# The "allotment" (community garden?) in British shows **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452 "2015-07-17T20:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/41 "2015-07-18T20:56:50Z")
**Filbert** , the pictures showing progression from the beginning through May 2015 are gorgeous! I’m dazzled. It does sound like there are a lot of embedded (as it were) benefits… entrenched ones, too. You Brits are so great about maintaining traditions (for ill as well as for good, I suppose). Over here, if something happens two years in a row, it’s a _tradition_. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/42 "2015-07-19T08:27:06Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Well, you’ve had all kinds of people trying to force their way into the house, after all…Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Vikings, Normans, Nazis…I can see a need for wariness… And yet we don’t have a very large vocal group insisting that this perceived danger justifies the average citizen owning more firepower than he could carry in a wheelbarrow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/43 "2015-07-20T08:00:22Z")
I’ve always wondered how the family held onto Arthur’s allotment and its dramatically convenient shed all those years on Eastenders, after he’d died and no one ever seemed to grow anything there. I remember a number of community gardens (allotments) in Chicago. I’ve been trying to get my horrible HOA to put in a community garden plot, but they only allow endless expanses of chemical-drenched grass and our townhouses have no actual yards. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/44 "2015-07-20T10:03:53Z")
There’s a beautiful allotment across the street from me in London. I’d love to have a plot there but the waiting list is so long that it’s closed :-/ ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/45 "2015-07-20T12:15:56Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > We had one when we lived in Princeton, and my wife had one in Vermont before we were married. > I wish the Princeton one hadn’t posted signs inviting the local wildlife for dinner, though. Now I’m curious, as a Princeton-area resident. Where exactly is this place in Princeton? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/46 "2015-07-20T12:26:53Z")
Community gardens are quite common and very popular in the U.S., especially in medium to large cities. Rent for your small plot can be very inexpensive ($5 a year [here](http://www.franklintongardens.org/avondale/)). I used to garden on a plot in a community garden in Davenport, Iowa. Vegetable theft was a problem. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/47 "2015-07-20T13:33:53Z")
Sorry, I’ve had computer troubles and have only just discovered that the 2 links I gave both went to the same picture. One of the links should have [gone here](https://www.flickr.com/photos/17270214@N05/5634978178). (It’s a close-up of some of the plots in the other picture) If anyone really wants to know about the bureaucracy, etc., this is the [Edinburgh Council’s page](http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/904/allotment_docs) with 3 pdfs about them. Other Councils will have different rules - **Filbert** can keep bees, apparently, but that’s not allowed in Edinburgh for some reason. There are apparently 1364 plots in 26 different sites in the city… ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/48 "2015-07-20T15:26:27Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Community gardens are quite common and very popular in the U.S., especially in medium to large cities. > > Rent for your small plot can be very inexpensive ($5 a year [here](http://www.franklintongardens.org/avondale/)). > > I used to garden on a plot in a community garden in Davenport, Iowa. Vegetable theft was a problem. ☹ **[Community gardens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening)** are more about shared pain and pleasure, with communal upkeep and mutual effort, as a form of Primitive Communism, with possible links to early American Fourierian Phalanxes. **[Allotments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_%28gardening%29)** are where some angry old fellow screams at you interminably if one inadvertently treads on a single inch of his land. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/49 "2015-07-20T16:42:51Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Now I’m curious, as a Princeton-area resident. Where exactly is this place in Princeton? This was 35 years ago, but it was behind the Princeton Shopping Center on Harrison. We were there 2 weeks ago and things have been built up so much since then I doubt it is still there. We lived on North Harrison, so it was pretty convenient. Not that we got anything out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/50 "2015-07-20T17:07:22Z")
I’m in London and while I don’t have an allotment there are a half dozen allotment sites within a ten-minute walk from my house. I don’t know what the actual sizes of the local allotments are but from sight they’re a helluva lot smaller than 10mx20m or 55 yards or whatever. The ones near us look about 15 feet by 20 feet at most. They’re pretty small, but then the allotment sites are squeezed into odd spaces amongst the houses. ETA: Found some local data - in aggregate my local council area has 52 allotment sites (not individual allotments but sites containing allotments) covering in total about 170 acres, or about 3.2 acres per site. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/51 "2015-07-20T17:14:32Z")
Found more data! One of the local sites says: > [@](#): > > How much will it cost me to rent an allotment? > > The cost is 32p per sq m or 16p for concessions. This means your annual rent will be approximately £40 for a half plot and £80 for a full sized plot. > > How big is an allotment? > > A full size plot is 250 sq m however new members are usually given half (125 sq m) or quarter (60-70 sq m) size plots when they join. I must be seeing the quarter plots as I go by, or else people are chopping up their plots into smaller plots. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/52 "2015-07-21T01:17:20Z")
