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In this piece, longtime allotment user and advocate Judy Wilkinson reflects on the power of allotments to bring different generations together and to improve the health and well-being of all involved.
Allotments as Multigenerational Spaces
Multi-generational spaces – What place and structure do we need in this day and age to connect and collaborate with each other in a way that recognises everyone’s different needs and interest? Do allotments satisfy this criteria and should everyone have access to a plot within 1/4 mile of their dwelling?
Twenty five years ago Keith Vickerman, who had an allotment in Kelvinside wrote
In an age when most of our serious problems are social ones, allotments provide social cement previously offered by the church but now conspicuously lacking in today’s society. Thus allotments bring together men and women from all age groups, ethnic and national origins, occupations, social and educational backgrounds and income groups, including the retired and the unemployed. They are daily witness to a thousand acts of kindness- gifts of seeds, plants and produce, help with watering and heavy work, sharing of equipment, refreshments and experience- to name but a few. …- most importantly allotments provide contentment
The value of allotments has been recognised in legislation -Section 9 Allotments of the Community Empowerment Act (Scotland) 2015 puts a duty on local authority to provide 250 sq m of land for people who want to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, herbs or flowers (not for profit). Guidance for Section 9 both about the Food Growing Strategy and the wider legislation encourages the Councils to fulfil the spirit of the law and recognise the benefits which show that allotments can be dynamic, multigenerational places. There is an opportunity for a multiplicity of designs which, depending on the land and the people, can be incorporated into their local areas covering not only individual and community plots but also orchards, wild life areas and community meeting places.
In Glasgow there are 23 Council sites, on Council owned or leased land and 9 independent sites, with associations which either own their land or lease it from other organisations. There used to be many more but they have been lost to developments both housing and commercial. Unfortunately, there is no money to be made from allotments. They are valuable not just for providing food, although they can make a substantial contribution to a families diet, but also they provide individual and community well-being. For the individual their plot is a ‘place to grow’ with an interpretation of what this means according to a person’s interest and needs. For the community the site offers an opportunity for people to work together, to self-organise, share decision-making, agree on rules and how they are monitored, resolve differences in a fair and rapid way. Skills really necessary in today’s modern age of conflict and aggression. However since none of these benefits offer an opportunity to make money, they have no big champions in planners or developers.
Exploring allotments as multigenerational places may raise awareness of what they can offer. On my site in Kelvinside there is a twelve year wait for a plot so we don’t have many young people as plot-holders but we have a lot of grandchildren who come regularly with their parents; there are several plots which are held in the name of an elderly person but whose family shares the cultivation so they can still enjoy their plots- one family of two brothers, their wives and four children come several times a year to look after their mother’s plot and have a great time sharing the tasks and enjoying the day. Across the site grandchildren appear at weekends and in the summer holidays and young people help their parents.
There are plots tended by groups of friends but individuals also have their own space where they can find a quiet sanctuary. This is really necessary in this age of noise and stress. Maybe the idea of a multi-generational space can be extended to include the birds and their nestlings, butterflies and caterpillars, the frogs and their tadpoles and the fox and cubs all of which inhabit my site, sitting quietly in my plot I can meet all of them.
For all these benefits we need a reasonable space – smaller stalled spaces or community gardens also fulfil a need but they don’t enable the engagement that an allotment site provides. For example, there is a site where two plots are cultivated by an afghan refugee group who have a lovely hut with a wood stove and a poly-tunnel, so they grow a lot of produce that has a cultural significance for them and the plots are a place where they can cook the food and have a party. Several sites in Glasgow have special days when members cook their special dishes and share the food and recipes, and often, in summer, friends are entertained on someone’s plot. Plants, flowers and fruit from our allotments play a part in the gift economy and, although they aren’t a factor in the food economy analysis, are important at the local level.
The multi-generational links cultivating a patch of earth can relate to one’s ancestors. Planting a seed or harvesting can bring back memories of parents or grandparents plots with rhubarb eaten with sugar, digging potatoes or scrumping the apples. It helps root us in the place and remind us we are part of the natural world.
As well as growing food, allotments offer the opportunity for other forms of creativity and collaboration. Building a hut can be a learning process, on one site Harry helps folk build double glazed glasshouses or huts, that only costs £5 for new nails, passing on his craft skills. Many sites have huts that are examples of recycling and ingenuity, often warm, friendly places with a wood stove burning with salvaged wood all year and a welcome for those who want to talk or just drink coffee and eat a bacon butty.
The existing allotment sites tend to be in the more affluent areas because of political and monetary pressure, although even in my area of the west end, there used to be 5 sites which together formed the local allotment hub but now there are only two left. Many deprived areas lost their sites and people living in tenements have no access to land; new developments with individual houses often have small gardens but these don’t offer the community connections and collaboration found in allotments. In other cities such as Aberdeen, housing in the thirties was often designed with small gardens surrounding a larger allotment site where those who wished could cultivate more produce. This could be a model for new developments, with different sized plots according to people’s needs and incorporated into a more communal area.
Examples are found across Denmark, Norway and Sweden with allotments or ‘Colonies’ at the centre of their cities, offering an opportunity to enjoy growing but also a communal space.
In 2026 COST published ‘Urban Allotment gardens in Europe’ which ‘provides a multidisciplinary perspective, including insights from horticultural and soil science, ecology, sociology, urban geography, landscape planning and design. The themes are underpinned by case studies from a number of European countries’ Multigenerational Places was not included as a theme but several of the case studies provide examples of this and how allotments are an essential part of a Liveable City. In Glasgow we have the opportunity to expand and build on our heritage to make growing spaces with multi-generational input, a focus of our ‘Liveable city’
About the Author
I have tended my plot in the West End of Glasgow for over 50 years – in fact my daughter says that she was born on the plot, certainly I used to have a play pen on the path. Over the years Chris, my husband and I learnt about growing vegetables while the children helped a little and then disappeared to the adjacent play park. After the closure of a nearby site in Kelvinside, I became interested in campaigning for allotments. For over twenty years from 1995 – 2018 I was a member of the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society, involved with producing SAGS information booklets and with the new legislation. I have been a member of the Glasgow Allotments Forum since it’s creation in 2001. One of our projects was the Heritage of Glasgow’s Allotments’ 2010 -2012 with leaflets, pictures and a display. Recently my family gave me a cotton bag with the slogan ‘WARNING may start talking about my allotment at any time’ and I guess that says it all.