Allotment gardening ideas for all the family

Plot 1: Potatoes

Plot 2: Legumes (e.g. beans, runner beans, courgettes)

Plot 3: Brassicas (e.g. cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli)

Plot 4: Onions and roots (e.g. carrots, leeks, celery, fennel, beetroot, spinach)

So, what to grow? Some of the most popular crops at UK allotments are salad greens, courgettes, broad beans, potatoes, garlic, shallots, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, spinach, and Swiss chard.

Do’s and don’ts of allotment gardening

Do: join your allotment association if there is one. Your association may well arrange manure deliveries, organise plant sales, and pool resources like rotavator hire.

Don’t: spend a lot of money on equipment. You don’t need much to get going: a spade, a fork, a rake, a measuring line should make a good starter kit. A car boot sale is a great place to pick up some quality tools for a song.

Do: get to know your neighbours. Other allotment holders can be an invaluable source of advice about what works and what doesn’t. Your neighbours will frequently swap seeds, plants and produce with you, and might even agree to water your plants when you are on holiday.

Don’t: miss any chance to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Allotments are a natural seedbed for recycling. There are so many options from composting garden waste (you can easily make your own compost bin by nailing together four pallets) to reusing netting and plastic bottles to scare away hungry birds. Make the most of that British summer weather by installing one or two butts to gather rainwater.

Do: Consider sharing an allotment with another family. Full plots can be back-breaking, especially in the spring when you’ll wage war with weeds and the summer when watering can be a daily chore. By splitting the labour, you’ll have a better chance of getting your crops to harvest and making it beyond the year mark.

A family affair?

With many parents wanting to reintroduce their kids to the simple joys of being outdoors in the fresh air, allotment paths are now alive with the sound of giggles and laughter. Teaching children where their food comes from is more important than ever to help them to make healthy choices and connect to what ends up on their plate.

Here are three tips to make your allotment a success for the whole family:

• Remember that your kids are a help rather than a hindrance at the allotment. We all know that things can take ten times longer with little ones around, but you are planting literal and metaphorical seeds that will last a long time. If in doubt, give them simple tasks to keep them busy, like planting out seedlings, watering, weeding, and harvesting.
• Give your kid their own section of the plot: let them dig holes, collect worms, and make mud pies with their space. If they want to try their hand at growing, help them pick out flowers and crops that are easy wins, like sweet peas, cress, and strawberries. Kids are curious beings and will gladly taste the fruits of their labour.
• Get tech-savvy teens on board: encourage your older kids to download gardening apps to design their part of the allotment. They can learn how much space is needed between plants, get updates when it’s time to harvest and find recipes that use the crops that they have grown. Why not have them try a pizza garden with different types of tomatoes, basil, parsley, oregano, and peppers? And then come harvest time, they can cook dinner too – a real win, win for the whole family.

Happy allotmenting!

About the author

Abigail Dahlberg is and British-born German-English translator and writer, currently residing in western Missouri in the United States. Both her parents and her grandparents had allotments, and together with her Dad, and this has forged a strong love of nature, growing produce, the outdoors and caring for the planet.