Allotments 4 All

Richard's survey showed that 88% of the voters have an allotment. Only 50 people voted so it is not really a reflection of the total members here but it gives an idea anyway.

Now I am really curious to know the age and gender groups of the allotmenteers. We may find out whether the standard perception that allotmenteers are elderly gentlemen fits the picture or not.

I realize that many of us work the allotment together with a friend or partner, therefore I set the votes per user on two. Thus, you can enter yourself and your allotment partner as well.

The outcome will not be a true reflection of course. When I go by the population of our allotment complex, many of the older allotmenteers are not computer literate so we won't find them on this site. At least this poll will show us the age and gender groups of the allotmenteers on this board.

If you are curious enough to read this posting and you are an allotmenteer, do enter the poll please. It will be interesting to see the results.

Great idea Ina  :)

Myself and Mr M are under 30, but only just in my case   :-\

Thanks Moggle.
I'm going to put a dunce cap on now. I made a booboo with my own entry hahaha.
Hopefully Dan can fix it, I mailed him. If he can't, there's one female that should have been a male on the poll.

moggle, you lucky cow! :D
i now feel ancient as i fall into the 30-40 category (but only just ;))

svea

I hope the older people's age group is low just maybe because they aren't using this forum rather than them not having lotties.  I say this as I will still want to be allotmenteering when I'm 90.  I could be buried on it.  I do so enjoy recycling so that would be the ultimate sacrifice  ;D

At first sight it looks like the women are out in front in the lotty stakes.  That blew the myth about lotties and older fellas out of the water.  ;D

Haha Svea, I still get upset about having to put myself in the '25-35' type bracket on surveys  :'(

I'm going to be inconsolable next year when I turn 30  :-X

Wait till you find yourself in the 40-50 bracket!  :'(  :'(  :'(  :'( ;D  ;D

Oh DP,
I am in the next one but hey your as young as you feel saying that I am 21 and a bit ok its a big bit ha ha.
Ina its going to be interesting looking forward to results
Teresa

Yes, it's getting more interesting by the hour.
Women/men almost 3:1, who would have expected that?
Early day yet, many people are still at work.

See? Almost equal numbers male/female now.

Hi everyone, we are new here and are really looking forward to picking your brains!! I feel much better for seeing that us 40+ women are in the majority as my mates have taken the mickey out of me for years for gardening - now I've got an allotment they think I'm really sad. Paul's not too happy to have joined the over 50 group tho bless him.

Welcome Clair and Paul.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, why is it Clair en Paul? Dutch by any chance?
You found the right place and since you have been gardening for years, we might be picking your brain hehehe.
Tell us more about yourselves and your allotment, maybe in the shed?

hee hee I just pushed the femail 40-50 into the lead ;D

here"s another one in the 40 - 50 bracket!!!  :) :) :) :)

Likewise!

well, another female , but over 50, and I'm about the youngest on my lottie and I'd say they are 80% male and lots of them are over 80 ( honest )

The gap is widening with the old dears out in front.  I thought as much  ;D ;D ;D

Not scientific but I thought I'd add my experience of letting allotments. We have 135 plots with probably 50% being retired. Out of the last 18 plots let since October, however, only 1 has been to someone over 40. The rest have been around the 30'ish mark with the youngest at 21. Also there used to only be 4 plots primarily gardened by women, but of the last 18, 7 were either to single women or where the woman will be the main gardener. Civilization has finally arrived!

Who are you calling 'old dears'?? (I'm a sensitive 42 [female] - the largest group). So far, there's more under 40s than over 50s.

On my site, since I only took it on recently I haven't met them all yet -  but I understand that its nearly all women who've taken on plots in the past 18 months, and its been women there doing the work the past few weeks I've been going. It looks as though the men there may be fair-weather allotmenteers.

Very interesting indeed!
This poll together with djbrenton's remarks seems to show a trend. Women are working allotments more and more. Go sisters!

Long ago, the male role model was to be the provider for the family and growing veggies probably was an extension of this?
The male 'work horses' may have even received more respect and sympathy when he grew veggies in addition to bringing home the bacon from his regular job.
Little did women know, they would pamper the men when they complained of sore muscles after working the lottie, waited on them hand and foot and praise them when they'd bring home fresh veggies from the lottie. All those long summer evenings that hubby was 'slaving' away on his allotment while the women where 'only' taking care of the kids, the dishes, the washing and ironing etc. 
Well........we found out how much fun it is didn't we ladies? Beats household chores anytime.

On our site, as far as I can tell, there are 3 ladies (me being one of them  ;D) 2 couples and the rest are chaps.  Mind you, our site isn't huge, probably 20 plots in all.  I do wonder if the reason more ladies work the plots these days is not only the  longing to provide their family with better fruit and veggies than any supermarket can sell, but also the fact that the chaps (if there is a chap on the scene, not meaning to offend  ;D) is working long hours to bring home the bacon.  This is our situation - Ava heads off at 7.30am and his average arrival home is 8pm.  Thank goodness for the motorbike, if it wasn't for that, using public transport he would have to leave at 6am and depending on the trains and buses, wouldn't be home before 9pm!

Well, that shot my theory hehehe.

Btw, I'm a chappess who brings home most of the bacon. Must admit that we scaled down considerably after realizing we could do with a lot less bacon and no car. We are very lucky in that respect.

Lucky you Ina.  I keep begging Ava to become a househusband and let me go back to work, but I don't think I could ever earn that salary....and with an expensive step daughter.......................... :-\ :-\