August 9-15 is National Allotments Week in the UK, but across the capital, Londoners are waiting years for the opportunity to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Imperial College London reports that the average wait for an allotment in the capital is now four to five years, with an estimated 30,000 people on waiting lists.

Given all this, being able to hire allotments at Canada Gardens is a major coup for Quintain Living residents. Canada Gardens has been designed to provide a taste of urban country living in the heart of London’s vibrant Wembley Park neighbourhood. Residents have an acre of gardens to enjoy, including barbecues and outdoor dining areas and a spacious clubhouse that serves as a central hub for socialising or simply for stopping off for a coffee and five minutes’ peace.

They also have 16 hireable allotment planters, along with a greenhouse and a shed for storing tools, pots, seeds and the like. There’s information in the shed on planting seasons, while Wembley Park’s Estate Landscape Manager is on hand to share advice on what to grow, when and how best to help it thrive.

Meanwhile, plans are in place to form an allotment group on the popular Quintain Living resident app, to support those using the allotments to make friends with whom to share growing tips and to help water each other’s plants over holiday periods.

“Connecting with nature through growing food brings a whole host of physical and mental benefits. Yet the desire to grow food is one that can be tough to achieve in London – our own Resident Manager is currently on a three-year waiting list for an allotment, which is hardly uncommon for the capital. We are thrilled that at our Canada Gardens apartments, residents have the opportunity to hire allotment beds to grow their own produce.”

Danielle Bayless, Chief Operating Officer, Quintain Living
Data specialists dunnhumby Beyond revealed that 57% of one-person households and 58% of two-person households wanted to grow more of their own food in 2020. The pandemic has fuelled interest in gardening and growing food like never before. During the first lockdown, the National Allotment Society (NAS) reported a 45% increase in the number of requests for information through its website, while web views of Royal Horticultural Society advice pages shot up by 50% in April 2020. The UK public’s insatiable appetite for growing their own food has continued ever since.