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The Garden
August 2003

Allotment king

Dutch allotments are a valuable resource for city dwellers - not just for growing edible crops but also as green oases for ornamentals. Philip Clayton meets Amsterdam allotment holder Michael King

Images by Jane Sebire

Michael King’s Amsterdam allotment, planted with ornamentals, is an impressive example of the naturalistic European planting style

In The Netherlands, particularly in urban areas, allotments are a serious issue. Recognised as an important part of the green infrastructure of cities, they are protected from development. Indeed, allotments have recently been given status as ‘garden parks’, and are accessible to the general public at certain times.

Unlike most UK allotments, these popular resources are not used solely for raising fruit and vegetables. Many people see them as an escape from city life, and plant them up with ornamentals, in effect creating gardens.

About eight years ago, writer Michael King took on his Amsterdam allotment primarily as a place to trial the ‘new Dutch assortment’, which was then largely unknown in the UK. These selections of herbaceous plants, that includes monardas, eupatoriums and asters, as well as many grasses, formed the mainstay of the emerging ‘European planting style’ championed by garden designers in the late 1990s. Michael’s apartment is only 15 minutes away by bicycle, and the allotment allows him far greater possibilities to garden than his small, windy balcony.

The roughly triangular-shaped allotment is about 250sq m (2,790sq ft) and one of 70 in a complex first established 50 years ago. All include the same little sheds for potting and storage of tools, and are separated from each other by tidy, clipped hornbeam hedges.

The soil is heavy clay, which despite the high water table does dry out in summer, and makes cultivation on site tricky at times.

The allotment was redesigned three years ago and today the plot is no longer a mere testing ground for new plants, but a garden with a distinct ‘sense of place’ where Michael has tried to express the dynamic character of the plants he grows. The remaining lawn was removed to maximise growing space and existing plants reshuffled and combined for better effect. A simple layout was chosen, paths laid and rectangular beds planted.

About 90 percent of the species in the garden are perennials or deciduous shrubs and trees. ‘I love the way a garden changes and develops over the year, and I have tried to reflect that by using plants which change according to the seasons,’ he explains.

Weeding is seldom a problem as the beds are so full of plants, but some of the more vigorous species need restricting to prevent them shading out less-competitive ones. Smaller plants tend to be positioned at the front of borders or by pathways where there are higher light levels and less competition.

The season starts in February when the skeletons of late-season herbaceous plants, including many grasses, are removed; these have maintained an attractive framework over winter. On this canvas, bare save for the first emerging snowdrops, the whole site with its simple layout can be seen from the patio area, including a pool at the end of the garden that is largely hidden in summer.

The reflective qualities of the lushly planted pool add a dynamic element to the planting

However, by March there is much to see, with the earliest tulips beginning to flower. Perhaps suprisingly, few Dutch allotment holders in the complex grow tulips. ‘They often comment on how lovely it is to see them,’ Michael laughs. Tulips are not planted in drifts or blocks but spread evenly among the herbaceous planting - a style repeated with many of the other plants grown.

Tulipa ‘Red Shine’, a lily-flowered cultivar, is planted en masse; its flowers shine among the lush green of developing grasses, which serve as a perfect foil.

As grasses build up steam, early-summer colour is provided by purple alliums and charming Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’, which produces apricot-pink single flowers on purplish stems over a long season.

In the border by the patio area, Carex elata ‘Aurea’, a golden-leaved sedge, mixes with lime-green euphorbias and soaring Persicaria polymorpha, with cloud-like white flowerheads in summer. Late-flowering Aruncus dioicus ‘Zweiweltenkind’ is a favourite, its green-tinged heads of tiny cream flowers combining well with smaller Astilbe rivularis. At a lower level, Geranium ‘Patricia’ rambles around, but its strong magenta blooms are removed when the white-flowered plants are in bloom to keep the feeling of serenity.

Purples and golds

Clumps of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Overdam’ stand sentry along the path. These will eventually merge and partition the garden

Later in summer, colour comes from a central bed. Spiky-flowered plants including mauve veronicas, blue delphiniums and aconitums, and pale pink Astilbe chinensis var. taquetii ‘Superba’ erupt through a frothy sea of geraniums, campanulas and phlox.

These species eventually give way in late summer and autumn to golden-flowered rudbeckias, and the grasses. Primary among these is Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Overdam’, a tall but slender variegated grass. This is massed to one side of the garden to screen a main border from the axial gravel path, and effectively partition the garden.

And so the annual cycle is almost complete. The space within the allotment has changed from an open field of tulips, to the plot being filled, divided and ultimately compartmentalised by plant growth, inviting one to enter and discover what lies inside.

As autumn fades into winter, the striking, architectural forms of faded flowerheads and seedheads of grasses and perennials become prominent, gradually declining and fading - reminders of the garden’s summer glory - until their final removal in February.

It is this cyclic progression of the seasons and the associated stages of plant growth that inspires Michael. ‘Developing the allotment has been a route to self-expression and a chance to establish a garden with a definite style and “sense of place”,’ he says. It has enabled him to trial plants, to select those that appeal to him most, and finally to combine them in what he has determined to be the most suitable planting style.

While allotments are different things to different people, the concept of tending one seems (at least in the Netherlands) more relevant today than ever. For people moving into cities and living in cramped apartments, open spaces are vitally important, especially if they are areas on which individuals can stamp their personality.

Philip Clayton is Assistant Features Editor for The Garden

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