Home grown

Above: Chislehurst Allotments (Kent Life Magazine)

Above: Graham Laidlaw, chairman of Dartford Road Allotments Association(Kent Life Magazine)

Above: Allotments in Sevenoaks (Kent Life Magazine)

Above: Merilyn Canet, plot holder in Sevenoaks as well as south east England representative for the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (Kent Life Magazine)

The rising price of food is never out of the headlines at the moment, and with good reason. According to most measurements, during the past year, the average price of food has grown by 12 per cent, adding a whopping £750 to the annual average family grocery bill.

The trend of rising food prices is predicted to continue in the future, and has led an increasing number of people to look into the option of taking on an allotment plot and growing their own food.

“It is certainly possible that with an average-sized plot, you can grow plenty of the food that you need each year, says Marilyn Canet, South East England representative for the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners. “You might have to adapt the way that you eat, such as only eating food when it is in season, and eating a more limited range of produce. But, if you do this, and put the work into your plot, then there is no reason why you can’t become more self-sufficient and take the pressure off your grocery bills. I'm sure this desire is one of the reasons why demand for allotment plots in Kent has really taken off in recent years”.

According to the Local Government Association, across the UK there are now 330,000 people who have their own allotments. Beyond this, there are an additional 100,000 people waiting for a plot to become available. Such is the current disparity between demand and available plots that not only are the numbers of people waiting increasing every day, but those on the lists are sometimes facing waiting times of up to six years.

Many allotment sites are on land that might otherwise become a concrete development

Although the recent food price rises have played their part, there are other reasons behind this sudden surge in demand, as Graham Laidlaw of the Dartford Road Allotment Association in Dartford explains. He says: “I think a lot of people have begun to worry about where their food comes from. When you grow your own food, you can be sure of what has gone into it. You can grow it organically if you wish or at least limit the amount of fertilisers and pesticides you use. Equally, the transport associated with food and the amount of carbon dioxide that this produces is also a concern for many people. If you grow produce then the only food miles are from the plot back to your kitchen.”

When you take into consideration that last year half the vegetables and ninety-five per cent of the fruit eaten in the UK originated from beyond our shores and in the last fifteen years the amount of CO2 attributable to food transport has risen by fifteen per cent, this is one area were changing how we get our food can have a significant environmental impact.

A positive impact
Paul Kirk of the Belmont Lane Allotment & Leisure Gardens Association in Chislehurst, feels that allotment gardening also enables those involved to have a positive impact on their immediate environment.

“Many allotment sites are on land that might otherwise become a concrete development and they provide open spaces in otherwise built-up areas, with the associated benefits that provides. It’s also true that allotments improve biodiversity. Most gardeners these days try to avoid the use of chemical insecticides and prefer to use techniques such as companion planting to control pests. It makes these sites a haven for wildlife.”

According to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, allotments have on average up to thirty per cent higher species diversity than urban or country parks. Biodiversity is important for allotment holders because it promotes crop pollination, which is why gardeners do whatever they can to encourage it within their plots as.

Marilyn Canet feels that one of the main problems facing people serious about improving their self sufficiency today is the limited provision of sites.

“Local authorities across the county face a real dilemma when it comes to the issue of allotments. More land is needed to accommodate the rise in demand and yet this competes with the need for more land to use for the development of houses, something which is essential in the South East.”

Although the problem of provision has been a constant restriction for potential allotment gardeners in recent years, Councillor Susan Jones, Chairman of the Dover Town Council Allotment Committee feels that this is an issue that many local authorities and town and parish councils are becoming more aware of and attempting to correct.

You can pretty much grow anything you want, that’s the beauty of having an allotment

“This is an issue that I think is taken more seriously now. Here in Dover, we are currently renovating a number of plots that because of poor demand in previous years had fallen into misuse and become overgrown and uncared for. When this process is complete we should have increased our amount of lettable plots without having to acquire new land. Of course, we recognise that this might not be enough to accommodate all demand and so in addition to this we are also seeking new sites to provide extra provision and are negotiating a lease to take over the management of an under used independent site as we speak.”

Allotment Associations across the county now feel that local authorities are increasingly supportive to their needs. Plots are being renovated and new ones opened. Although this still falls short of what is needed to accommodate the rise in demand it at least it illustrates that the needs of allotment holders, both current and future, are being recognised and acted upon.

In for the long haul
Despite waiting times remaining significant, Graham Laidlaw feels that it’s still worth putting your name down as soon as possible. “I can grow everything I need on my plot. You can’t completely avoid using supermarkets or other shops but you can limit what you buy. There is plenty of hard work involved in allotment gardening and if you are serious about greater self sufficiency then you do have to eat seasonally. If you do that then there is every reason that your plot will give you lots of great produce throughout the year and because you’ve done it all yourself it’s something that you can take real satisfaction from.”

Did you know?

• Allotment plot sizes are measured in rods, an old Anglo-Saxon unit, so-called because it was the length of the rod used to control a team of oxen. A rod is 5.5 yards (5.03 metres). Plots sizes are usually 5 rods or 10 rods. A 10 rod allotment is actually 10 square rods in area, which is 10 x 5.5 x 5.5 = 302.5 sq yards (253 sq metres).
• By law all councils in England & Wales (except Inner London) have to provide allotments. Local authorities are under increasing pressure to meet their obligation to provide 15 allotments per 1,000 households.
• Allotment rules are extensive, but vary from council to council. They might include: no barbed wire, no bonfires, no livestock (apart from bees, by agreement), no buildings (except cold frames), no ponds and no overnight sprinklers.
• Rents for allotments are due on 29th September, Michaelmas Day, the day on which agricultural rents have traditionally been paid.
• The average number of people on a waiting list for an allotment in the UK is 59. Half of local authorities in the country report lists of more than 200 names.