In this week’s column, Ian Dewar makes the connection between The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, BBC Gardeners World and Lancaster’s Cinder Lane Allotment Association…
Last year Cinder Lane Allotments had an open day to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
It was such a success it had another this year and plans to continue into the future.
Cinder Lane was the first new allotment site in the Lancaster district for years, built on a grant of money.
The whole process began in 2013, with plot work starting in 2014.
The most striking thing about setting it up was the age profile.
Growing up in Lancaster, the image of allotments was that they were the domain of crusty, retired old men.
But the age profile for the new allotments was – and still is – a greater proportion of younger ages.
Another interesting strand is community interest which brings us right back to open days.
We felt that it was important to mark out our story.
What surprised us was how many people were interested in that story.
When we opened our gate for the first time last year over 100 people wandered through and said: ‘I walk past every day with the dog and always wonder what it’s like inside.
‘I remember it being just a field and developed into a site, it’s fantastic!’
So, in they came to see our efforts and to judge our scarecrow competition.
An open day for an allotment site is a fantastic opportunity to tell the story of the site, build good community relations and celebrate achievements.
For us it also asks, ‘What can we do differently next year?’
Now, the question that we began with…
I don’t know the name of the head gardener of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, nor the names of the millions of people who watch Gardeners World.
But I do know the names of the people on my site, and I know that every year, like those millions and that head gardener, we carry out a very human act.
We plant seeds and dare to hope that we will have a harvest.
Given that hope seems in short supply in our world, maybe that’s a perfect reason for every allotment association to have an open day.
For more information on allotments in the Lancaster district, visit: https://foodfutures.org.uk/case-studies/lancs-allotment-review/
