How wild should allotments be?

In St Anne’s Park, ecologist Mary Tubridy has been trying to reimagine her allotment plot.

It’s one of the plots in the Dublin City Council-owned and managed allotments in the sprawling park on Dublin’s north side.

Beyond rows of carrots and potatoes, and berry bushes, she sees space for wildflowers, seed-saving, maybe even a small pond. 

She wants it to be even more diverse: more bugs, more seeds, more dynamic relationships. It’s not just her, there’s a group chat now.

Steve Rawson, chair of the St Anne’s allotments committee, says he’s supportive of all these efforts at better supporting biodiversity. 

They already compost on site, have bird and bat boxes, and are planning a seed-saving project to share with schools and community groups, Rawson says. 

And the council’s rules for these allotments are no barrier, Rawson says. They “can grow whatever I want here, except cannabis”, he says.

But making more efforts towards supporting biodiversity isn’t so easy at other allotments. 

In the Grattan Crescent allotments, in Inchicore, there are detailed rules in the contracts the council gives to allotment holders, which govern what they can grow, and how, says plot-holder Enagh Farrell. 

In the Meakstown allotments, there were some similar rules, but not as strict, says former plot-holder Muriel Farrell.

Constraints

There are really two constraints on making changes to allotments to support biodiversity: space, and rules.

In terms of space, there are hundreds of people in queues waiting for plots in allotments across Dublin City Council. 

Fingal County Council manages four allotment sites, and has 142 people waiting for plots in them, a spokesperson says.

Leaving space for wildflowers, or a pond – measures which might be good for biodiversity – can take up space that could otherwise be used for growing. 

But the answer isn’t to not do that kind of thing, says Farrell, the plot-holder in Inchicore. 

The answer is more allotments. “The problem is that there just aren’t enough allotments,” she says.

In terms of rules, some allotment sites have strict ones that make it harder to take certain steps that might support biodiversity.

At the Grattan Crescent allotments, for example, the whole plot is to be cultivated “across the growing seasons”, and plot-holders are required to keep their plots 100 percent weed free. 

So, specifically, no grass, dandelions, mare’s tail/horsetail, ragwort, bindweed, brambles, dock leaves, or “anything else which is not a crop and has not been planted by the allotment grower”.

They can’t grow “perennial fruit/buses/trees” on more than 15 percent of the total plot area. 

Plots are graded every six weeks, said Enagh Farrell, grades are circulated among plot-holders, and low marks can lead to official warnings from the administrators. 

Too many low marks, and a person loses their plot, which will go to someone on the waiting list. So, “Everybody suddenly goes out weeding just before inspection,” Farrell says.

The rules don’t always make sense, Farrell says. Keeping a plot fully weeded and fully planted all the time “is actually terrible for the soil”, she says. “And some of these weeds are the best for pollinators.”

So sometimes she trims wild plants to make them look intentional, Farrell says. So far, inspectors haven’t been able to tell the difference, she says.

At St Anne’s, Rawson laughed when he heard about Inchicore’s rules. “Are you sure they’re not pulling your leg?” he said. 

Other allotments fall somewhere in between St Anne’s laxness and Inchicore’s strictness.

At Meakstown, former plot-holder Muriel Farrell said they had quotas similar to Inchicore’s, but also designated space for wildflowers and polytunnels. 

Introducing biodiversity only helps the allotments by making them healthier, she says.

“You see that it brings in an awful lot of insect predators that will actually help – with the pollination of anything that you have in the garden – but it also means that the numbers of pests are brought right down,” she says.

Why the variation?

In Fingal, the council’s allotments strategy, published in 2012, says allotments “have a role to play in the protection and promotion of biodiversity”.

“All sites should have native trees and shrubs, wild areas and native hedge and climbing species around boundaries,” it says. “The actual area left for biodiversity will be dependant on the size of the allotment site. Where possible ponds will be created within the biodiversity area.” 

Dublin City Council does not appear to have a similar policy for its allotments. 

The St Anne’s allotments and the Inchicore allotments are both run by Dublin City Council, but have different administrators Rawson said. 

David Healy, a Green Party councillor in Fingal, said he was surprised by how detailed Inchicore’s allotment rules were. 

“It’s particularly surprising to see bans on gardening techniques associated with more ecological approaches like permaculture, mulching to suppress weeds, or growing perennial plants,” he said.

Any such rules should go through a period of consultation before they’re introduced, Healy said. 

“I would hope that local authorities would formally consult their allotment holders and their biodiversity officers in drawing up rules, and also allow flexibility for innovation and learning,” he said.

“I think sometimes people are frightened by the idea of biodiversity,” says Muriel Farrell, the former Meakstown plot-holder, who teaches biodiversity classes. 

“They think it means things going wild and untidy,” she says. “Maybe that could be corrected with classes.”

Once people see the benefits – pollinators, pest control, healthier soil – they usually come around, she said.

Allotments should be seen as a vital part of the city’s green infrastructure, Rawson said, not just spaces for recreation. 

“While parks, gardens, and green spaces are vital, allotments offer a unique ecological niche that complements rather than duplicates these other environments,” he said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.