Gardening Sooner than the National Average with Tommy’s Field
For more than 100 years, council-owned allotments have been providing a patch of land for green-fingered residents to get outdoors and grow something. These often ramshackle but well-loved patches of land are scattered across the country and available to everyone, at a minimal cost.
Their provision is enshrined in law – The Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1907 and 1908 made local councils responsible for providing allotments if there was a demand for them.
However, as the population has increased and more people have moved to built-up urban areas and homes without gardens, demand for allotments has risen. But the number of allotment patches has not.
In fact, land dedicated for allotment use has declined by 65% from its peak between the 1940s and 1960s, The most deprived areas have suffered from eight times more allotment closures than wealthy areas and that lost land could have grown an average of 2,500 tonnes of food per year in each city.
It’s not just the steady supply of homegrown fruit and vegetables that allotment owners gain from. There are also the physical and mental wellbeing benefits, as well as the social connections made during time spent working on an allotment. Remember during the COVID-19 pandemic, when time spent outdoors was restricted more severely if you didn’t have a garden.
Getting an allotment plot of your own is easier said than done though. Nationally waiting lists are up 81% on 12 years ago, with around 174,000 people waiting for their opportunity to take up a trowel and shovel. Last year data from local authorities around the UK found waiting lists at an average of three years, rising as high as 9.8 years in Edinburgh or even 15 years in Islington, north London.
Why, you may ask, is this relevant? Well at Tommy’s Field we regularly have a waiting list of only 10 – 20 people. So, should you want an allotment the waiting time is much less than in many parts of the UK and there is a good chance you could be gardening later this year or possibly next.
So, please do fill in an application form and send it to our Secretary.
Also, if you have just moved into the area, and are into gardening, it’s a great way to integrate into your new community.