With the global recession supposedly ushering in an era of self-sufficiency such as has not been seen in Britain since the Second World War, it is appropriate that the humble allotment is once more regarded as the place to be ‘digging for victory.’ However, while Scotland boasted some 65,000 such municipal gardens back in the 1940s – a figure which must have had Hitler quaking in his jackboots – a mere 6,700 plots now remain.

As a result, there is a growing groundswell of opinion that councils should be providing more space for allotments, and some have even suggested that we should consider replacing putters with pitchforks, caddies with cabbages, and greens with green beans.

FOR

The rumours surrounding this attack on golf courses emanate from Edinburgh – a city rarely associated with radical thinking since the days of the Enlightenment, but one whose hand has been forced by burgeoning applications for a fixed number for plots. The Council, it would appear, are terrified that the rake-wielding revolutionaries are on the verge of revolt.

For the local authorities are currently formulating an Open Space Strategy – a means by which they aim ‘to ensure that open spaces, such as parks, sports pitches and golf courses are managed and utilised to their full potential’ – and allotments are central to this review. As Alison Johnstone, Green Party councillor, observes, ‘considering the health, fitness and environmental benefits of eating locallyproduced food, it would be very wrong if the Council were not doing something about this issue.’

‘Anecdotal evidence,’ a council spokesperson observes, ‘suggests that there has been a decline in the number of people playing golf across the country. As golf courses make up a quarter of the open space in Edinburgh, it is important that they are included in the study. Demand for council allotments is increasing. There is now a waiting list of over 2,000 for 1,250 council plots.’ The full extent of the demand for allotments is reflected by the fact that people have had to resort to sources other than local authorities to fulfil their desire to grow their own food. This is demonstrated by the recent establishment of ‘Europe’s largest’ allotments, at Scotlandwell in Perth & Kinross. This 17.5-acre site offers 200 allotments and anyone willing to part with £300 will be given a stone-free plot, access to water, flushing toilets, a clubhouse, and even a library. The brainchild of Bob McCormick, some 40 plots have already been filled this year. And the fact that the enterprise encourages a healthy and green existence means McCormick has already been shortlisted for a St Andrews University award.

Allotments in Edinburgh looking towards Arthur's Seat.

Against

Somewhat surprisingly, the Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens Associations (FEDAGA), are unwilling to sanction the support of any golf-bashing initiatives, however. As Pauline Valentine, a FEDAGA committee member who holds a plot in Redhall, is quick to point out: ‘To be fair to the Council, they have already identified at least 32 other sites (unrelated to golf) which have possibilities of being developed as allotment sites.’ She adds: ‘This cannot develop into an allotment versus golf scrap, As it happens some plotholders are also golfers anyway!’

One alternative suggestion the federation have is to try to redistribute the 10-15 per cent of allotments that are currently classed as ‘dirty’ – those which do have tenants but are neglected or unused. While this would free up in the region of 200-300 extra plots, it would, they admit only make minor inroads into the lengthy list. An even more radical alternative might come from an unlikely, and somewhat subversive, source – the practice of ‘guerilla gardening’. A phenomenon that emerged from New York in the 1970s, this involves the cultivation of plants on anything from roadsides, to roundabouts, to rubbish dumps, and the concept has finally taken root in Scotland.

Jennifer Calder, who was inspired by the London-based silverback of the hobby, Richard Reynolds, and the fact that she was tired of being on a waiting list for a council allotment, founded Glasgow Guerrilla Gardeners last year, and the group have now transformed four sites from infernal wastelands to Edens worthy of the ‘dear green place’, and have even inspired a Portobello-based Edinburgh offshoot, intent on achieving the same.

Conclusions

As Edinburgh Council looks at various solutions to the problem, it seems that others are prepared to seize the initiative themselves – either for profit, such as at Scotlandwell allotments, or for the more altruistic motives displayed by the guerilla gardeners in our midst.

‘Considering the health, fitness and environmental benefits of eating locallyproduced food, it would be very wrong if the Council were not doing something about this issue.’

Although it seems unlikely that any of Edinburgh’s golf courses will be dug up in the near future, it is easy to see why the empty greens and the fallow fairways must provide a tempting target for the council’s pen pushers as well as those armed with forks, mattocks and trowels. For, although we might not be facing the same level of national crisis as we were after the Dunkirk debacle, the potential Blitzkrieg brought about by the Axis of poor health, climate change and a fragile economy is a threat that the allotment may just be able to defeat.

fieldfacts
Council plots in Edinburgh (200m2) currently cost
£54 per annum to rent.
Studies show that a well-managed plot can
produce over £1000 worth of fruit and vegetables
per year.
At current rates of turnover, the waiting list for
Inverleith allotments is 187 years.