Growing trend cuts the size of allotments

[Aurora]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... lot114.xml

The Telegraph - 14/08/07



Gardeners who want to grow their own vegetables are being forced to accept allotments a quarter of the normal size because of a surge in popularity.

Rising interest has led councils to divide land set aside for plots into patches measuring 75 sq yards in an attempt to reduce spiralling waiting lists.

Local authorities are under growing pressure to ensure they meet statutory obligations to provide 15 allotments per 1,000 households. Strict rules also mean that no more than six people are allowed to be waiting for a plot at any one time.

There are fears that smaller allotments could create tension because growers will have such little space to use.

The news comes during National Allotments week, which started yesterday.

Neil Dixon, of the National Allotment Gardens Trust, has just returned from a tour of allotments around the country.

He said many councils were resorting to halving the traditional 300 sq yard plots to move families off waiting lists.

"If someone is happy to work just a few square metres of land to be part of a community and grow some of their own potatoes then I am all for it, but if that's all councils are offering then it's a dangerous development," Mr Dixon said.

He believes councils need to find extra land for allotments so more people can benefit from the outdoor lifestyle they provide.

"What concerns me is that we get to a situation where people have half a plot and want to secure the other half but cannot, so have to go on a five- to seven-year waiting list," he said. "That's not supplying people with the land they need to grow their own food."

But Medwyn Williams, the chairman of the National Vegetable Society, believes the end justifies the means. "What I want to see is more people growing their own vegetables," he said. "The Government has a dilemma because they have to find more green field sites for housing and more allotment sites for people that want to grow their own.

"There's so many people interested in vegetable growing at the moment that perhaps the only way to do it is to share out the allotments and get more people growing."

David Custerson, of the Spragglesea Mead and Dean's Ham allotments in Oxford, said offering half or quarter plots had helped turn his community from being "old boys like me" to one full of young women and children. But he warned that it would add to, not reduce, waiting lists.

He said: "We used to have empty plots because no one wanted to take the whole thing on. When we divided them up it generated a lot more interest and now we have a waiting list of 15 people."

Tony Ives, of the Spellowgate allotments, East Yorks, said his committee had started dividing up plots. "A whole allotment is quite a big commitment unless you are avid vegetable gardeners or retired," he said. "There is a trend towards smaller allotments for modern families who don't have as much time."

Sally Berry, a spokesman for allotments-uk.com, said: "Lots of space is needed for the classic allotment tradition of rotating cabbages, onions, potatoes and beans, but it is a very difficult process to manage, and many allotment owners give up on the process, but hang on doggedly to their long neglected plots.

In the meantime, the waiting lists grow and grow. On the other hand, quarter plots can be easier to manage, less time-consuming, free up more plots and produce a host of wholesome organic food."

[Eternal Sunshine]

There are large waiting lists in our area. We only got an allotment because I kept on at the secrtary at one of the sites. We got a full allotment but only because it was in such a state - at the far end of the site in a corner where people had been dumping things for years.

Most of the allotment societies I approached had a policy of giving people half allotments 1st, partly due to demand but also to see if they are really serious about the whole thing. There are plently of plots on our site that are let but not being cultivated, even though there's a waiting list.

[Totally_Baffled]

Our allotment is a half plot, and I can fully understand the logic of testing how serious applicants are before giving them a full plot.

To be honest , a half plot suits us, and actually half plots may get MORE people interested.

From a half plot we have a 6 by 4 shed, a 6 by 6 compost bin, room for a cold frame , 2 waterbutts, and 8 * 12 by 6 raised beds!!

Thats enough for me to be getting on with lol Ive got to fit a full time job in , the family, football on a sunday and the front/rear gardens at home! lol

There are plently of plots on our site that are let but not being cultivated, even though there's a waiting list.

Ditto to this.

Btw , even though there was supposidly a massive waiting list - we got ours within 2 months of applying.... hmmm...(could half the list of died waiting ? )

[Totally_Baffled]

One question for you all.

