Four young entrepreneurs are set to bring a new kind of business to Bristol - allotments with extras.
Brothers William and Joshua Gay and their friends Ed Morrison and Christian Samuel have seen the potential of setting up new allotments and renting them out with extra services, talks, training and an app, because of the current huge demand for people to grow their own food massively outstripping supply.
With waiting lists for allotment plots in Bristol’s council or society-run allotments anywhere between three and 30 years, and the pandemic prompting a new-found desire among many to get back to nature, Bristol has potentially thousands of would-be allotmenteers but a limited number of plots available.
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So the four have set up Roots, a new business that launched on the ground a month ago in Bath, and now is looking to expand into Bristol. William Gay said they were yet to finalise a site in the city, but were in talks with landowners and developers about opening up a new site in the coming months.
Since Roots opened in Bath - at a site near Newbridge - last month, three quarters of the allotment plots have been taken, and Mr Gay said the team of four behind the idea were ‘very pleased and excited’ at the way it’s going. Mr Gay said the main difference between a council allotment plot and a plot rented from the Roots project was the ‘extras’.
“With a plot you get from the council, if you are lucky enough to get one, you pay your yearly fee, and get a basic bit of a land that needs lots and lots of work just to get started,” he said. “It might have been neglected before, overgrown, and not good at all. You could spend between 30 and 50 hours clearing it before you can get planting, and all that after waiting between maybe three and six years or anything up to 27 years in London, in the first place,” he explained.
“There can be a lack of community, a lack of time to even do all the things to prepare everything, and a lack of knowledge being passed on. It can all be rather anonymous,” he said. Mr Gay said Roots would be different.
“What we have is that we set you up so you are ready to plant straight away. You get seeds, tools, we can provide ready-to-plant plant plugs, everything you need. There’s also a real sense of community - we have regular talks from visiting gardeners, we provide advice and help with planning and timing, and weekly advice sessions.
“There can also be additional services, so for instance we have a holiday mode scheme, so if you’re going away, someone will water and tend to your plants while you’re away. We also offer an additional weeding service too. We’re not aware of anything else like this,” he added.
The image of an allotment being full of old men escaping their wives was always something of a stereotype, but with a new generation of younger people, often living in flats or shared homes with little or no gardens, and wanting to grow their own food and reconnect with nature, allotment keeping has been on a resurgence for a long time.
Demand is at an all-time high, waiting lists have soared, and plots in Bristol are much-sought after. But at the same time, pressure from housing developments means allotments are under threat from being built on.
Roots said they saw the opportunity to create something new - a private allotment tailored for people with enthusiasm but perhaps not the long hours needed to dedicate themselves. It’s very much for the younger generation - Roots is soon to have an app which will contain all the ‘extras’ at the touch of a phone.
“We had the idea because of lockdown, really,” said Mr Gay, who grew up on the family farm near Bath but moved to London as an adult. “My friend Ed moved to Devon just before the start of the pandemic, and ended up in lockdown growing his own food, working on the land, and he came back to London where we were just better - better mentally and physically. We realised that it’s just really good for people to have an allotment, to grow their food, to get back to nature, so we started thinking we should get an allotment.
"In Lambeth, where we were, we were told there was a 28 year wait for a plot, which was just ludicrous, and it’s the same across the country. There are an estimated 100,000 people on waiting lists across the country. We thought ‘there’s a problem here, what can we do about it?’ and we think we’re solving a really big issue that the councils haven’t been able to do. In fact, allotments are being sold off, and land developed and there’s no new allotments coming along, really,” he added.
One of the attractions of allotments has always been how affordable they are. The private allotments from Roots - with all the extras - do come at a cost. Depending on the size, a plot at the new one in Bath costs from £10 a month for a ‘micro’ plot, £20 a month for a ‘starter’ plot, £35 a month for a ‘couple’s patch’ and £50 a month for a big group patch - that’s up against considerably cheaper plots at council or allotment association-run allotment plots in and around Bristol.
For comparison - the Hotwells and District Allotments Association run six different allotment sites on the western edge of Bristol. There’s a three to four year waiting list, but once that wait is over a small plot there will be £40 a year, not a month, a medium plot £53 and a large plot £70.
Mr Gay said he believed people are prepared to pay the extra knowing that they are getting something for it. “In Bath, 75 per cent have sold out already, and it’s been pretty amazing, it’s going really well so far,” he said.
“In Bristol, the waiting lists are just as long, there’s maybe an even bigger demand in Bristol, so we hope to be setting up very soon,” he added.
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