21 benefits of allotments and growing your own Food

Ever thought about the benefits of allotments being more than just growing your own food?

Whether you have a separate allotment or a vegetable patch in your garden there are numerous benefits to growing your own food.

Both fruit and vegetables can be grown depending on your location and time zone.

I’ve watched programs where people in Alaska grow enough produce in a 12 week window to last them the rest of the year!

Are there National standards for allotments?

In the UK having an allotment is a very traditional thing dating back to the nineteenth century and earlier.

Local councils in England are required by law to set aside land for allotments for their residents.

There are no national allotment standards when it comes to what is included in your allotment. Some have water, some don’t. Some you can keep chickens, some you can’t.

There is also no national standard allotment size, allotments come in all shapes and sizes. More so now as most local councils are splitting original plots as they become available to rent.

The plot we rent is a half (or 5 rod) plot. This is approximately 120sq meters.

Traditionally in our local area every allotment was a 10 rod plot. Only those who have been a tenant for a long time have 10 rods now.

There is also much unrest among long standing allotmenteers regarding the cost of renting their plot each year.

Again there are no national standards for allotment costs. As a relative newcomer I thought £40 for a half plot was a reasonable annual payment.

Not so according to my allotment neighbors who have a few choice words to describe our local council!

The cost aside I thought I knew what the benefits of having an allotment would be – cheap food!

As it turns out there are many benefits of allotments, some more obvious than others.

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21 benefits of allotments

1. Save money with Cheap food

Do allotments save money? Yes and no. The food you grow is not always cheaper lb for lb. Grown from seed, especially your own cultivated seed from last years harvest will be cheaper.

If you buy young plants rather than grow from seed then maybe not. We use a mixture as sometimes our seed attempts fail.

Veggies like carrots, potatoes, parsnips and onions are so cheap in the stores that growing your own may not be cheaper.

Allotment best practice is to grow the more expensive veggies and soft fruit like raspberries, strawberries, rocket, tomatoes and basil.

Growing more expensive produce helps you save more money and have veggies or fruit you wouldn’t otherwise buy.

I never buy raspberries as they are expensive, but I can eat them freely each summer because we have raspberry canes giving us fruit every year.

 

2. Better Taste

What your fruit and veg will be is fantastic tasting in comparison to that which you can buy. Taste quality is far superior to anything you can buy.

You’ll be picking it fresh and ripe and then eating it. Compared to store bought fruit and veg that is often days/weeks old by the time you buy it.

3. Exercise

Digging veggie beds is hard work! The multitude of muscles you use e.g. legs, arms, shoulder and back are confirmation that having an allotment is good for you.

You’ll know you’ve used them because they’ll tell you all about it later in the evening.

One of the benefits of allotments is that they provide plenty of opportunities to exercise whether gently or more cardio type.

market stall of fresh vegetables

4. Eco friendly

How do allotments help the environment? Having an allotment means the fruit and veg you eat will have no air miles and possibly only a couple of road miles from harvest to table.

Compared to apples from South Africa and asparagus from Peru, your harvest is oozing eco friendliness.

In addition it is likely to have been grown naturally rather than in a high tech way which would have involved large machinery and plastic wrapping.

An allotment is not only good for you, it’s beneficial to the environment too.

Related post: 50 frugal habits that are also eco friendly

5. Go organic

You can grow organically at a fraction of the price. On an allotment you will likely need to weed more often and dig in good manure or compost.

Your entire harvest can be organic compared to some stores where the organic produce can be somewhat limited.

6. Kids Home education

Children soak up knowledge from being around adults, watching what they do and asking questions.

Involving your children in the allotment will provide a great number of learning opportunities including:

  • growing seasons
  • plant, bird & insect identification
  • pollination and reproduction
  • nature and nurture
  • responsibilities
  • what hard work is!

7. Seasonal eating

Having tried to beat the seasons and failed you will learn about eating according to the seasons. Strawberries in June? Yep, that’ll be a glut.

