It's National Allotment Week!

During National Allotments Week we want to bring you some of the benefits of spending time outside at an allotment. Whether you choose to join our allotment in Pershore or take on your own allotment there are lots of benefits to spending more time outside in later life.

We’ve taken the below benefits from The National Allotment Society website, you can read more information about allotments here.

Helping to combat loneliness:

Gardening at an allotment enables people to interact with like-minded others especially beyond retirement. The social contact offered by gardening in an allotment environment helps to combat the lack of social capital embodied by loneliness, which has the equivalent risk to health as consuming 15 cigarettes daily and is twice as harmful as obesity.

Improving mental well-being:

Many allotment gardeners will tell you that a spell on the plot nurturing plants and contemplating nature makes them feel calmer and more hopeful. One of our allotment volunteers said: “We have all heard Monty Don telling us how good it is for us to get outside and get busy in the garden.  How true this is and on so many different levels! I have been a volunteer at Pershore Allotment now for the last two years and I can say without a shadow of doubt that it has been transformative for me.”

Keeping active:

Gardening at an allotment is an ideal way to keep active in later life, it can help to maintain good balance and help with cognitive decline.  Spending as little as 15 minutes a day out in the summer sunshine can build up your levels of vitamin D, if you are fair skinned. And for those whose skin is naturally darker, anywhere up to 90 minutes of sun exposures will help your vitamin levels. However, gardeners do need to be aware of skin cancer risks, Melanoma is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and on the rise. So make sure that you dress appropriately and wear sunscreen on exposed areas. Click Here for more advice for gardeners.

Fresh and healthy produce:

Our Pershore produces regular fresh fruit and vegetables which our clients and volunteers are welcome to take home to enjoy as part of their regular diet. In a survey of National Allotment Society members nearly every person said their love of allotment gardening comes from the fresh air, home grown produce, healthy lifestyle and like-minded people this activity offers.

A sense of achievement:

If you are new to gardening (or even if you’re not!) growing vegetables and tending an allotment requires knowledge and skills which people will pick up from the current allotment attendees. The satisfaction from eating their first home grown produce is a great sense of achievement.

Contact with nature:

Working a plot year- round means that allotment holders experience the seasons, witness the behaviour of birds, insects and other animals and gain an understanding of the eco-system. This appreciation of the natural world also has the potential to inspire more environmentally aware behaviour by themselves and their children.

In 2018 the UK Government produced a 25 Year Environment Plan, which acknowledges that connecting people to their environment will also improve their health and well-being. A study in the Netherlands showed that every 10 per cent increase in exposure to green space translated into an improvement in health equivalent to being five years younger, with similar benefits found by studies in Canada and Japan.

If you would like to know more about joining our Pershore contact our referral hub or visit our website here.