UK: Grow your own … in a rented plot in the neighbour’s garden

An Airbnb-style website aims to bring together people with spare outdoor space and city dwellers who want to start an allotment

By Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian
May 9, 2021
(Must see. Mike)

Excerpt:

The problem was where to find the space in which to nurture tiny seedlings into big, beautiful vegetables. Rounding’s second-floor flat in south London doesn’t even have a balcony, and waiting lists for inner-city allotments have rocketed in the pandemic.

Nevertheless, Rounding, 29, will soon begin planting her own veg patch after agreeing to rent space from a neighbour who has more garden than he has time to cultivate.

The simple and pleasing idea of linking up people who want to grow their own food with those who have unloved gardens or bits of garden is the brainchild of that neighbour, Conor Gallagher. This week he will launch AllotMe, a digital platform aimed at making renting garden space as easy as Airbnb has made renting a spare room.

Gallagher, 30, who grew up in Belfast, said: “After I moved to London I saw how people wanted to eat more healthily, ethically and sustainably but faced barriers such as a lack of space or excessive cost.

“So many people have no garden or access to outside space, and obtaining an allotment through traditional routes is difficult verging on impossible. There’s a huge desire for sustainable living but often no way of satisfying it.”

As he spotted neglected gardens, especially unloved front gardens, he realised there were untapped reserves of outdoor space going unused: “So why not bring the two together?”

Even before the website has been officially launched, hundreds of people have signed up to rent unwanted garden space.

Read the complete article here.