Rocketing demand for allotments across the country – some with people on waiting lists for years – has made the ambition to grow your own nothing more than a pipe dream for many. Inspired by this mismatch between supply and demand, Conor Gallagher, a former architect from Belfast, gave up his job last year and launched a website, AllotMe, to match want-to-be gardeners with owners of green spaces that were otherwise lying unloved or unmanaged.
“More and more young people are turning to what was once considered an older person’s pastime,” Gallagher says. “It was clear we needed a new approach to create more plots out of unused space across the country.” Here, four gardeners and their hosts talk about what getting together to share precious growing space has meant to them.
