Thursday, February 19, 2009

Allotments All the Rage

allotmentsThe BBC is reporting that allotments are all the rage. A combination of the credit crunch and eco-awareness is driving a huge interest in vegetable growing. National waiting lists for allotments are said to be over 100,000. According to the BBC:

In some areas, it's more difficult to get an allotment than it is to get in to the most exclusive London clubs, with waiting lists running to 10 years - those that have not been closed altogether.


In order to feed the demand, the National Trust is releasing enough land for 1000 allotments. What caught my eye about the story though was a link to Landshare.net. With a strapline "Linking people who want to grow their own food to space where they can grow it", it struck me as a brilliant idea whose time has come. The ubiquitous Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall appears in a video on the site explaining how the idea works. Or at least that's that it says - I couldn't get it to play. But from what I can gather it seems to be encouraging people to offer their underused gardens in exchange for some of the produce.

So if you can't get an allotment why not sign up to the Landshare website and see if anyone near you has a garden you could use to grow some produce? Or if you have good intentions to do something with your garden but you never seem to actually do it, why not offer your land to someone who desperately wants it? You get to see your garden looking cared-for and productive. You get a share of some of the produce. You get to build up relationships with people in your local community. It's a real win-win arrangement.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like an excellent idea - I expect there are quite a few people around the country who, for one reason or another, can't manage their gardens as well as they'd like, who would benefit hugely from something like this. Nice to see a bit of joined-up thinking for a change :-)

Anonymous said...

I had heard through chat on the Practical Poultry website that HFW's idea had died on it's arse somewhat because loads of people wanted land and very few people were offering it. Sad really, but not entirely unexpected. I live in an area with much farmland around and the waiting list here for an allotment has been estimated at 20 years so we're turning our entire garden over to the hens and growing veg. Whether it's successful is another matter!

Melanie Rimmer said...

That doesn't surprise me Vonnie. I don't think people need much more encouraging to grow their own fruit and veg. What's needed is to persuade people with underused gardens to see the advantages of joining the scheme. That's why I emphasised this part of it in my blog post.

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea, I hope someone does something similar in the US. In my town there's enough land that's wasted on chemical green lawn, we could probably feed the whole area.

Laminated Garden Guides said...

Too bad that this idea didn't catch on! Maybe it will, in somewhat modified form. I read on another blog about something similar, called "Neighborhood Food Growing".

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Cathy said...

I just finished putting down three yards of mulch in my little garden and wow, I'm aching.

From one avid gardener to another, love your garden photos. Beautiful.

Stop by my blog for an lovely "give-away".

xo Cathy

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Aiden said...

Landshare is a great concept, so simple! There are so many gardens around here that the owners just can't manage, and the space is going to waste which is sad. I wish we had something similar to Lanshare in the States..