# 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:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/61 "2015-07-23T21:52:43Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > 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. Ha, thanks for that. There’s lots of streets, housing developments etc around where I’ve lived that have used Glebe as part of the name, and now I know why. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/62 "2015-07-23T21:52:55Z")
I have some garden space at the local adult education school. It’s not an ideal system in many ways; I do pay a little ($40/quarter) and I’m required to sign in to a minimum of classes, which are held on Saturday mornings, busy day for me, and have taught me very little. But the soil is reasonable, my garden neighbors interesting, if not the friendliest, it’s reasonably close to home, and I have more pickling cukes than I know what to do with. Like **Chicken Fingers** , I’ve asked our HOA to turn some of our ridiculous expanse of lawn (hello, it’s a drought!) into vegetable gardening beds for residents. The Board President’s response, and I quote, was: > [@](#): > > I have seen many churches and businesses put in community gardens. After the initial novelty wears off they usually go unattended and turn into eyesores. When I have more energy to devote to it, I might just get myself elected and fight for change… ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/63 "2015-07-23T22:20:35Z")
We have city gardens in Arkansas. You pay a fee and get a plot to garden. usually in full sun [http://www.arkansasobesity.org/2013/04/north-little-rock-community-gardens-program/](http://www.arkansasobesity.org/2013/04/north-little-rock-community-gardens-program/) so many city people get only partial sun in their backyards. Can’t grow much. the community garden is a wonderful option. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452/64 "2015-07-23T22:47:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Wow-- that is a huge area! > > What is seen as the clear, overt benefit to the community of maintaining the allotment phenomenon? I mean, it’s common sense and all, and intuitively one can infer the benefits, but when councils, politicians, and citizens actually have to make a case for continuing the practice, what specific economic benefits can they cite with proof? Or does it never come to that? > > I can imagine that if the gummint wanted to sell that whole Edinburgh group of allotments to a shopping mall developer, hundreds of citizens with pitchforks and cans of bug poison would storm the mayor’s office! Not everything a council decides is about the economy, and they don’t have to justify it on economic grounds (which wouldn’t be possible in this case). My father was heavily involved in the running of such allotments (called “workers gardens” in France) in the Paris area. During a large part of the 20th century they were quite big. They allowed urban blue collars to grow some food and so spare some money and improve the family meals, and also gave them access to an ersatz of countryside life : going there on sunday with the whole family, gardening, socializing with other people, having a family picnic, etc… They lost steam during the last part of the last century : raising income had made food much more affordable, and actual vacations weren’t out of reach for even low income people. So, they lost most of their “raison d’être”, their social benefit became very limited, and many people didn’t even know anymore they existed. More recently, they became a thing again for very different reasons and a quite different public : people interested in growing their own, healthy, organic, vegetables (and their name often changed to “family gardens”). Unfortunately, meanwhile, many had dissapeared, sold, as you suspected, to devellopers. Some old guys who like gardening don’t weight much by comparison with the value of prime real estate near Paris. And even now, allowing some middle class people to play gardener on the week-end just isn’t as defensible as measurably improving the quality of life of low income workers was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-allotment-community-garden-in-british-shows/725452.md?page=3)