New age blooms for allotments

There’s a quiet revolution under way on allotments as flowers, lawns and ponds appear among the vegetable rows.

Andy Gladman, GW Gardens of the Year finalist in 2020, took on his allotment in Warwickshire after moving into a rented top-floor flat. “I thought it would be somewhere I could practise until I got my own place,” he says.

It’s now home to two new Plant Heritage National Plant Collections.

Nadine Mitschunas, whose flowerfilled allotment in Oxfordshire was crowned GW’s Garden of the Year 2021, says: “People are more aware of the environment and climate change now, and they want to attract wildlife and grow flowers for the bees.”

The National Allotment Society advises tenants to check their agreements, as many specify growing mainly prodcuce. But garden designer and allotment-holder Cleve West believes including flowers answers an instinctive need to beautify the space. “And wildlife and biodiversity usually benefit, too,” he says.

⬛ What do you think? Should allotments be flexible or only for growing food? Let us know at the addresses on p18.

Andy Gladman has National Plant Collections of echinops and kniphofia on his plot