Why all allotmenteers-in-waiting are not "almost-old people"

A Zoe Williams comment piece in Saturday's Guardian seems to have got allotmenteers' backs up - just to give you a taster, Allotmentality calls the piece a "sneering bilgefest". The paragraph that really lit the blue touch paper was this one:

I was amazed to discover that there are 100,000 people on the allotment waiting list. I've ummed and aahed for ages thinking of a way to say this, but there's only one: it must be all almost-old people. Mate, I am as soul sick as you are of people surveying their own generation via dinner parties, but I have canvassed all my friends and all my sister's friends which - I can verify with the aid of Facebook - verify is nearly 300 people (some of whom are the same), and the closest we have to an allotment is the following: one couple has a wormery; one has a field attached to her house in the country, but she is so unusual she has already been in Sainsbury's magazine. "She had her kids at 24," my sister said, as though the interjection of this knowledge said it all.

I've heard this argument before - "well I don't know anyone who grows veg/has an allotment". It usually comes from someone who lives in London and whose circle of friends is in London. Despite working in the capital for nearly 10 years I've never lived there, and among my circle of friends - both offline and online - I know quite a few people my age with allotments, or a veg patch in their garden, or a tomato plant or two on their balcony. So in my experience - which clearly differs from Zoe's - I'd suspect that the people waiting for allotments include a fair number of younger people and families. This was clear during my days on an allotment sit - every newly vacant plot was taken not by a retiree growing the holy trinity of leeks, onions and cabbages but mum, dad and the kids, a twentysomething woman, a father and son team - you get the picture./

A couple of the readers who commented on the piece* pointed out that newbies to allotments can be taken aback by the work involved in bringing an overgrown plot up to scratch - a fair point, and one I made repeatedly in my book. It also contributed to my reasons for giving up my allotment. I do worry that people think they can buy a few seeds and a fork and turn a brambly plot into a productive paradise with a couple of hours' work - anyone who's had an allotment knows that's madness. The answer - and this is particularly relvant if you are one of those 100,000 on the waiting list - is to start small and get growing in small spaces while you wai for an allotment to come up. It could be a few trailing tomatoes in a hanging basket, or a row of radishes in a windowbox, but it'll get you acquainted with the basic growing skills before you're let loose on your five or ten poles.

*Also loo out for commenter englishhermit's hilarious diatribe on slugs

Comments

[MarkD]

the article is ludicrous - for heavens sake, how misjudged can someone be...'too much asparagus'...I ask you

[Yolanda Elizabet]

Read the article yesterday because of your tweet about it. Thanks! I thought most comments were hilarious and yes, she did put quite a few backs up about the age thingy. Not to mention the whole *eating* of goat's milk whatsit. ;-)

I agree with your post as I have had much the same experiences as you. I used to live in Rotterdam (Netherlands) also a big city and I knew quite a few people then who grew their own veg and fruit in either their (small) back garden, allotment or in pot on a balcony or window sill. Today more and more young people are into growing their own stuff and the waiting lists for an allotment are getting longer and longer over here too.

[emma t]

Oh my god I have just laughed and laughed. It is (as always with ZW) clearly meant to be funny... honestly the idea of the stuff about milk... is making me giggle again.

What is wrong with all the commenters? The whole thing just made me think that allotment holders are great (I am one after all), but they seem to have a bit of a sense of humour deficit... ;-)

[Susan]

Very funny. She does seem to believe that allotmenters are a load of old men in homemade cardigans though. Can anyone please knit me one please so that I can put on my flat cap and live up to peoples expectations? I need a nice warm cardy, one with big pockets please. I wish I had too much asparagus though that woman doesn't know how lucky she is. I'm getting my crowns soon, can't wait. From, (almost old [age 36] person).

[Miriam]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Miriam

http://www.craigslistguide.info

[Simon]

Hilarious, and I've been lumping compost around and digging all day.

[Soilman]

Luckily nobody gives two s***s what Zoe Williams thinks. And I, for one, thank God and all the angels that arrogant, sneering, metropolitan morons like her don't want to have allotments. If that dim cow took up a fork as my neighbour, I'd have to commit allotment hari-kiri.

[Allotment Blogger]

Well there are a lot of older people on our allotments (Brighton) but this weekend there were seven students from one of the universities working a community plot, all nose-rings and pink hair and they ended up comparing tattoos with two of our eighty-something blokes. I think the blokes won - they had body art from WWII and one had shrapnel too.

The point being that actually we're a cross-section of society, like any other group of enthusiasts, and while Zoe does a great job getting a few laughs out of growing your own, I hope it doesn't put anybody off getting involved.

[Judith Irven]

Have been following your blog for a year or more now...I love it and am delighted to know that allotments are still thriving in England...just as I remember right after the war (I know...that dates me!!).
Check out my blog post on allotmenteering in England and Taipei in www.northcountrygardener.com