Thanks for the compliments **Thelmalou** , _blushes_ My plot’s been my main outlet this year especially, as my shift patterns mean barely seeing friends, and I live in a shared house. Having a space that is mine has been really important for me, and it’s nice when other people appreciate it too! I’m very lucky to get a plot I’m allowed to keep bees on; it’s decided case by case by the council allotments officer, and I have been told that no further permissions will be granted on my site, as no other plots are really suitable (two other people already have them). Mine’s up by the outside fence, with dense woodland on the other side, and no close neighbours. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/53 "2015-07-21T01:23:15Z")
I would think bees would be good for all the plots around. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/54 "2015-07-21T04:50:33Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > It used to be a common joke that, if you wanted to be sure to get your garden or allotment properly dug over, you only needed to make an anonymous report to the police that there was a body buried there. > > (I think most people are aware that “wasting police time” is a genuine, and sometimes prosecuted, offence here…) Alas Smith and Jones had a genius song and sketch about that, [Inner City Garden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7JRcaA5lkM). ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/55 "2015-07-21T07:44:16Z")
Mr Boods aka **Fridgemagnet** rents a substantial allotment plot; the best kept allotments on the site belong to retired folks, but there are younger people who maintain smaller sections. There’s a fairly long waiting lists for sections, and they will boot you off if you don’t have a certain percentage under cultivation (or you don’t keep it up). Most people grow veg with some rows of flowers to attract bees; several people on the allotments have chicken coops. Mr Boods’s is large enough to have a mini orchard (he’s got several small apple trees including a little golden delicious and a discovery, a plum tree, and a mature gage tree; couple of cobnut bushes/trees; a couple of rows of soft fruits including gooseberries, summer & autumn raspberries, and one or two others I forget at the moment). He’s just stated to harvest potatoes; he keeps in several varieties and grows enough that we’ll have them through to about next January or February or so. There’s a strawberry section, artichokes, a row of runner beans; he’s got a fairly good-sized section of sweet corn. He was just down there last night putting in rows of cauliflower and red sprouts. He gets a pretty good harvest every year, and it’s more than enough for the two of us; he gets in so many strawberries that he makes up jam and stuff to last through to the autumn, for example. He’s got a full-sized plot again; when he was working a contract away from home during the week, he sold off half to someone who was eager to grow her own veg. She lasted about a month before selling it on to someone else who also lasted about a month before leaving that half of the plot to grow wild. Mr Boods got tired of mowing the weeds, and after about a year asked the council if he could rejoin that plot to his, which was granted. Of course the people who’d neglected it suddenly reappeared when they got the letter from the council saying that they’d lost the rental rights to the plot. A couple of years ago there was a built a council estate opposite the road from the allotments, and within six weeks or so they had to put up high fences and locked gates around it, as the kids off the estate were in the allotment, destroying people’s gardens and vandalising sheds, etc. Not stealing food or flowers or whatever, just wrecking the place for fun. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/56 "2015-07-21T07:51:49Z")
Soz double post; too late to edit – just to add that someone on Mr Boods’ allotment has got bee hives on their plot. We’ve not seen them,as the allotment property itself is huge, so we’re thinking it’s way the heck up the other end. Anyway, they’ve got signs round on the various gates into the property letting people know that there are bees being kept there. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/57 "2015-07-21T16:52:04Z")
> [@Ms\_Boods](#): > > Anyway, they’ve got signs round on the various gates into the property letting people know that there are bees being kept there. “Bees. Please Close Gate” ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/58 "2015-07-22T12:17:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > This was 35 years ago, but it was behind the Princeton Shopping Center on Harrison. We were there 2 weeks ago and things have been built up so much since then I doubt it is still there. > We lived on North Harrison, so it was pretty convenient. Not that we got anything out of it. Probably not there anymore since Princeton real estate is so valuable. I have been going to church about a block from there since the early 90s, so it is absolutely familiar territory, though there is no way I could actually live there. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/59 "2015-07-22T19:58:27Z")
Sometimes the land belongs to the Church, which had it as glebe in lieu of tithes. The glebeland here was worked as allotments within my memory, but it is all built on now and new allotments allocated on the edge of town. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/60 "2015-07-23T21:35:55Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > **[Allotments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_%28gardening%29)** are where some angry old fellow screams at you interminably if one inadvertently treads on a single inch of his land. From that wiki: _Anna Lindhagen is said to have met Lenin when he passed through Stockholm from the exile in Switzerland on their return trip to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917. She invited him to the allotment gardens of “Barnängen” to show all its benefits. However, she did not win his approval. Lenin was totally unresponsive to this kind of activity. To poke in the soil was to prepare the ground for political laziness in the class struggle. The workers should not be occupied with gardening, they should rather devote themselves to the proletarian revolution._ What a dreary little man he was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452.md?page=4)