How to skip allotment waiting lists: Here are 10 of the most unusual allotments in Yorkshire

With allotment waiting lists soaring during the Pandemic according to National Allotment Society, it seems that us Yorkshire folk are discovering and creating new ways to live the ‘good life, together’.

The good news is, you don’t necessarily need to wait for your own allotment - you can keep your greenfingers happy while waiting with our handy guide.

Here are 10 of the most unusual allotments in Yorkshire:

Gardening and the outdoors is proven to help your mental health, which is why social prescribing is so popular - with many GPs signposting people to local allotments instead of prescribing with pills.

The first unusual allotment can be found inside the grounds of a Yorkshire mental health hospital.

Hospital allotment

Walking around the grounds of any hospital is rarely a pleasant experience, but now a South West Yorkshire Hospital Trust site is home to a stunning Caring Garden.

The project provides allotments and landscaped garden areas on the site of Fieldhead to service users, carers, staff, visitors and local community groups. The area includes a selection of fruit trees, a log cabin, garden shed, labyrinth maze and vegetable patches for Fieldhead services and community groups to grow their own vegetables and flowers. Flowers grown in the ‘Flower Power’ garden will then be given to wards.

“It’s for people who want the freedom of being outside and to improve their mental health,” said Lindsey Taylor-Crossley who runs the Recovery and Wellbeing College next to the garden.

Lindsey said there’s a big tie between mental health and diabetes, so the ‘grow your own’ initiative is vitally important.

Currently, there are 1500 people in the Wakefield district alone signed up to the college with the need growing further since the pandemic.

The Caring Garden is even playing host to young explorers in a forest school this summer.

You may not associate concrete parking blocks with luscious plant life, but a couple of Yorkshire shopping centres are trying to change that.

Car Park allotments

Normally you’re out of luck when you have to park your car at the top of a carpark with all the spaces being taken.

However, at The Ridings Shopping Centre in Wakefield you’ll find two allotments run by Grow Wakefield - one is a purpose-built community allotment for people without a garden, mainly those from the nearby tower block flats.

The other one is a new garden of Sanctuary for those seeking asylum in the area.

Both allotments are compact with a clever design to allow people to socialise, grow or just sit amongst the greenery.

People can participate in gardening groups such as growing and sowing clubs or tend to their own mini plot.

Andy Austerfield, the Chief Executive of Grow Wakefield said: “It’s not just about gardening. Spaces like this bring the community together, offer a sense of belonging and are a warm welcoming place for people to visit.

“We aim to improve mental health and wellbeing and enable our gardeners to learn about each other’s cultures as well as sharing the produce grown.

“The new arrivals will garden alongside people who wish to welcome them to the district and help them settle in through a shared love of growing their own fruit and vegetables.”

Prospect Shopping Centre in Hull also has a rooftop allotment which is run alongside with environmental charity EMS Yorkshire.

Gardens of Sanctuary

Sheffield-based Sage Greenfingers is another Garden of Sanctuary which provides support for a range of people with mental health problems. It’s discreetly based off the beaten path and has become a safe space for people with mental health problems across the city.

Sheffield was the first city of Sanctuary and many asylum seekers do not have access to a green space to recharge and connect.

https://gardens.cityofsanctuary.org/

Guerilla Gardeners planting ‘Propaganda Beds’

What started as one woman’s quest to share produce from her front garden as a gesture of kindness quickly grew into a range of public veg beds being planted on unwanted wasteland in Todmorden and more people joining the mission to plant ‘Propaganda beds.’

Incredible Edible Todmorden

"It's sometimes better to ask forgiveness than for permission," said founder Mary Clear.

"Oftentimes, we just crack on and grow.”

The group has now grown into an international network of Incredible Edibles. Chair Pam Warhurst has even delivered a powerful TED Talk on the network which has provoked ‘veg tourism’ in the town.

York’s ‘infamous’ public veg bed landmarks

Edible York’s public veg beds have become infamous landmarks in York City Centre. “Locals pick from them, tourists admire them, bees buzz around them: all are inspired by them,” said the group.

All of them flourish through regular volunteer sessions, seasonal additions of seedlings (grown at the polytunnels of Yorkshire Chillies) and help from local businesses and passers-by.

“If there’s food to see, it’s yours for free,” says Edible York’s website.

National Trust

One of the first kitchen gardens to be renovated by the National Trust in 1995 is Beningbrough’s one-and-a-half-acre Victorian walled garden.

National Trust’s website says: “It's home to a myriad of fruit, vegetable, salad, herbs and less common plants like liquorice, grapes and figs.

“Everything grown in the kitchen garden contributes to the menu of the Walled Garden Restaurant with popular seasonal treats including moist beetroot cake and asparagus quiche. You might get some inspiration from the food and beverage team of how to deal with gluts from your garden or allotment.”

There are thousands of allotments and growing spaces on the National Trust’s land across the UK. Growing plots have been created in restored kitchen gardens, on agricultural land or in the grounds of historic houses. Many of these plots provide local people with space to grow fruit and vegetables and some are used by schools and community groups

Green Tracks Allotment

The land next to a railway bridge is often abandoned but a social enterprise has created a luscious mini allotment supporting people with learning disabilities to grow and sell produce to the local community.

Green Tracks is located off Barnsley Road in Wakefield. Its wrought iron fence now also leads to another community allotment which supports people with mental health problems as well as providing a space for those in the area to connect and learn together.

Appletree Community Garden

The community allotment can be accessed via Green Tracks or it has its own main entrance near Sandal and Agbrigg train station, carefully tucked away off a busy main road.

People from near and far congregate here to contribute to the garden in any way or simply to talk or sit in the fresh air.

Run by Spectrum People Appletree provides a sanctuary for people to connect and recharge.

Open Country

Open Country started in Yorkshire to provide adults with disabilities with outdoor activities. It now has projects across the region including many allotments. One of those is Wild about Wetherby which has a community allotment where people grow, eat and build together.

If you’ve still got your eye on your own private allotment, one gardener in Sheffield may be able to keep you entertained while you wait and make you feel like you’re part of his allotment.

The online allotment

Jeremy Stroughair waited 19 years for his urban allotment where he now creates Youtube videos from.

The 58-year-old - who now vlogs for people worldwide via his youtube channel Jeremy’s Allotment - said: “During lockdown I began to clear it and I posted a little video of no more than two or three minutes each day on my Facebook page for friends. After a while I started a YouTube channel and I post twice a week now. I have viewers both from the Uk and all over the world from Australia, Canada and Sweden. The latest viewer to send pictures of what they are growing lives in Hong Kong. I love seeing what my viewers are doing and I know my viewers do too.”

However, West Yorkshire allotment bloggers ‘Our Plot at Green Lane allotments’ warn that many avid gardeners take on their own plot after being inspired by “visiting a well cultivated plot.’

The website explains: “When plots become vacant they are in no way as overgrown as the plots that we adopted were, however, very often after an enthusiastic start new plot holders lose interest and leave. When visiting a well cultivated plot it is easy to become enthusiastic about growing your own vegetables but taking on an allotment means lots of hard work and commitment. It isn’t a quick fix to acquiring freshly grown fruit and vegetables but is a life changing activity that is well worth the time and effort dedicated to it.”