Now here's a thing. Research from the newsletter Garden News, and reported in the Telegraph newspaper has found that "some men viewed their plots as an exclusive male preserve and disliked the feminine touches - such as ponds, garden furniture and shed curtains - appearing across the country".
The piece goes on:
Neil Dixon, the chairman of the National Allotment Gardens Trust, said: "The reason for the conflict is different lifestyles. Often it is a shock for a flat-capped, red-nosed gardener of advancing years to find an attractive young woman on the plot next to him. He will probably be a bit disgruntled.
"But this kind of attitude is way out of date. Usually after a season they are all getting on famously and swapping seeds and advice."
Unfortunately there's no hard data mentioned in the piece to back up this central theory, although the Allotments Regeneration Initiative is quoted as saying women make up the fastest-growing group of allotment holders.
Certainly allotmenteering has begun to lose its "Arthur Fowler" image in recent years. On my site I've noticed an influx of families and women working plots on their own, although there are still a fair proportion of retired chaps who grow cabbages and leeks in dead straight lines and train runner beans up old metal scaffolding. Unfortunately most of the families and new women plot holders don't seem to make it to the site's AGM, so their voices aren't heard: I've written before about feeling slightly alienated at these meetings.
I think there will always be a bit of a culture clash on allotment sites - between young and old, traditionalists and permaculturists, men and women, organic and non-organic growers, and in some areas, the retired and those who work full time, and even between different ethnic groups, all of whom have divergent ideas about what constitutes a productive plot. But as Neil Dixon says in the quote above, it doesn't take long to get past these differences to the common cause of growing darn good fruit and veg.
But back to the "feminine touches" of net curtains, ponds and garden furniture: each has its place, if you ask me. The net curtains are often there to shield the contents of the shed from prying eyes, rather than to make things look pretty; the pond is a great way of encouraging useful wildlife such as frogs and toads to the plot; and garden furniture - well we all need a rest and a chance for a cool drink or a flask of tea, don't we?
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