In a WWII food emergency type situation - how much land could be turned over to allotments in the UK?

There was 1.5 million full plot allotments at the end of WWII, with only 250,000 surviving in 2007.

But certainly when I look around there seems to be a lot unused sites that could be used in an emergency? (golf courses, paddocks, football fields, parks, national trust estates/grounds etc)

Or would hell freeze over before anything like this happened?

[clv101]

According to DEFRA: "Over 70 per cent of the total UK land area is under agricultural uses."

That's:

Code: Select all

Grass and bare fallow  7044
Grazing and other land 6426
Crops                  4443
Set-aside land          559
Total                 18,508 Thousand hectares

So maybe, if pushed we could put some 10,000,000 hectares into crop production? Just playing with some numbers, in 2006 the UK wheat yield was 8.0 tonnes per hectare so we might be able to grow around 80 million tonnes of wheat (or equlivilent). That's 1.3 tonnes per person per year or 3.7kg per day. If made into bread at 65kcal per 25g that's 9500kcals per day. No worries.

[redlantern]

Sorry, those figures won't work.

We have about 90% of cropland under intensive ag. Without phosphates (hitting peak phosphates worldwide, subjected to hubbert linearisation model over on The Oildrum) and gas-intensive nitrogen fertiliser production, you're left with soil that will produce the square root of bugger all. There are fields in production that have produced nothing except wheat for decades. The soil is completely inert/sterile, and it won't be worth firing up the combine to collect the amount of grain that the land will give. So that's 90% of the 4.4m that will yield a lot less.

Figures from EFRC indicate 2-3 T/Ha should be sustainable from an organic rotation.

Note 'rotation' - you won't want to put more than a quarter of your land to wheat at one time under decent organic system. You might get away with half for a while, but you'll be running down your soil faster than you can replenish it over a number of years.

[Eternal Sunshine]

In a WWII food emergency type situation - how much land could be turned over to allotments in the UK?

There was 1.5 million full plot allotments at the end of WWII, with only 250,000 surviving in 2007.
Or would hell freeze over before anything like this happened?

In WWII the "Dig for Victory" had the parks, etc cultivated. Shows what can happen when we're pushed.

[RenewableCandy]

Note 'rotation' - you won't want to put more than a quarter of your land to wheat at one time under decent organic system. You might get away with half for a while, but you'll be running down your soil faster than you can replenish it over a number of years.

Couldn't you alternate it with beans and spuds or something? Spuds give a higher yield than wheat (and need no extra processing enegy, or so it said on EnergyBulletin recently) and beans fix some nitrogen back in.

An organic enthusiast once told me that gardens/lotties can yield far more than big fields because you can go out and just help yourself to whatever's ready, that way nothing goes to waste. Also they're close to a source of compost (your kitchen or even bathroom) so it's easier to 'feed' them.

[redlantern]

Note 'rotation' - you won't want to put more than a quarter of your land to wheat at one time under decent organic system. You might get away with half for a while, but you'll be running down your soil faster than you can replenish it over a number of years.

Couldn't you alternate it with beans and spuds or something? Spuds give a higher yield than wheat (and need no extra processing enegy, or so it said on EnergyBulletin recently) and beans fix some nitrogen back in.

An organic enthusiast once told me that gardens/lotties can yield far more than big fields because you can go out and just help yourself to whatever's ready, that way nothing goes to waste. Also they're close to a source of compost (your kitchen or even bathroom) so it's easier to 'feed' them.

You certainly can rotate the crops; but our current system is designed to maximise the profit of a particular region; so around here it's potatoes, winter wheat and rapeseed, in East Anglia it's wheat, up in Lincolnshire brassicas for year after year ... getting back to organic rotations, running stock on fields on the years they are left fallow, instead of using FF to spread muck, will all cut the total yield.

Yes, ISTR the equivalent of 20tonnes/Ha. of vegetables being available to an intensively managed backyard vegetable garden. But we need more people in the countryside too.