What is an Allotment ?

Allotment gardens are characterised by a concentration in one place of a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. In allotment gardens, the parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people. The individual size of a parcel ranges between 200 and 400 square meters, and often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter. The individual gardeners are organised in an allotment association which leases the land from the owner who may be a public, private or ecclesiastical entity, provided that it is only used for gardening (i.e. growing vegetables, fruits and flowers), but not for residential purposes. The gardeners have to pay a small membership fee to the association, and have to abide by the corresponding constitution and by-laws. However, the membership entitles them to certain democratic rights.



Socio-cultural and economic functions of allotment gardens

• for the community a better quality of urban life through the reduction of noise, the binding of dust, the establishment of open green spaces in densely populated areas;
  
• for the environment the conservation of biotopes and the creation of linked biotopes;
  
• for families a meaningful leisure activity and the personal experience of sowing, growing, cultivating and harvesting healthy vegetables amidst high-rise buildings and the concrete jungle;
  
• for children and adolescents a place to play, communicate and to discover nature and its wonders;
  
• for working people relaxation from the stress of work;
  
• for the unemployed the feeling of being useful and not excluded as well as a supply of fresh vegetables at minimum cost;
  
• for immigrant families a possibility of communication and better integration in their host country;
  
• for disabled persons a place enabling them to participate in social life, to establish contacts and overcome loneliness;
  
• for senior citizens a place of communication with persons having the same interests as well as an opportunity of self-fulfillment during the period of retirement.