CULTIVATE AND CONNECT

Gardeners have always enjoyed comparing growing stories and sharing advice. Hannah Reid looks at the social media trends in gardening and how it cultivates friendships

- Hannah Reid

Allotments in the UK have been around since the 1500s. Under Elizabeth I, common land was used by people for growing food, keeping animals and creating a sense of community. Allotment gardens as we know them now really took hold in the 1840s. Allotment gardening, for me, took off many decades later, in 2019. Despite the centuries between them, the conversations between gardeners and the communities that have been built on allotment plots will have been growing the whole time.

Gardening has always brought people together in many ways, whether that’s just by being outdoors and having a conversation over the fence with a neighbour, sharing gardening advice and knowledge or swapping seeds, produce or preservings. Kitchen gardens and allotments are feeding our communities in more ways than one – they’re feeding community spirit too and bringing people together.