Garden-sharing. A sensible alternative if you don't have access to a garden. . .

I’ve stumbled on many forums online, wondering if people should give their allotments up, e.g. when faced with a consuming life event, when elder care becomes a priority or when welcoming a new baby into the family. Sometimes it’s due to the demands of a new job. However, reading the comments on this anonymous Facebook group, the mass consensus is: ‘Don’t give up your allotment!’ 

That being said, as 1 in 8 households in the UK don’t have a garden, it’s understandable why allotments are such a precious resource to people without gardening space.

Far safer than giving your kids fresh air with The ‘Baby Cage’, a 19th-century invention for families in cities. “Put your baby in a Bird Cage”, heralded by the Birmingham News in 1913. Thankfully they ceased to be used here and in the States following a decree by the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty toward Children.

With your feet firmly, and safely on the ground, let’s look at the options if you haven’t got a garden.

Allotments: They’re very hard work, and require continuous management, otherwise plot-holders are faced with notices to upkeep or give them up.

Then for would-be allotmenteers, allotment waiting lists can be endless. We’d love to help people who already own them and help by offering the time from a Lend and Tend, Tender, however, frustratingly, we’re not allowed to put Tenders from our lists forward to folks already keeping allotments. NSALG (National Society of Allotment Gardeners) sees this as unfairly letting people who aren’t on the lists, jump the queue. Plus, Local Authorities (LoA) who co administrate the provision of municipal allotments, also manage rent payments, check eligibility and identification, and other such formal administrative elements related to renting allotments. 

What some allotment owners can do, however, is put forward a ‘Co-worker’: “A person or persons identified in a co-worker agreement who help a tenant cultivate an allotment plot.” As described by many sites terms like Ashford Borough Council’s Allotment Tenancy Terms and Conditions, so always check the terms of your tenancy before allowing anyone to join you on your plot. 

I personally sympathise, I had to give mine up when I was about 38 weeks pregnant and life was gradually taking my interests further away from my plot, making working on it a logistical issue. 

My comment to the anonymous poster was, that sitting outside, even if in an overgrown allotment in the rain with a new baby, especially when you’ve no other outdoor space, is better than not having one. Put a rain cover over the pram, take a flask of tea and just do what you can in whatever time you have. There’s value and productivity in managing even just a square foot of space, rather than the overall worry about tackling a full plot. Put one fence post in, plant one seed, or just put one welly boot in front of the other would be my sage advice. Would you agree?

In the meantime, to shorten the waiting lists, some allotments carve up full plots into taster plots, which still end up being bigger than the average garden. Many years ago when my dream of possessing a tenancy to tend an allotment plot came true, I was initially offered a quarter plot, then a half plot, then amazingly the plot next door became available and then I had that too, (word of warning, be careful what you wish for as again, an entire full-sized allotment is a heck of a lot of work). 

If you’ve been dreaming of getting to the top of the allotment list, sign up to Tend to a garden. Maybe you'll discover a secret garden right in your neighbourhood. Every garden matters and every opportunity to connect with nature is a gift. Gardening should be a joy accessible to everyone, not just a select few and it's especially essential to ensure this includes those in unstable housing situations, including many renters and people in temporary accommodation. For many, that means that you can only rent an allotment if you’re a registered tenant or council taxpayer within the same borough. Other setbacks that some allotment societies include in their terms, are that keepers don’t don’t drive to their plot, in a bid to reduce emissions, and some plots don’t even have car parks. 

How we at Lend and Tend feel allotment societies could also support people on their waiting lists, is to share that we at Lend and Tend may have shared gardening space available for folks whilst they wait. It’d allow potential allotmenteers the opportunity to Tend to a local garden until they reach the top of the allotment lottery. 

That being said, no matter how or where you gain access to a garden, whatever the route of your journey to getting outdoors, if that’s garden-sharing with Lend and Tend, joining a community garden or allotment, or finding a place with your own garden, is important. 

Being outside and especially gardening, simply being in nature is awesome, a life-affirming, enriching activity that not only allows us to preserve and protect our well-being, it could also boost biodiversity when we garden in tune with nature and her needs, especially if gardening regeneratively. 

Wherever your allotment plot or garden may be, we're rooting for you and your green spaces, alongside the teeming nature that relies on them. We want you and your gardens and allotments and all the nature that depends on these spaces to all thrive, so no matter where you garden just keep going.

And if you long for an allotment, as I did, sign up to Tend to a garden whilst you wait. It could find you find a hyper-local garden, closer than your nearest allotment.