There’s going for ‘em GREEN PLOTS STILL BLOOMING IN BRITAIN
Walford in EastEnders boasts perhaps Britain’s most famous allotment and it has not been without drama over the last 30 years. Favourite character Arthur Fowler, left, took his last breath while working on his beloved plot. Arthur, who was played by Bill Treacher for 11 years, collapsed and died of a brain aneurysm.
The Second World War prompted huge growth in allotment gardeners on the back of the Dig For Victory campaign. Green areas in the UK were transformed into 1,300,000 allotments by the war’s end. Only 250,000 now remain.
Comic Paul O’Grady is said to cultivate a large allotment at his home in the village of Aldington in Kent.
ALLOTMENTS first
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appeared in Britain in the Victorian era to help meet industrial workers’ need for fruit and veg in cramped cities.
Fast forward to today and the much-loved plots are still blooming.
In National Allotments Week, our man CHARLES WADE-PALMER brings you some top facts about living off the land.
Currently, 100,000 wannabe growers are on the waiting list for a patch of their own.
It costs an average of £40 a year to rent an allotment from your local council or a landowner.
There are strict rules about building on your allotment, with sheds and greenhouses no more than 4.32sq metres allowed. Also, you must not sleep there overnight, nor have Growing veg can be very profitable, according to the National Society for Allotment & Leisure Gardeners. It found the average cost of running a 250sq metre allotment – about the size of a doubles tennis court – was only £202 a year, but the minimum value of the crops could hit more than £1,500. Summer may be fading, but there’s plenty to keep growers busy into the winter. Crops you can nurture during colder seasons include onions and shallots, garlic, spring onions, asparagus and something Popeye would like, perpetual spinach.
Crops are not the only thing to thrive on an allotment. They can become havens for bats and beetles, which can in turn help to control pests and pollinate crops. Hedges, ponds, nest boxes, overgrown areas, herb patches and log and stone piles will all increase live activity.