Fun on the allotment

Ros Moss

Individual Giving Officer

“Can we please go and pick something?” is a common cry from my two children at this time of year. They love our allotment when they can see the fruits of their (well my husband’s) labour. If there is produce to be picked, then they are happy to be taken away from screens or their books out into nature and the freedom that our allotments allows them.

We took on our allotment in 2021 at the height of Covid. I think it was initially an excuse to be able to get out of the house and see other people, albeit in a socially-distanced way.

We were very green (no pun intended) to the true amount of work involved in keeping an allotment. But that is one of the joys of allotments and gardening generally, each new year brings fresh challenges and the opportunity to learn and improve.

There are so many other bonuses from having an allotment. Not least the chance to grow fresh food organically and sustainably! When we have a glut of produce, we are forced to look for new recipes to use them up, be it roasted beetroot with balsamic vinegar, honey and thyme or cheese and courgette scones (one of my personally favourites).

Our children enjoy the freedoms that the allotment afford them. They take themselves off around the allotment, chatting to other plot holders, picking apples and blackberries, searching for adders, grass snakes, beetles or butterflies.

We are lucky that the other allotment holders are sympathetic to nature. In 2015 the Chair of our village Allotment Association worked hard to develop and area for wildlife and a heritage orchard.

Sussex Wildlife Trust gave advice and helped design a layout of different habitats. Over the next two years nearly 800 hedgerow saplings were planted, and ponds were dug. Within months of the ponds being dug six different species of dragonflies and damselflies were observed. This is now a lovely area for all allotment holders and their families to enjoy.

These outside spaces are known to boost health and wellbeing. The National Allotment Association estimate that there are currently about 330,000 allotments in the UK providing biodiverse green corridors and playing an important part in our future.