UK: The rise of allotments 2.0! Celebs and Gen Z Brits are leading a growing obsession for fruit and veg patches
But as the waiting list for a new plot climbs past 150,000 experts warn people are ‘giving up’ after realising maintaining one is too hard
By Tom Cotterill
Daily Mail
22 November 2023
Excerpt:
Celebrities like David Beckham and Gen Z TikTokers are leading the nation’s growing obsession for fruit and veg patches – as waiting lists for an allotment soar to an all-time high.
English football icon Beckham, 48, is trading in his ‘golden boots’ for a pair of green-figured gloves after applying to build a giant greenhouse, allotment and new road at his £12million Cotswolds mansion.
The former Manchester United and England legend regularly posts pictures tending to his vegetable plot at their rural bolthole, this week releasing an image of him embracing his daughter Harper, 12, at their vegetable garden.
But Beckham’s bid to build a giant greenhouse, revealed earlier this year, sparked controversy among locals, who lashed out and accused him of bringing ‘bringing suburbia’ to the countryside.
Meanwhile, a new generation of garden-loving Brits are taking to social media, filming videos documenting their daily struggles of trying to get their plots to bloom, with some clips on TikTok raking in almost a million views.
The renaissance of the quintessential country allotment has, however, come at a toll, with more than 150,000 in England now on a waiting list – as aspiring horticulturalists in some areas face a staggering hold-up of 15 years before they can get a plot.
