers, so that might be an idea too :)

Of course Elemire. Big roses. Huge roses. Huge roses with vicious thorns.......as edging.

haha campanula, may I suggest Mermaid? It has single flowers... among other ... things. :D

Although, Baby Mermaid may be less deadly choice. :D

Part of this just sounds like summer. Every year we go through a long, dismaying period when the sun blazes and the wind blows, there's no rain, the earth cracks, and nothing grows but the weeds. Then fall comes and with it returns hope. So there may be an element of summer weariness in your feelings, though not that alone. I'm glad you have a working solution. Good luck, and remember, September's not far away!
Melissa

Melissa............

Summer........... so true. We had a long, long rainy spring and I yearned to be outside working, but the soil was way too wet. Now, we have temps in the high 90s and low 100s and I can only work until about 10 in the morning and still come in dripping in sweat. Do I deadhead or weed ? The weeds are winning. (It doesn't cool off at night this time of year.) But I haven't gotten to all of the projects I dreamed of this spring. Yes, I have gotten a lot done, but each day, I feel like I haven't even made a dent in my list.

There are four gardening levels on my property. All of them are works in progress.

Smiles,
Lyn

I agree that summer can be a torture for the gardener. This year I have to move a few big shrubs and not so small tree and before it is done, I can't do much with the beds they are occupying at the moment. They will go dormant only somewhere around November and then it will be a rush to do everything before the first freezing, which can be just a few weeks away in December...

So true, Melissa, this does happen around this time as I start to run out of steam, very tired and bored with the daily tyranny of watering pots, all the earlier flowers campanulas, philadelphus, roses, foxgloves, dianthus and early vegentables are over. Usually, there are still lots more to come, dahlias, crocosmia, rudbeckias, asters and so on but this year, because it has been SOOOO dry, they are looking crispy, small and sad. Remains to be seen whether they will recover for a late summer finale but, Autumn is no longer a sad time for me. There are the new bulbs to order, bare-root roses, cuttings to take and a chance to get some order into the garden. Yes, our passion demands sweeping ups and downs, massive seasonal swings, long days of waiting and planning and oh, the thrill of those first green shoots when the life fuse sparks after the long dark.
Every year, I tell myself NOT to look sadly (and enviously) at pictures of perfect homes and gardens in magazines - these owners have fabulous houses, plenty of money and usually, an army of helpers.......self criticism does keep us striving onwards but it is a very thin line to step over into permanent disastisfaction or even bitterness. No matter though, life confounds us with its absolute will to exist....and, if you look through narrowed eyes, the weeds merely seem verdant rather than annoying.

Suzy. Congratulations, you obviously have a quick mind to realise a solution so fast.
It took me months to realise that I was never, ever, going to keep up with my garden in Cornwall!
What with work, shopping, laundry and age catching up with me,I still refused to see that I was never going to win.
Then every time I could finally get out into the garden, it was raining!!
It broke my heart to leave it, but now I have a much smaller and manageable garden, lots more time, and a lot less rainy days.
You will find, with a smaller area, it will give you much more joy than frustration.
There will still be some frustration though, when you realise that you cannot have large sweeps of just one plant.
This will be offset however, by planning and realising those smaller gems. You will find that you become even more inventive. Using structures to squeeze in more vertical plantings. Successional plantings. Using rocks or walls to create another level, etc.
The most important thing though, is that it is under YOUR control. It is no longer affected by your neighbours doings or neglect.
You will enjoy it again.
Daisy

I'm at a stage in my life when I can no longer handle our large yard----the weeds have taken over ---I would love to have a smaller garden--

I remember my MIL's garden----she lived in a "row" home in the city---it was amazing how she gardened in that small space----a little path down the middle---I don't know the exact size ---perhaps 10 ft. by 20 ft.---she had a couple of roses----veggies--flowers----and a small tree at the end--it was delightful
That is just about the size I would be able to handle at my age---
Good luck with your plans ---I will follow your progress with great interest.

Florence