Cricket Lane, Beckenham

Trying to find a re-placement on a par with Trewsbury Road Allotments I arrived at Cricket Lane which was called Kent House Allotments in those days, but there was also Kent House Leisure Gardeners further down the road so the two sites were often confused.

The plot I was shown was lovely and two in from the gate. Perfect. But within weeks the problems started. My neighbour liked to throw chemicals around her allotment, something I didn’t agree with.

When I stared weeding it was my first encounter with a weed called Mares Tail.

Mare’s tail most commonly refers to Equisetum arvense (field horsetail), a very tough garden weed, or Hippuris vulgaris, an aquatic pond plant.

After weeding 6ft I bagged up the mares tail and put it in the corner, to be disposed of later once I had researched how to get rid of it. I mentioned it to one of the committee as I was leaving.

Work was busy that week so I didn’t return for 7 days. When I arrived my entire plot had been turned over, there wasn’t a weed in site, just beautiful brown soil. I went to find a committee member in the site shop to ask what had happened, maybe they had given my plot to a new plot holder by accident. But no, I was told that the site manager had rotavated the plot for me after he had finished his, he used to do it for the previous plot holder so thought he’d do me “a favour”.

The problem is when you cut even an inch of mares tail, it creates a new plant. So what had been a small patch in the corner of my allotment had been spread, without my permission, across the entire site. I reminded the committee that site rules that nobody is allowed to enter another plot without the prior permission of that plot holder.

Within a fortnight the entire site was covered in newly sprouting mare’s tail, over the ENTIRE site. My gut feeling was that if they didn’t respect the plot holder then it would only happen again in the future. I collected my tools and left.