The Allotment Book. Andi Clevely
between landowners and landless. By contrast, the outcome can be a model of equity: on an allotment site all pay equal rent for the same size portion of land and rights of use, whatever their wealth, ability or social standing. It might be seen as a glimpse of Winstanley’s dream of the day when ‘the whole earth shall be a common treasury for every man’.
Every allotment gardener is a participant in this great evolving story
Winstanley was just one key activist, probably the earliest, among many in the chequered history of the international allotment movement, and every country has its own heroes – Anna and Carl Lindhagen in Sweden, Abbé Lemire in France, Bolton Hall in the USA with his vision of ‘little plots well tilled’. When tilling your own plot it might take a leap of imagination to link your efforts with these prime movers and their supporting thinkers, such as Peter Kropotkin with his anarchist philosophy of self help and mutual aid, the libertarian Proudhon who famously asserted ‘Property is theft’, or the New Englander Henry Thoreau, hoeing beans beside Walden Pond.
Changing fortunes For many people, however, desperate hunger or economic need was the chief, often sole reason for growing their own, a drive that was reinforced early last century by the equally imperative national demands of world war and inter-war depression. In many parts of Europe and the USA both a sense of patriotism and enforced self-sufficiency caused a boom in allotment gardening, urged on by slogans such as ‘Hoe for Liberty’, ‘Soldiers of the Soil’ and ‘Dig for Victory’. Numbers of plots and active tenancies reached a peak that has rarely been equalled since, even during the brief and idealized back-to-the-land fashion of the 1960s.
From the 1950s onwards, enthusiasm for allotments began to wane in the UK as a result of greater affluence, higher employment and the wider availability of food supplies, and many plots, even whole sites, were under-used, neglected or abandoned. This decline, interpreted by pessimists as the imminent end of the allotment movement, was not reflected worldwide, where material necessity often remained (and still remains) an urgent motivation. The decline was in any case short-lived, for a couple of decades later allotment gardening in many industrialized countries experienced a major revival as a new breed of plot-holders began to emerge.
The priorities of these fresh recruits were often focused more on the quality of life, rather than survival itself. Concern about chemical residues in fresh food and its limited choice, excessive packaging and transport costs all made growing your own organically an appealing and reasonable proposition. The proven physical and mental health benefits gave gardening a central role in therapy and rehabilitation programmes, as well as making it an effective way to escape from the stress and highly organized structure of modern society – for many, working on their plot became a kind of declaration of independence, an emancipation from uniformity. The old utilitarian image of allotment sites began to change as the plots were seen to be important recreational facilities for the whole family as well as vital habitats in the process of ‘greening’ our cities.
The global garden Although still firmly rooted in its tradition of individual land access and cultivation, the modern allotment now thrives in a more diverse and stimulating cultural context. There is no neat pattern of social stratification: increasing numbers of women, families, young professionals and gardeners from all ethnic cultures are bringing both variety and vitality to plots that, until quite recently, were tended mainly by older men striving to make ends meet. Kurdish strains of coriander, South American arugula, Ethiopian teff and dengi for Bangladeshi curries have joined the carrots and cabbages in narrow, neatly edged organic or no-dig beds as well as in the contoured meanders of permaculture plots (see page 31).
These days, urban allotments are just as likely to sport barbecue sites, wildlife sanctuaries, heritage seed collections, forest gardens, sculpture, beehives and ponds as once-derided rows of yellowing Brussels sprouts. Schools use sites for wildlife projects, environmental groups turn them into tree nurseries for urban regeneration and disabled gardeners have found new challenges and satisfactions on allotment sites.
Wherever you look, allotments continue to grow in social and economic importance as well as lively diversity. In New York, the City Farms project revived the Victory Garden zeal of the 1940s, organizing the production, marketing and distribution of fresh food among disadvantaged neighbourhoods from over 30 community gardens. Brazilian street children grow radishes for sale, St Petersburg prisoners raise black trifele tomatoes in their prison rooftop allotment, and German Kleingartens help refugee women to settle in their new home as they grow their traditional crops. Community gardening is as much about greening cities and healing wounds as simply ensuring food security.
Community gardening is as much about greening cities and healing wounds as simply ensuring food security
The future The unique value of allotment plots is set to grow both internationally and on a personal level. In urban areas land use is becoming increasingly competitive, and many plot-holders are having to make a political stand to prevent their sites and rights being eroded to make way for roads and new buildings. In 2001, Denmark set an enlightened example to other countries by making all community gardens permanent and secure in law, but elsewhere their status is more precarious. Winstanley and the Diggers would probably recognize the modern threats to land rights and our ‘common treasury’, and his crusading spirit might be welcome back in many site offices.
Agenda 21 of the 1997 Kyoto Agreement imposes a moral obligation on governments to commit themselves to support sustainable development, fight poverty and avoid destroying the resources of future generations. Allotments are an environmental asset, both for wildlife and for the health and well-being of plot-holders, and they add texture to lives and communities, while soil is possibly mankind’s most precious resource. So protecting and regenerating these community plots should be a key part of local strategies in the changing environmental context.
For many tenants, however, the main value of their plot of ground will always be intensely personal. On an allotment you might have responsibilities, but you also have freedom: the freedom to enjoy the company of like-minded, supportive and often highly experienced gardeners or simply to relax in the fresh air, away from modern pressures. You are free to grow your food by your own chosen methods, indulging whim, tradition and individuality to your own satisfaction, and to harvest it close to home in peak condition.
Ideas and attitudes might change – modern tenants may be quite different from their predecessors of two or three generations back, and allotments continue to evolve socially, from ‘plots for the poor’ to ‘gardens for a greener world’. But some aspects of allotment gardening are reassuringly constant, and from a down-to-earth perspective nothing has fundamentally changed: the soil is almost the same as it was (slightly improved in the best cases), the weather remains a seasonal challenge (but a little more so with the advent of climate change), and the basic gardening techniques are those familiar to the Diggers of more than three centuries ago.
Getting involved Allotments do not exist in a vacuum, and sooner or later you are sure to encounter politics. Local authorities vary in their commitment to the sites in their care, from fiercely supportive to indifferent or hostile, and the land itself is often a valuable asset coveted by developers. Committees and associations have sometimes had to respond to threatened erosion of rights by assuming self-management, mobilizing defence campaigns or filing legal challenges.
Growing good food remains the main purpose of an allotment plot
Elsewhere stable, thriving sites are regenerated by introducing projects that involve other local residents or improve interaction with the wider community. Advertising, special events, training courses, mentoring schemes and shared work days on tenants’ plots have all helped to revive flagging enthusiasm. Unused areas or merged plots have been transformed into wildlife sites or communal gardens where schools or special interest organizations can have their own facilities.
A growing awareness of environmental issues, social inequalities, sustainability and funding has led to a host of constructive and exciting developments that reinvent the nature of allotment gardening. How much you participate is for you to decide: growing good food remains the main purpose of an allotment plot, and this can bring you both peace and productivity,