THEY were once a place where old men wearing flat caps could grow vegetables and enjoy the peace and quiet of their rickety sheds. Now the humble British allotment has become the latest battleground of the sexes as a new generation of green-fingered women invade the territory some male gardeners regard as exclusively theirs.
A new report published in Garden News magazine claims traditional plot-holders are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the practices of their younger female neighbours.
Across the UK waiting lists for the small patches of land are escalating a
s more women try to secure their own slice of the Good Life. In Edinburgh alone demand for allotments has doubled in the last year, with more than 900 people competing for just 1,100 plots - and most of these are women.
Whereas once upon a time these havens from 'er indoors were littered with pipe tobacco, garden tools and old seed catalogues, it seems that more and more of them are being adorned with floral curtains and pretty porcelain cups. And the word from the cabbage patch is that traditional gardeners want the women - who apparently use their plots as much for sunbathing and entertaining children as for growing potatoes - to take down the frilly pelmets, pack up their spades and never come back.
Sarah Page, editor of Garden News, has called on women to take a stand against these change-resistant elderly male allotmenteers who resent their presence. She says: "It should not come as too much of a surprise to learn that some men on UK allotment sites are taking a bit of an old-fashioned view when it comes to women gardeners."
Her colleague, Emma Rawlings, Garden News's technical writer, admits that men and women often approach their plots from very different perspectives. But she's unapologetic: "As a general rule, women like some order to their plots and are more likely to plant flowers strategically for visual effect.
"Men can fall into two camps - either regimented with perfect lines of veg and sometimes flowers or just what some would call messy, but they don't see it that way."
Shan Ross, 47, is typical of this new breed of women who keep an allotment. She took on her plot at Inverleith Park in Edinburgh two years ago after four years on the waiting list.
"I live in a flat in the Royal Mile with no garden at the back, so I was desperate for somewhere to escape to," says the journalist and mother-of-one. "I had the impression that the allotments would be full of grumpy old men, and on the first day I went there an old guy wearing a sports jacket and flat cap came up to me when I was weeding and gave me a row for not shaking enough soil off the weeds."
Ross says that as time went on, she noticed that, far from being the domain of older men, many allotments at her site were actually held by other women: "While some of the older men are quite regimented, I notice the women are more creative in how they use their allotments. Quite a few of us invite friends down for picnics in our huts. I've also noticed a children's sandpit and a swing on another allotment."
Ross believes that prohibitive property prices in Edinburgh may be encouraging women to create their own Eden in the city, because they can not afford gardens.
"If you want a bit of land you've more or less got to get an allotment, or maybe it's seeing people like Charlie Dimmock hauling plants around that makes them think: 'I could do that'. I have a wildlife pond, I grow flowers, herbs and vegetables. Lots of my friends are desperate to get one too after coming down to visit mine."
Ross has not had trouble making friends with her male neighbours on the land, though. She says: "I have been glad to get advice from some of the old men. The guy whose allotment is next to mine has had his for more than 60 years and was great about lending me equipment when I was starting out."
Allotments date back to the early 18th century, when the enclosure of common land left the poor without a source of food and income. With the industrial revolution and more people moving to the rapidly expanding towns, it became necessary to allot a piece of land on which a family could grow their own vegetables.
They were made to be 300 square yards - a size deemed sufficient to feed a family of four throughout the year. During the world wars the role of allotments rose in prominence with campaigns such as Dig for Victory calling on the public to help battle food shortages. But from the end of rationing in the 1950s, allotments began to go into decline. In the past 40 years more than half of all allotment sites in Britain have been lost.
The 1990s saw a revival in the interest in allotments, as Britain reinvented itself as a nation of foodies, and health and environmental concerns about the use of chemicals on some farmed produce fuelled the "Grow Your Own" philosophy and organic food movement.
Gilbert Clark, who is in his eighties, has tended a plot in Edinburgh since 1963. He says the new breed of allotmenteer has not been without problems: "Many new people come along with too little time, too little effort and not enough strength. I feed four people from my allotment. Whatever I do, my first aim is to produce good food.
"People now just use them as places to turn up and smoke, or they turn them into playgrounds for their children. It makes them look like shanty towns."
Neil Dixon, the chairman of the National Allotment Gardens Trust, urges women to stand firm against those who want to strip allotments of their feminine influence. "My advice is to persist," he says. "The reason for the conflict is different lifestyles. For years the British allotment was the male's domain.
"Often it is a shock for a flat-capped, red-nosed gardener of advancing years to find an attractive young woman on the plot next to him. He will probably be a bit disgruntled and thinks he will be in trouble when the wife finds out."
In Scotland the demand for allotments is higher than England with one plot for every 1,000 people compared with one plot for every 270 south of the Border. To rent one for the year from City of Edinburgh Council currently costs £30, but this is set to double over the next five years. Peter Wright, acting chairman of the Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens Association, says the rise in popularity among women should be welcomed: "The old guys can learn from younger women. They grow more plants, which attract insects which then eat the aphids that can kill vegetables."
Antonia Swinson, author of The Scotsman's
Allotment Tales column, suggests that allotment-holders unite to save the land from the ever-present threat of property developers.
"Share, be friendly and introduce yourself to your neighbours," she advises. "The older guys know all about the soil conditions ... they can save you a lot of time and effort."
