Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi,
I help my Mum on our allotment and am doing a Scout badge - Community Challenge. I have to 'explore one aspect of how the local community works and is organised to the benefit of its members'.
My Scouter said he thought allotments benefitted individual families rather than the community. I disagree: what do you think?
John

Hi John,

Good luck with your project.

I think it all depends on what the people involved want to do. For example, our allotments are near a school [2 schools in fact] and we could get the governors of the school[s] to agree that one or two plots could be taken by the schools for free or a reduced rent. The problems are more to do with Health-and-Safety laws than anything else.

Some allotments have children's sections and ours has a plot which is used for training would-be horticulturalists.

But most of all the allotments encourage friendship between people of all communities around here, and Bedford is a very mixed community. We have a lot of Italians, some Pakistani and Bangladeshi plotholders, a Sikh or two, a Jewish couple as well as a smattering of "salt-of-the-earth British. Unfortunately it's only the last lot who will get involved in the committee and money-collecting business, but one of the british Pakistanis has been maintaining the water-pump on his own initiative. o the allotments have certainly encouraged good-neighbourliness and helped maintain the relaxed inter-communal relationship we have here.

I hope this is of some use to you.
Best wishes

mike

Hi John
Certainly a good topic.
In Butts Meadow the local Primary School have a plot and the "little darlings" occasionally are seen on the allotment.
I have certainly made friends on the plots, so it has a social side.
However, most of the time we chat briefly on our way to and fro.
In Berkhamsted there are three sets of allotments. One clearly has a much more active community (it is also the biggest space - twice as many plots) with a comunal shed, from which they ring a bell for tea (apparently). They are the only one of the three which has an annual open day and a website too, so they are ceating more community than the other two sites.

Curiously, the time which will create the strongest sense of "community" would be when the allotment garden is under threat of redevelopment.

Thanks for your replies - our allotment isn;t that child-friendly! I also appreciate the point about international mixing - not one we see on our site yet. We have quite alot of generational mixing though which is good.
I also think that the contribution to the community's environment is good if small - fewer food miles; less stressed adults; habitats for wildlife; less development/traffic.

Nickyk I think you are right, my allotments are very much a meeting place, we have different generations, different nationalitiies and people of colour. We have kids, parents and grandparents.

So it definitely benefits the community I would say, just as much as the village hall or the shop in our village.

Good luck with your project young sir

Compo

And it keeps grumpy old men off the streets.

I definitely think allotments benefit communities as well as families. For one thing, they create medium or large size open spaces where wildlife can thrive, which benefits the surrounding areas, especially in heavily built-up places. They are places where all kinds of different people can congregate safely and make new friends while they indulge in their hobby.And they are a source of home-grown produce, which helps to reduce the transport miles needed for food to be supplied to thatparticular local commmunity. And many people like growing their vegetables for Shows, which also creates interest and inspiration amongst other members of the community.

Allotments certainly benefit wildlife.
What with, the shed breakers in, the rabbits pheasants,wood pigeons, street pickers, rats and mice which attracts every year a pair of kestrals,and the thoughtless owners (outsiders)who bring their large mutts, to do their doings on the paths,it is easy growing food crops!


Only joking!

Then there are the blackbirds which always nick my first strawberries,just when I am licking my lips in anticipation. (I am willing to share with the blackbirds actually)
There are lots of lovely birds in the hedgerow, from Blue and Long tailed tits, robins,wrens woodpeckers,(seldom seen,but heard)to crows, buzzards and others to numerous to mention.
I also find baby adders in the horse manure on occasions as well.

Cheers

if I didn't have an allotment I'd be out there doin' crime

Allotment sites benefit the community around them if they want to - and frankly if they want to survive, its a must. I know of sites which have devoted plots to schemes for young offenders (several of whom have graduated to becoming plot holders and one is even on the committee now).. we have a plot dedicated to gardening for people with learning difficulties and another for use by a local refugee family project, (horticultural therapy for those traumatasied by war and other horrors). All good stuff - oh yes and we host school visits, encourage wildlife and our bees pollinate for miles around. All grist to your project mill I hope.