Boom in gardening as Londoners turn their balconies into mini-allotments

 
Urban gardener: Laura Whitticase (Picture: Glenn Copus)

Londoners are making the most of their small living spaces by growing more fruit and vegetables on window ledges and balconies, figures show.

According to Amazon, sales of indoor allotment sets in the capital have soared nearly tenfold in the past year.

Households in the SE1 postcode, covering Bermondsey, Borough, Southwark and Waterloo, are the most green-fingered indoor enthusiasts, perhaps inspired by the fresh food on offer at nearby Borough Market.

They are closely followed by Londoners in E14, covering the Isle of Dogs, Millwall and Poplar.

The third biggest area for sales of allotment kits was N1 — Barnsbury, Canonbury and Islington — with residents in Camden Town and Regent’s Park in NW1 in fourth.

The boom in indoor growing is being driven primarily by younger people. It comes as the Royal Horticultural Society said almost 90 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds across the country now have a garden or allotment, or grow their own plants and flowers inside the home. Young people were “hooked on growing vegetables” and were now keener to show off their herb garden or tomato plants than to go clubbing, the RHS report said.

Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU retail at Amazon, said: “Londoners aren’t letting limited living space restrict their horticultural capabilities and are bringing the outdoors into loft conversions and flats.”

Herb kits and strawberry plants were among the most popular items last year, and Amazon believes the trend will continue as the population in the capital increases.

Gardener and cook Mark Diacono said: “The town or city is perhaps the ideal place to create a kitchen garden. The warmer, more sheltered urban climate gives you a fine edge on those in the country.

“Prioritise transformers — those foods that are small in volume but big in flavour like chillies — and you’ll get the most from your space.”

'It's nice to know where what you're eating has come from'

Laura Whitticase works in arts planning at the Barbican. She lives between Stoke Newington and Finsbury Park in a four-bedroom flat with flatmates. It has a roof terrace, where she is growing rhubarb, strawberries and a selection of herbs. She is also growing lettuces, pak choi and tomatoes in window boxes.

Ms Whitticase, 29, started gardening only a couple of months ago. She said: “Me and two of my housemates started it as an interesting project. There is so much that you are not in control of when you are living in London that it is nice to have an iota of it over some element of your life. We also ran the marathon so were keen to have a nice project to carry on with after that was over that gets you away from TV screens and is a bit more peaceful and relaxing.

“I was also keen to have a bit more of a connection with what I was eating … it’s nice to know where what you are eating has come from.”

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