Allotment - the Where, When, Why and How - Grow your own in Japan

So you thought allotments were a British phenomenon? Think again - in Japan, people of all ages and interests have been getting down on their hands and knees to cultivate the earth. Some do it to put fresh, pesticide-free vegetables on the table. Others simply want the satisfaction of growing their own produce. In response to booming demand, allotment gardens that make use of fallow farmland are cropping up everywhere.

But there's another process going on, which will astonish British allotment holders - vegetable gardens for cities are being created alongside the railway stations of major cities. Tokyoites are now able to grow vegetables in patches that actually straddle railway lines. The latest is the upmarket, residential west side of Seijo Gakuen-mae Station. The allotments are 300 plots that cover six square metres each. And the size is not the only surprise, members of this urban gardening club pay an annual fee of 136,500 yen (£550), for which they are given access to showers, a clubhouse with a lounge, gardening tools imported from Britain and rubber boots manufactured by a French firm. They attend a variety of vegetable-themed lectures on topics as diverse and peculiarly oriental as baking cakes and sweets with vegetable ingredients, and the art of vegetable carving. Those too busy to make it to the garden for an extended period of time can actually pay extra to get someone to tend their crops. An all-inclusive special membership package, which covers this service, costs 525,000 yen (£2150) annually.

Osaka's busy Minami district has a project called 'Urban Farm' a small vegetable garden that contains plots, each also measuring just six square metres.. When it opened in 2003, there were 1,100 applicants for the twenty plots!

Japanese gardener photograph by MShades, used under a creative commons attribution licence