Roots Allotments make gardening accessible to all and have recently opened a new site just outside Dronfield. Rosie Brennan spoke to co-founder Ed Morrison to find out more.

The world’s first ‘no dig’ allotment community is changing lives one seed at a time. Whether you’ve got green thumbs or are a complete beginner, Roots offers a friendly, welcoming community, giving all the education and gardening supplies needed for its members to get growing their own plants, flowers and vegetables. 

With nine local allotments around the UK, the organisation is making big strides for the future, and the ‘no dig’ revolution. Co-founder Ed Morrison spoke to us about the creation of Roots, its impact on the community, and the ‘no dig’ principle. 

Recently opened, the Bowshaw Views Sheffield site in Dronfield features 149 allotment spaces spanning 12 acres, overseen by patch manager Will Russ. Included in your membership are tools and gardening supplies, over 20 varieties of seeds, 100 online educational videos, yoga passes, one-to-one education from Will, events and workshop passes, as well as local produce and a friendly community. 

Craft and wellness workshops, foraging walks, long table feasts, plug plant parties, welcome slots and much more can be enjoyed at the Bowshaw Views site from just £9.99 per month with a joining fee. 

The site is just a short drive away from the Peak District National Park, is dog-friendly and has four different patch sizes to suit individual needs. The popular starting 12m x 3m patch starts at £19.99 per month, and is the perfect way to start your growing journey. There is also a mini 4m x 3m patch (from £9.99 per month), ideal for parents teaching young children or those with limited time to start small and grow skills; the couples patch 12m x 6m (from £34.99 per month) offering more room for variety and the 12m x 9m group patch (from £49.99 per month). Twenty-five per cent discounts are also available to students, pensioners, those in the Blue Light community and more. You can find the membership that works for you via the Roots Allotments website. 

Founding the organisation created somewhat of a drastic change in Ed’s day-to-day life. Having quit his advertising job in London around ten months prior to lockdown, the idea of growing his own food was sparked at the sight of panicking shoppers queuing to get into a supermarket. 

“My nan let me have a little part of her garden during the whole of lockdown, and I just fell in love with growing,” the founder explained. “It was something amazing that I discovered I loved doing. Then when I moved back to London after lockdown, I said to my mates Will and Christian, my partners on Roots, ‘let’s get an allotment together, I loved growing over lockdown and you guys are going to love it as well’.” 

Accessibility was a core principle in creating the organisation. Ed elaborated: “We thought ‘Why don’t we try and make it as easy as possible for people to get into it? We’ll supply them with organic seeds, organic plug plants, in-person workshops, we’ve got online education and community-shared tools, so people don’t need to invest the money in tools – we pretty much give you everything you need to get going.” 

The first site was on Will’s family farm, just outside of Bath, and has been a growing success ever since. Ed said: “We’ve gone from one location to nine now, which can be a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment sometimes.” 

Across nine locations – Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Bath, Stourbridge, Croydon, Bristol, Bathford and Chelmsford – the allotments currently have around 2-3,000 members. Annual and monthly memberships are available to purchase online, new members can book their welcome slot and head down to their local allotment to meet their patch manager, tour the patch, and receive a starter kit to get going. 

“On each of the locations, we make an effort to create no dig patches. The community also work together to plant hedgerow fruit trees. We’re going to sow wildflower seeds down at the bottom of our Sheffield site, also some willow huts, insect hotels. We’re looking at digging some ponds to help deal with the sort of natural flow of water, diverting it away from the patches and maybe into a pond, which is going to enhance the biodiversity even more,” explained Ed. 

Choosing to follow gardener Charles Dowding’s ‘no dig’ style of growing, Ed decided to bring this into the vision for Roots. As opposed to traditional growing techniques, the no dig style involves placing cardboard on top of the ground, with around four inches of compost on top of it, and planting straight into it. Charles Dowding is a pioneer of no dig gardening, hoping for home gardeners to grow their own food more productively, independently, and healthily. With 40 years of vegetable growing experience, he is passionate about encouraging everyone, no matter their level of experience, to grow more food for less effort. 

“Every time you dig and turn, you disturb the soil, so by doing no dig, we’re just going on top of the ground, we’re not disturbing the soil. We’re building soil health instead of taking away from it. You do less watering, you do less weeding, so it’s like a no-brainer,” Ed explained. 

The co-founder went on to say: “Our Sheffield site has been ploughed quite a lot, we’re trying to repair the ground from that by building up layers of organic matter, and in time we should see a total improvement to the soil and the health of it. That’s what I love about no dig – it’s a brilliant answer to what we’ve done to the land from an agricultural perspective.”

The organisation highlights the joy of connecting with others to learn something new, develop a community and enhance your own wellbeing. In Ed’s words: “We’re trying to get people to access a growing space, educate people, help everyday people feel involved with something. It helps to have something tangible to hold on to during what can be quite a chaotic time with all the messaging about the climate crisis, it can be quite anxious and depressing. But if we work together as a community to improve the biodiversity of each of our allotment sites, it’s empowering people with knowledge to work the land and take care of it.”

Ed himself describes the impact discovering his love for growing has had on his own wellbeing as a ‘massive transformation’ and has witnessed others feel the same impact. Surveying members at the end of each growing season, Ed said: “I think 97 per cent of people who responded said they felt a wellbeing improvement from growing their own food and being part of our project.”

He added: “Seventy-four per cent of people met someone new, that connecting over common ground of nature and growing plants, it’s a really beautiful way to bridge any sort of differences that people have. Down on our allotments, you’ve got a whole range of people from society, everyone gets on. It’s really nice to think we live in a society with so many conflicting viewpoints, but we can actually just find a space to forget about that and focus on something, we can build our connections up from that.” 

Aiming to expand the organisation and get as many people growing as possible, Roots Allotments have partnered with others to spread their message and educate people. Forest schools, including one ran by patch manager Will Russ, partner with schools in the local area to visit educational aspects of the site, as well as community interest companies like ‘Discovery Outdoor Sheffield’ collaborating with the organisation to take over some allotment spaces to get as many young people in Sheffield growing as possible. Roots are always to looking to partner with, in Ed’s words “as many people who are doing good like that, as possible.” 

To find out more click here.