Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi. I am a 3rd year Bsc Horticulture with Plantsmanship degree student studying at both the Scottish Agricultural College and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. At the minute, I am in the process of trying to pick a topic for my fourth year project. I have always enjoyed growing fruit and vegetables in my parents garden as i grew up but now living in a top floor flat in Edinburgh i don't have anywhere to do this.

This promoted me to research allotments in the city. This seems a perfect topic to concentrate my project on but im not sure what angle to take yet. This could include proposing areas for new allotment sites or finding out whether allotments improve peoples health and life in general.

If anyone has any thoughts on this it would be much appreaciated. Once i get my idea finalised, I wil most likely be carrying out a questionnaire of allotment holders, if people are welcome to do this. Again if you have any thoughts on this such as issues for current allotment holders that i dont know of as yet. Thanks

Charlotte

Hi Charlotte,

Welcome to the forum.

I don't have an allotment so I can't help you with your project, but I do know how difficult it is to survey people - so I wish you well with that. I am sure the allotmenteers here will be able to provide you with suggestions for subjects, and hopefully take part in any survey you produce.

Hi Charlotte - Welcome

I was wondering if you could link up to the green spaces thing whatever it
is called and map out all the unused land, old building sites, behind buildings etc that could be used to grow on - not just highlight sites
that could be for allotments. You could calculate the total land,
perhaps the amounts that could be grown of a particular crop or
even how many interested residents could benefit. Offset the cost
of this (hopefully free) against 'proper allotment' creation and also
the benefits - security to sites, urban regeneration, civic pride etc.

Just a thought that may or may not be interesting to present.

Yours Westi

http://home.btconnect.com/phoenixnews/disab22.html
you could look at health benefits of raised bed allotments for disabled.

You could look at benefits of different gardening methods, chemical v organic, and yields,
Rotovated, Dig, and no dig /mulch method and soil structure, life, bacteria fungi, no of worms etc.

The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners could be a useful source of ideas: http://www.nsalg.org.uk

Best of luck with the project.

Thanks for the replies, they are much appreciated. I like your idea Westi but im not sure how i would go about doing that.

I have looked into some of the health projects at allotments in my area, and find it very interesting. In edinburgh there is a site which has a health project connected with the NHS, as well as The royal blind school and several other charity based groups. It also has a area of allotment solely for disabled with suitable paths and raised beds. I really like this kind of area along with finding out how different allotment owners tend to their plots and whether they are organic and more eco friendly now, seeing that is more fashionable today apparently.

Any more ideas are welcome too....

Hi Charlotte,
Just a couple of thoughts ...
1. I read that "vertical gardening" is becoming all the rage. People in blocks of flats and urbanised areas are using windowsills, ledges, roof gardens, fire escapes, anywhere above the ground to grow plants. Many tend to go for flowers, but it might be worth looking at the vegetables angle on this?
2. With the shortage of allotments I have often thought that there must be many city-dwellers who would love to have a place to grow veggies. There are also many city-dwellers with gardens who are not interested in them or are getting too old to do the work. Might there be room here for an experimental "co-op organisation", to bring these people together? Basically the garden owner let's the flat-dweller use part of his land, in return for a supply of veggies?
Best wishes in your project.
John N