Courgettes/zucchini in July/August/September? That will be an ongoing glut!! Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

Eating courgettes and green beans 5 times a week can get boring real quick so you will find yourself freezing, preserving or giving away your excess produce.

Other times you won’t grow as much as you wanted. C’est la vie!

graffiti of keep learning

8. Educating yourself

You will learn all about growing food and allotment best practice through doing, reading and chatting with allotment neighbors. What works with one soil won’t work with another.

Reading about growing your own is just not the same as doing.

Your allotment neighbors will be full of useful allotment advice based on their combined knowledge of both growing their own and the soil and weather conditions of your allotments – priceless.

9. Knowledge of the seasons

These days supermarkets have strawberries, asparagus and broccoli all year round. Many of us have lost the knowledge of what veg is grown in what season.

You will no doubt try to grow some veg slightly earlier or later and the plants will let you know whether that was the right thing to do.

Hint: green beans in England in April when the frosts haven’t finished do not work!

10. Creative cooking

Having grown all your fantastic fruit and veg you then need to use it or preserve it somehow.

Many veg cannot be frozen as is (e.g. courgettes/zucchini) so you will need to find ways of using them in various recipes and seek out preserving opportunities.

Courgettes are a classic glut vegetable, we always end up with too many courgette plants. We then resort to getting creative to use them all up as we can’t bear to waste them.

Below are just a few ways we use the glut:

  • Courgette fried in garlic and chili flakes
  • BBQ courgette
  • Courgette soup (can be frozen)
  • Courgette spaghetti
  • Ratatouille (heavy on the courgette and light on the tomatoes! And can be frozen)

11. Allotment Community

You will gain allotment neighbors who will randomly give you a cabbage or a punnet of raspberries. Who will give you allotment advice and encouragement.

Our neighbors stop for a cuppa together and we have used their rotavator.

In return we have mowed the shared paths and watered their plants when on holiday.

Tarn in the snow above Haweswater

12. Weather battles

You will enjoy battling against the weather – honest!

This may be trying to protect young plants or planting out a week early because you want to get a head start.

You will dare it to rain just as you are digging over a bed and enjoy the sunshine warming your soil.

13. The freshest of airs

Out on the allotment you will breathe in the freshest of air in your locality. Stopping to smell the freshly dug soil and the new plants is wonderful.

assortment of freshly picked veggies

14. Unplugging social media

Mobile phones are redundant on the allotment. They are left in the car as you potter about your planting.

Somehow you don’t feel the need to check your phone every 5 minutes.

You are too busy planting your precious new seedlings or digging up the blasted bind weed!

15. Couples activity

Working an allotment with your partner is a great way to spend some quality time together.

After an hours gentle exercise there is nothing better than sitting down on a camping stool with a cup of tea and chatting about what you’re going to sow next.

16. Child’s play

If you have young children, you will know they love nothing more than to get stuck into a patch of dirt.

One of the benefits of allotments you will cherish is that it gives kids the opportunity to not only dig in dirt but to also explore a bigger patch of dirt. To have their own little growing patch to water and be responsible for.

Our grandkids love going to the allotment. They will happily dig, weed and water and love nothing better than picking the tomatoes and raspberries.

bowl of fruit and veggies

17. Reduce and re-use

There is an unwritten law that part of having an allotment is to re-use endlessly an array of different items you find discarded around your home and garden.

In the 1950’s it was milk bottle tops. Now you’ll see mini pro-biotic bottles atop raspberry canes. Old tires used as planters and carpet as a weed suppressant.

 18. Self sufficient satisfaction

There is something extremely satisfying in tucking into a meal that contains vegetables you have sown, grown, harvested and cooked yourself.

Being self sufficient you do not need to grocery shop as often and can choose what vegetables you fancy for dinner later. And pick them right then!

19. Overcoming challenges

Managing an allotment is not without its challenges. But these are challenges you will relish having overcome. You will face different challenges according to your locality.

These are challenges that you can tackle every week and break them down into manageable chunks.

Getting rid of the bindweed from our allotment was extremely satisfying.

