In autumn of 2025, while bored on a train, I (Antonia) checked the municipality’s website and found that they were renting out an allotment. It had been online for a few days already and allotments here are given out on a first come, first serve basis. We didn’t have much hope, but we e-mailed the municipality anyway.

Lo and behold: we were the first to apply and one contract with the municipality later, we had an allotment: some 155 square metres total, a little less than 90 square metres of (potential) growing space. Bare, except for weeds and one plum tree.

We got the allotment in late autumn and admittedly didn’t do much then or over winter (except plant some garlic – a tale for another post). In spring, however, our fingers started itching. We got a small greenhouse and took to planning how we wanted to set up the plot.

Both out of conviction (permaculture! saving the soil life!) and to spare ourselves from having to weed the entire plot, we decided to go for the no-dig method: laying down a layer of cardboard, followed by new soil. For the sake of our backs, to keep the soil contained, and for purely aesthetic reasons, we also decided to build (slightly) raised beds.

Our first challenge was to find non-treated wood to use for the raised beds. The second, to make sure the wood and the soil we ordered would make it to the allotment, which has no official address. Fortunately, communication with both Bio-Kultura (where we ordered the soil) and Van Vliet Duurzaamhout (where we ordered the wood) proved that to be possible.

The wood got delivered early in the morning and a crane set it down in the middle of a field of stinging nettle that had sprung up in a far corner of the allotment. Fortunately, we had enough cardboard to flatten a path so we could safely transport the wood to less nettle-y parts of the allotment.

The soil proved a bit more challenging. We ordered two big bags, one of 1 cubic metre and one of 2 cubic metres. The smaller of the two could be safely set down by the entrance to the allotment, out of the way of other people. The bigger one, however? Due to its weight and the ground being a bit muddy in places, the only place it could safely be put down was on the edge of a four-way intersection. (Fortunately, not a terribly busy one – it sees more cyclists and dog-walkers than cars, but still. Not a place to keep a giant bag of soil.)

It was clear: the big big bag would have to be emptied before the day was done. 2000 litres of soil that would have to be moved.

To make matters more challenging: we didn’t have a wheelbarrow and the bag was taller than both of us, but certainly taller than Mariken, who couldn’t reach the top even with a shovel.

Fortunately for us, we are not the only people with an allotment in the space and someone else had a wheelbarrow we could borrow. That still meant that Antonia had to walk back and forth with the wheelbarrow while Mariken continued to work on setting up the raised beds until the big big bag was reduced enough that Mariken, too, could reach it.

2000 litres of soil, moved in one afternoon.

The adventure of our allotment kicked off with some very sore muscles, but we got it done (and the other 1000 litres moved the next day).

We still don’t have it all set up – two of the large three beds now feature raised garden beds with good quality soil. But we got enough set up that by the time the first seedlings were large enough to be transplanted, the allotment was ready for them.

So we’re calling it a win.