I had an interesting day helping to show some Japanese visitors round my site, and a second site nearby. Apparently they've only had allotments there since about 1920, and they're still developing. A city plot is about 25 square metres, but in the mountains they have larger plots with huts on them. Unfortunately I forgot the camera (I'm always doing this) so I don't have any pics.
The second site we visited is quite secluded, like mine, but has a completely different atmosphere as there are no hedges. Plots are 2-300 square metres, rather than our 300 or 600. It's more of a standard size, and obviously a lot easier to manage. They've got wide grass verges and communal spaces, with lots of trees. I assumed at first that this originated as plots which were abandoned when allotments were unfashionable, but as far as I could gather, it was actually laid out like that from the beginning. There's a nice communal building with kitchen facilities and toilets; we could do with something similar on my site!
We go to Philo
1 week ago
Allotment sites are very different aren't they? As ours is a small field owned by the local church the plots are smaller than standard and there are still only 11. It's bounded by hedges though, which gives a real air of seclusion and being 'away from it all'.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Japan, I noticed lots of front and back gardens with vegetables planted in them, as well as plots between buildings, even near large roads. It was strange in such a technologically advanced country to wander a few miles out of the cities and find tiny rice paddies being tended by elderly couples using hand tools.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same in many parts of the world. My wife's from Sierra Leone, and there people have little swamps, or rice paddies, in the middle of the capital. I think people manage to cultivate land in most cities, if not all.
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