Ten Poems about Allotments

Having an allotment isn’t the same as having a vegetable patch in the garden. There’s something about the sense of shared endeavour – the fair exchange of cups of tea and know-how – that means an allotment is not just a place but also a state of mind.

The selection features poems that revel in the good-natured competition that inevitably arises: who has grown the biggest onion and whose weeds are most to be frowned upon. There are also slugs and worms, aching backs and roughened hands – all seasoned by the heady tang of manure.

But the abiding spirit is the pleasure that comes from tending a small patch of earth, the deep joy afforded by taking part in the year’s repeating patterns of planting and harvesting:

“She places each first early
on its smelly bed. Delicate as eggs they sit
until he spades the soil over. Buried treasure.”

from ‘Allotment’ by Vivienne Tregenza

Selected and introduced by Di Slaney.

Poems by Marie-Louise Eyres, Marian Griffin, Ramona Herdman, Beag Horn, Vanessa Lampert, John Lancaster, Vivienne Tregenza, Zoë Walkington, Peter Wallis and Rob Walton.

Cover illustration by Diana Croft.