Allotment sessions growing in popularity

It's a classroom, but not as you know it. Based in a basic wooden shed, the chairs are of the plastic variety — and the teacher stands behind a trestle table, watering can and pots to hand.

As the warm spring brings a bumper crop, new lessons in how to run an allotment are in high demand.

Dozens of green-fingered growers snap-ped up places on a vegetable growing class at the Sandy Lane allotments in Bushbury.

The workshop sold out within days of the tickets going on sale and was led by instructor Martin Dye, who has always had an allotment at Sandy Lane.

Martin, aged 47, inherited the allotment from his father Ken and says every year he grows a range of vegetables from potatoes and beans to sweetcorn and peas.

"It is something we have done for a number of years as part of the City in Bloom scheme," he says. "The judges are looking for the usual things such as tidy borders but also community involvement — which is something we can excel at."

Martin says the uptake for the first class they did several years ago was 15 and it made them want to do more courses.

"From the beginning we gave people a little taster of how to grow their own vegetables as there used to be empty plots at the allotment," he says. "However, now it has gone the other way and we have no empty plots and a waiting list."

Martin says 28 people signed up for the latest vegetable class and they have plans to put on more in the future.

"I like being able to grow my own food because I don't use any pesticides. Also, when you serve it up the flavour is much better that something from the supermarket as you know it was growing just a few minutes before it ended up on your plate."

The event was organised by Adrian Stubbs, aged 34, who is general secretary of the allotments.

His parents Linda and Tony have had an allotment at Sandy Lane for years. He says: "My mum has run the not-for-profit allotment shop for 15 years and when I was younger I got dragged along to help out."

Adrian says they manage a lot of the allotment and try to keep things in the shop as cheap as possible to encourage more gardeners.

"We regularly hold growing classes and scarecrow workshops and they are always really popular," he says. "This week we taught them the basics of how to grow the various vegetables and how to deal with different problems such as pests.

"The vegetable growing class booked up really quickly as there are a lot of people out there who have an interest in it but don't know where to start."

The allotment usually holds an annual show but this year it has been cancelled due to funding issues.

"The annual show allows people to put some of the goods they have grown forward to be judged," says Adrian.

"However, the show is funded by the shop and we haven't been able to do it this year because there have been fewer people using the store."

There are 80 plots at large Sandy Lane site but they still need residents to come in from the local community to use the shop.

"The shop used to have 2,000 members, but now we have 800, which is just enough to keep the shop open," says Adrian.

"We also organise various trips to places around the country such as the Albert Docks and Spetchley Park Gardens.

"We are keen for gardeners to pass on their knowledge to others and then we can increase the number of people who grow their own food."