We’re growing together How allotments and

‘The Allotment Soup is our harvest festival’

Liz Searle (far right) has helped to run Sheffeld’s annual Allotment Soup for the past four years. It’s a day of food, arts, music and gardening, held on a different site in the city each year. ‘It’s a really special event,’ she says, ‘and reminds me of the harvest festivals of my childhood.’

What happens?

It’s a chance for people to open up their plots, meet their neighbours, wander round each other’s plots and discuss what they’ve grown – as well as seeing some fantastic art. There’s all sorts of activities, such as willow sculpture and Raku fring – a Japanese pottery technique.

What do you eat?

The main meal is a soup, made with a mix of vegetables from everyone’s plots. Last year we even made the food on site with a burner and boiler, and we had baked potatoes round a bonfre at the end. It was very hearty and satisfying.

Why is it so popular?

Because there are lots of groups working together and volunteering. And we all learn something – the artists learn about growing, the plot-holders get to see some art, and the public gets the best of both!

‘We built a clay pizza oven in the garden’

Lucy Mitchell is a community project worker at the Golden Hill Community Garden in Bristol (thegoldenhillcommunitygarden.com). She and a team of volunteers built a clay pizza oven – in the shape of a frog – in 2013, which has become a central part of the garden. ‘We love our giant pizza frog,’ says Lucy. ‘He always makes people smile.’

How did you make the frog?

He is made of clay mixed with straw and sand – it was a lot of mess! We dug barrowloads of clay from our pond, took out the stones, mixed one lot with sand and one lot with straw with our feet and, over two sunny weekends, built him out of clay bricks resting on a dome made of sand.

Do you have regular pizza parties?

We fre up the frog every Tuesday during the holidays for our ‘Golden Adventure’ activity days. Kids help to get the fre going, then make their own pizzas. Each one takes around three minutes to cook, so they have to tell the pizza chef a story while they wait. They all agree that the best-tasting pizzas are the ones you make yourself and come out of giant frog!

Are the toppings made from your allotment produce?

We make sauce with our own garlic, onions, tomatoes, basil and other herbs – it’s delicious and very satisfying to have grown all the ingredients. Enterprising folk have also added peas, carrots or even blackberries and apples. On the side we have our delicious allotment salad, full of edible fowers – cornfowers, borage, French marigolds and nasturtiums.

What does the frog add to your community?

He’s just another lovely feature of our beautiful community garden. A pizza for lunch followed by a slice of melon, fresh from the polytunnel – community gardening doesn’t get much better.

‘Our pupils love choosing what to plant’

Christ Church CE Primary School in Battersea, London, acquired a disused patch of land in 2010. With the help of the Royal Horticultural Society and the nearby church, they transformed it into an allotment. Gardening teacher Susan Perry explains: ‘So far, we’ve created raised vegetable beds, worked with the London Orchard Project to plant fruit trees, and planted wildfowers with other pupils from a neighbouring school.’

How does it work?

The children look after the garden. Our ethos is to try to leave it in a better state than we found it. Classes use the garden for storytelling, art, science, drama and music lessons. The children love the Easter treasure hunt, and at Christmas we sang carols, drank hot chocolate and told stories by torchlight.

What do you grow?

The children choose what they want to plant. This year we’re going to give quinoa a try. Our mini-orchard includes apples, plums and pears, plus there’s raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, beetroot, spinach, pumpkins, sprouts, caulifower, chard, mint, lavender, lemon balm, sage and rosemary.

Do you eat it all?

Sometimes we cook what we grow with the pupils and sell the produce to parents – the children calculate the costs of the different items. We’ve also sold produce through the local health food shop.

FEEL INSPIRED TO GET GROWING?

You could contact your local council to discover gardening projects on your doorstep, or get in touch with these organisations: ■ The National

Allotment Society

(nsalg.org.uk) Helps gardeners acquire, maintain and manage allotments across the country. Find your nearest plot on the website. ■ Federation of

City Farms & Community Gardens

(farmgarden.org.uk) A charity supporting urban gardening spaces, including school- and community-run plots. ■ RHS Campaign

for School Gardening

(apps.rhs.org.uk/ schoolgardening) The campaign aims to support and provide resources to school gardens across the UK.