The Allotments Regeneration Initiative (ARI) was launched by the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG) on behalf of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation in 2002.  The project is currently funded by the Big Lottery Fund, Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Fund for the Environment and Urban Life. One of the aims of the ARI is to support and develop allotments regeneration and the creation of brand new allotment sites in the UK.

This society's origins date from 1901, as a members' co-operative. The NSALG is the recognised national representative body for the allotment movement in the UK. The society is owned, managed and funded by its members to protect, promote and preserve allotments for future generations to enjoy.

STOP THE DEATH OF OUR BEES!

A plethora of recent studies from Italy, Germany, America and other countries are implicating Neonicotinoid insecticides (an insect nerve poison) in causing sub-lethal and lethal effects to honey-bees that are exposed to plants grown from seeds coated in Neonicotinoid insecticide or treated with Neonicotinoid insecticide - typically maize, sunflower and rapeseed. These sub-lethal effects, influence the bee's ability to orient itself and return to it's colony; additionally it is likely the detrimental effects are compounded synergistically as the bee is weakened and becomes more susceptible to natural disease, parasitic fungii and parasites such as varroa destructor - implicated in the world wide colony collapse disorder we are currently experiencing. Neonicotinoid insecticides have recently been banned in other European countries and are being reviewed in the US - home of the corporations who are pushing these systemic insecticides. The UK is sitting on the fence, by first complying with EU rules on a ban and then  threatening to back off!

The Origins of Allotments

In Wales (Cymru) the origin of allotments (rhandiroedd ) goes back to Romano-Celtic and possibly pre Roman times. When a person who did not possess land would ask a landowner for a small amount of land to grow food and would usually be given a talar - the strip of land at the edge of a field that was not cultivated. In return the landowner would expect the cultivators of this land to help bring in his harvest and vegetable crops - like potatoes - when the time arrived (although at that very early time the potatoes were still in south America). This tradition is still exercised in some hill farm areas to this day. It was a widespread custom up until the end of the 1950s. A variation was the tradition of helping with the potato planting in return for a row of potatoes for the worker who would lift his/ her row when the crop was harvested.

It's possible to trace the origins of allotments in England back over 200 hundred years - they derive from the enclosure legislation of the 18th and 19th centuries - and the word 'allotment' originates from land being 'allotted' to an individual under an enclosure award (Enclosures were used by richer land-owners to stop the poor grazing their animals on common land).

The most important of the Enclosure Acts was the General Enclosure Act 1845 which required that provision should be made for the landless poor in the form of 'field gardens' limited to a quarter of an acre. At this time, allotments were largely confined to rural areas.

The modern notion of an allotment came into being during the Nineteenth Century. A lot of people from the country went to work and live in towns; there was a lot of poverty.

The First World War prompted a huge growth in the number of allotments - from 600,000 to 1,500,000. After the War, many of the temporary allotment sites were returned to their original use.

World War 2 again increased the role for allotments as a major provider of food; there was a blockade from the U-boats, and many farm-workers went to the war. Allotments became a common feature in towns and cities, Dig for Victory posters were everywhere, and food production from allotments rose to 1,300,000 tonnes per year from around 1,400,000 plots - that's nearly a tonne per plot !

Today, allotments are (thankfully) again enjoying a resurgence; partly because people are becoming more aware of the benefits to their health and the environment and sadly because we are fast approaching a critical period in our economic system the World over.  Often the problem however, is where to find land to cultivate.

Looking for a plot in your area?

It can be quite a daunting task, but they are available, if you're new to the game then get some tips by clicking on the arrow on the graphic to your right.

Most allotment sites are run by councils, but they don't have the total monopoly, some farmers have land available, and there's other disused land sometimes available from churches, railway companies, or someone like the National Trust (although that often depends on the NT local manager's attitude towards allotments - which isn't always great).

By PETITION

Your local council has a statutory and therefore MANDATORY obligation to provide land for allotments under the provisions of section 23 subsection (1) of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908.

Click on an icon below to download a PETITION Template compiled by the Aeron Vale Allotments Trust that you can use freely for your own purposs:

Open Office .odt format

MS Word .docx format

MS Word .doc format

Your petition only requires a minimum of six signatures to be valid.

Our Allotment Garden Friends

The value of allotments is considerable - they provide the opportunity for eating healthy, locally-produced food, for healthy exercise and for youngsters to learn that food actually comes from the soil, not a supermarket shelf!

Food produced on an allotment is food you can trust. You know what, if anything, it has been sprayed with. You know if it is genetically modified (GM). You know what varieties you have grown, so hopefully you know it will be tasty and nutritious. Most certainly you know that it has been produced locally, so it has not been driven, or worse, flown for hundreds or thousands of miles, producing air pollution and greenhouse gases. What better reasons for growing food on an allotment!

But you don't even have to rent or work an allotment in order to eat the food. Many allotment sites now have shops where you can buy the excess food produced by plot holders. How much better to spend a bit of your money helping out the plot holders of your local allotment rather than the directors and shareholders of the big supermarkets!

We  know that ALL fellow Allotmenteers are our friends, but the friendship doesn't end there! We also have a host of friends that are sometimes ignored and unsung, or worse still, even shunned by some who may not be aware of who their friends and who their enemies really are. We all know the real enemies - those pests that compete for our crops. However in our hurry to exterminate those pests we sometimes overlook what effect this can have on the long term. By destroying the pests indiscriminately ourselves we often deprive their natural predators of food. The predators decline and the pests increase, starting another round of an unending battle to rid ourselves of slugs, weevils, aphids, greenfly etc. etc. until in the end the only wildlife on our allotments are our pests!

Allotments are not only places of escape for people, they also provide valuable havens for a variety of plants and wildlife by providing a natural environment. If you want to keep your allotment as natural as possible, the first thing you should do is cut out the toxic chemicals.

Most of the toxins found in pesticides are non-specific meaning they kill friend and foe indiscriminately. The knock-on effect of this is that the next wave of pests that arrives has a free hand and can multiply unchecked, meaning you will have a worse problem than you started with!

 Why are allotments good for wildlife & wildlife good for allotments?

Whatever you choose to grow on an allotment, you can minimise harm to wildlife and maintain natural balance on your plot by using organic methods. A compost heap is both garden and wildlife friendly. You can use the well rotted compost to nourish the soil and the heap can provide shelter for insects and other small animals. Hedgehogs sometimes shelter in compost heaps and will help to eat the slugs and snails which prey on plants. Soft fruit bushes are fantastic for birds such as blackbirds and thrushes, though they may be stripped of raspberries and currants before you have time to harvest them yourself! Some allotment associations don't allow these fruits to be grown. Companion planting is a natural way of maintaining balance and reducing unwanted pests. Plant marigolds next to tomatoes, for example, as they produce a scent that deters pests such as Greenfly and Blackfly. Nectar loving insects such as bees and butterflies will also benefit from the flowers.

Ponds are a wildlife magnet and are allowed on some allotments. Make sure that if you have a  pond that it has a sloping edge so that animals can drink and climb out easily if they fall in.

If you really want to encourage more of the right kind of wildlife, there are several steps you can take to create suitable habitats. One is to create space for wildlife on your own plot; the other is to create a communal pond within the wider allotment area on an unused patch of land (unless you have a very large plot, you are unlikely to be able to sacrifice the space yourself). A pond will provide a watering hole for a range of beneficial wildlife, while also boosting the local frog population, some of the best slug predators there are!