Allotment gardens threatened as developers eye ‘prime urban land’
(Published: August 28, 2006, on Page 38)
If developers and land speculators in Stockholm were to have their way, the array of allotment gardens in and around the city would be transformed into blocks of residential and commercial units.
This was the impression penultimate Thursday of a group of city-based allotment gardeners, who are now tinkering with the idea of the enactment of a law to back the existence of the concept in Sweden.
Over a century old in the country, allotment gardening is supported by public opinion, a contrast to the situation in neighbouring Denmark where it is also practiced but backed by a special legislation. Cultivation on allotments emanated in Germany, spread to Denmark, then to other countries.
Gardeners at the Eriksdalslundens Allotment Garden told a select group of members of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists who were on a study visit that investors and urban developers appear not to be in support of the age old concept of urban conservation and beautification.
They admitted that the gardens, which contribute to the city’s biological diversity, are occupying prime urban land with high values and that a deliberate land policy had so far kept the claws of the developers at bay. The developers have reportedly described the idea as “a waste of valuable land.”
Group leaders at the EAG, Karin Svartengren and Eric Paglio, described the phenomenon as “a nature reserve right in the middle of the city,” pointing out that the 12-year-old plan on how to manage the park is revised regularly “as nature changes.” Under allotment gardening, a gardener is hires (for a fee) a tract of land by the municipality (which owns the land) over a specified period of years. The idea is for the gardener to transform the environment as well as grow his own vegetables and cultivate flowers.
The gardener is allowed to put up a one-room house (which he owns but cannot be bigger than 14 square metres and the shed a maximum of 3m2) that can serve only as a summer or vocation home and not a permanent home.
A member of the EAG, Mr. Calle Malmgren, said, “We help in the maintenance of the park and this is in line with Agenda 21, which is aimed at preserving nature. We don’t take away the dead trees and we set up houses on trees for birds.”
The first allotment garden was established in Malmo, in the south of Sweden, in 1895. Stockholm had its first in 1904. When the First World War started, there were over 2,000 allotment gardens in Sweden.
In the 1940s, during the war, this way of cultivating became very important, as food was scarce at that time. However, the war ended and normalcy came into place and the standard of living rose, such that cultivating one’s vegetables became less popular as people could afford to buy them.
But, in the last 15 years, the interest in growing vegetables and flowers appears to have been rekindled, apparently due to people’s consciousness about the environment. According to a researcher, a considerable number of persons are willing to pay for the possibility of hobby gardening.
Established in 1921, the Swedish Federation of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners represents 26,000 gardeners and members are organised in about 300 local societies all over the country.
According to the Federation, the Swedish Parliament has expressed a positive attitude towards allotment and leisure gardening.