It took an entire year of weeding, spraying, more weeding and cursing to do it.

shelf of filled clear containers with white lids filled with various dried goods

20. Become a Prepper

When your cooking skills and freezer can no longer keep up with your harvest you’ll learn the joys of preserving and canning.

Making preserves, jams, chutneys and pickles is a great way to use your harvest.

By preserving you will be able to use your fruit and vegetables long after winter has arrived, lasting you through to the start of next season.

Or longer.

Preserving can be time consuming but ultimately it is extremely satisfying to create another food item for your family’s store cupboard.

Bread & Butter pickles are fab made from courgettes instead of cucumber. This is my favorite recipe

21. Home made gifts

Your harvest can form part of your gift giving. Your location, the season and the celebration you are gifting for you will dictate what form your gifting could be.

It could be a basket of freshly picked fruit in late summer or a trio of home-made preserves at Christmas.

the Benefits of allotments are for everyone

I think these 21 benefits of allotments show you just how much you gain from having a patch of ground to grow your own food.

No matter the weather your local area has, you can grow some of your own food. You might need extra shelter or extra water but it can be done.

But it’s not a perfect world though folks so why not read my post the downsides to having an allotment and growing your own food?

Because yes, there are downsides too.

Can you think of other benefits of allotments I have missed out? Do you grow your own?

Come and follow me on Pinterest for more money saving hints and frugal tips!

Pinterest image for the benefits of allotments.

Last Updated on 21st March 2021 by Emma

About Emma

I'm here to help you become confident in making the best money decisions for you and your family. Frugal living has changed my life, let me help you change yours.

6 thoughts on “21 benefits of allotments and growing your own Food”

  1. You will dare it to rain << haha… one of my aunts like to dare traffic lights to turn yellows as she's rushing through an intersection.

    so an allotment is that common that people actually voice opinions over the size and cost? curious.
    also, you'll be glad to know, i googled your site and it actually showed up here in the US. In the past i've had to type in the web address exactly to find you. in my early retirement, i picture doing an activity like this but i had a garden when i was younger and we could never wash the lettuce and other greens well enough…something was always crawling mid lunch… ick

    Reply
    • Local councils are required by central government to provide allotments for their constituents. Often there aren’t enough to go round hence plots being divided and long waiting lists. By the end of WW2 there were 1.3 million allotments, this is down to 1/4 million or so now. Apparently our council has one of the highest prices per sqm in the country, hence the moaning.

      I know exactly what you mean about lunch and crawly things. This is why it is my task to wash, wash and wash again all food we pick. Mr2p either cannot see them or can’t hack the detail required!

      Yippee on website now in Google – thanks for letting me know

      Reply
  2. My recipe to use courgettes/zucchini:
    Pasta sauce. Sauté onions until soft. Add tomatoes, as many as you want. Add chopped courgettes ( I peel the skin in alternate strips, makes it striped, but just my preference . Leave it all on or peel completely.
    Add garlic if liked. Cook until all veg cooked through , then whizz in a proc ss or or with a stick processor.
    Can be frozen. Kids don’t realise there are green veg in their pasta sauce.
    My shrooms can also be added. Served with pasta topped with goats cheese is delicious.

    Reply
    • Now that sounds like a yummy recipe Holly, thanks so much for sharing. I might even not blitz it as I don’t usually cater for youngsters, that way I can admire the courgette stripes!

      Reply
  3. Your post is point on! We just got our garden planted. I love to pick our own tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, broccoli, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. I have discovered I can grow spinach all winter. We have two pear trees but have only gotten three pears in two years so not everything works to plan.

    Reply
    • We haven’t grown spinach during the winter but found that chard keeps going, great in stir frys. We have trees on the allotment that we inherited. The plun tree is fabulous and we have many pounds of plums every year. But there must be something about pear trees as ours is poor too. Last year was the best in the last 5 and we had 6 pears. I’m not so worried as don’t really like pears anyway! I’d be really unhappy if the plum tree started failing thats for sure.

      Reply

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