National Allotments Week: Celebrating 100 Years of DIY (Digging It Yourself)

Submitted by Marc De'ath

This year is the centenary of allotment gardening. In 1908 the allotment act was passed, giving the public the right to allotment space - seen as the solution to all sorts of social problems from affordable food to poor health, allotments were going to be a real answer.

This year, as always, National Allotment Week organisers, the National Allotment Gardens Trust in partnership with the Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners are encouraging allotment holders to invite the public into their sites and to share experiences, an excellent way to get more people into growing, an idea that Sustained promotes all year round.

However, as we are all too aware, public interest in fresh food and maintaining allotments is speedily growing, and just like our patch, all over the country waiting lists are exceeding demand - ie. where there are 100 allotments, there could quite easily be another 100+ on the waiting list.  

Due to demand outstripping supply and to celebrate National Allotment Week, this week on the blog, we'll be starting discussions about shared gardening. We'll be looking at ideas from community allotments to home gardening projects, discussing whether they can ever be a real solution that can genuinely reduce the food bills for those involved.

Watch this space, and make sure you have your keyboards at the ready to post your own comments and ideas - Happy National Allotment Week!