paul b long

Hi everyone

I've just joined and am very impressed. My garden is average for North London (i.e. fairly small but an oasis of calm) and I also rent a 180ft x 30 ft allotment, on a huge and beautiful site with nearly 200 allotments in all, where I grow loads of organic fruit and veg.

Best
Paul

smgardener

Hey Paul -- Welcome! Glad to have you here. Can you explain the allotment system to us here in the US? Sounds like a good plan, but I just don't understand it. Thanks!

paul b long

Hi smgardener

Your question will certainly get me going!

Allotments are a wonderful British institution. They are provided all over the UK by local government, who maintain the roads, fences and water supply around the sites, and they are run by local allotment societies. Local councils have a legal obligation to provide allotments for local residents in response to public demand. Demand far outstrips supply, however, and you have to wait two years or more to get a plot.

I pay £49 a year for mine and will pay only £29 when I'm 60. The plot measures 180 ft by 30 ft (this is the standard size) and has an orchard at the rear with apples, pears, plums and gages, plus a grapevine growing through a derelict greenhouse, a working greenhouse with shed attached in the middle, and brick cold frames in front of the shed. In front of that, I have dug out 5 rectangular plots for herbs and vegetables, rhubarb, squashes etc. and another area where I grow soft fruits (raspberries, gooseberries, red/white/blackcurrants, thornless blackberries). I've also constructed compost containers and leaf mould cages.

Apart from providing an all-year-round source of fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh air and exercise, it's a great place for making friends and sharing gardening tips. Some of the older allotment-holders have had plots for more than 40 years. A family from Boston (Mass.) have the plot opposite me, my neighbour on one side is an actress who grows exotic fruit and on the other side a Jamaican lady who grows wonderful herbs and squashes.

My society, East Finchley Allotment Society has about 200 plots on a large site with woods behind and a huge cemetery next door (most sites are smaller than this). There are two streams running through it, so we get lots of frogs to keep the slugs down. Green parakeets are nesting in the woods. It's a wonderful breathing space in the busy, dirty, noisy city.

Do you like history? If so, you'll want to know that allotments started in Tudor times, grew with the "enclosures" movement in the 16th and 17th centuries, expanded into urban areas in the Industrial Revolution, developed massively during the "dig for victory" campaign in World War Two and grew to a peak of more than 1 million in the 1950s. There are now about 250,000 and pressure on central and local government to do more to protect them and provide more. There's a huge revival of grow-your-own veg and fruit going on in the UK at the moment - in the States too? There's a furious row at the moment about allotments in East London being demolished for the 2012Olympics Village.

That'll do for now!

Best
Paul

lulugardens

Thanks for the explanation! That sounds like a great system - I wish we had something like that in the States. It must be such a refuge, living in the city. I have seen community gardens in some large US cities but they don't seem anywhere nearly as organized as what you've described. (Plus, I bet the government doesn't cover much of the expense. But, I could be wrong about that...)

paul b long

You're right that it is a wonderful refuge.

Local councils own the sites but don't do as much as we would like to maintain them. And central Government doesn't do much at all, if anything. My allotment society is negotiating with the local council to get a long lease (99 years) on the site so that we can manage it entirely ourselves and use our collective skills to maintain it.

ConsiderThis

Hi, Nice to see you here!

I used to have friends near Finchley... fairly loud area where their home was. They had a stand of bamboo that made the most lovely rustling noise and completely obliterated the sound of the traffic.

I'd love to see pictures of what you are growing.

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cia007

Welcome! I'm eager to hear all your green finger secrets!

paul b long

Good to hear from you. I grow bamboos along my fence to muffle the sound of the Northern Line (underground which runs overground where I live).

Can you help me with photos? I haven't worked out how to attach them.

Paul

smgardener

Paul, you can post photos that you've uploaded elsewhere (like flickr.com or photobucket.com) by clicking on the button with the little mountain on it and putting the URL of your photo. Or you can use the "BB" code for images, like this:

We're going to be adding some photo uploading functionality soon!