Wotta lotta culture

Uplands Allotments, Handsworth - Birmingham is home to possibly the largest allotment site in Britain. By the late 1980s Uplands allotments in Birmingham was “a show piece of horticultural diligence in a city where the tinned carrot, the mushy pea and the new potato in brine, have given the shovel and the hoe the old heave ho.” In contrast other allotment sites such as Yardley Green Road allotments in Bordesley Green were in decline with many untended plots.

As this article shows, Uplands was also an important space for Birmingham’s diverse communities. Nationalities or “New Brummies” included plot holders from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Poland and Ukraine. Amongst traditional crops such as carrots and potatoes, plot holders introduced other crops such as coriander, callaloo (a green leafy vegetable from the Caribbean) and kidney beans. By 1998, Uplands was known as “The United Nations of Brum” and had established its own seed company called ‘Seedsaluv.’ Led by Mario Rozanski, Uplands was famous for being the “Biggest and Brightest” allotment site in Britain. Plot holders also began their own ‘Grow and Give’ campaign to pass spare vegetables, fruits and flowers on to charities, families and friends.

Transcription: Evening Mail, Monday August 26, 1996 (page 3)

The Brum allotment where world-wide friendship grows and grows
WOTTA LOTTA CULTURE (...that's multi-culture and horticulture!) by Guy Jackson

Indians exchange tips on growing runner beans and cabbages with fellow gardeners from Jamaica and Eastern Europe at an award-winning multi-cultural allotment in Birmingham.

Uplands Allotments in Handsworth has been dubbed the "United Nations of gardening" because its 400 plots are tended by a green-fingered group including people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Poland and the Ukraine.

It's one of Britain's biggest allotments site and has won a national award for the role it plays in the local community.
The allotments won £1,500 from the Shell Better Britain Campaign to launch a campaign to improve the 38-acre site called Taproots project.

Recycling

The plot holders will develop schemes to make compost by recycling organic domestic waste and improve greenhouse facilities to grow fruit and vegetables all year round.

The Uplands Allotments Association secretary Mario Rozanski, whose parents are Polish, said: "Our gardeners are a very multi-cultural group.

Of our 400 plots, around a third are tended by Asians and another third by Afro-Caribbeans - the mix just seems to have developed like that."

Jamaican-born Linton Carby, aged 67, a retired Jaguar car worker from Handsworth, has had an allotment for 17 years because he wanted to grow his own fresh vegetables.

"I grow cabbage, potatoes, beans, pumpkins and a Caribbean spinach called callalloo." he said.

Advice

"We all watch each other to see what each other is growing and we swop plants - it's a very friendly atmosphere.
Indian Jit Singh, 60, from Handsworth, has been growing vegetables on a neighbouring patch for the past five years.

He said: "I have friends from all over the world here - blacks, Asians and white," he said. "If someone doesn't know how to do something they ask another plot holder for advice."

Edna Stewart, aged 68, originally from Jamaica, but now a resident of Handsworth, has only been a plot holder for a year. She said: "I'm a freshman here, as the Americans would say! I love coming to the allotments - I often get here at 7am to water my garden before the sun comes up. At the moment, I am taking my niece from America to the allotment to see my pumpkins and my peas and callalloo."

Local councillor Sybil Spence (Lab, Soho) said: "People from many different cultures can get to know each other better at Uplands - it brings people together."

Photograph Captions

Shared Values: Jit Singh, Linton Carby, Ken Rhodes and Edna Stewart have a joke, while Albert Cockayne (left) swaps tips with Clive Taylor.

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