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They are more at home in Topshop than the potting shed and more likely to be found tweeting on Twitter than weeding.
But teenagers across London are already being prepared for a grown-up obsession with gardening.
Parents are signing their children up to become allotment holders, in the hope that they secure a place by the time they reach middle age.
Waiting lists for plots have hit record lengths, with residents of Camden facing a 40-year wait for their own piece of earth.
In Islington it can take 25 years to secure a plot, while most lists in Haringey are so long they are closed.
Victoria Carr, 45, a potter and mother of three from Primrose Hill, has even considered adding any future grandchildren to the waiting list. She is 626th in line for one of the council's 195 plots, and has already put her children Nancy, 17, Mary, 14, and seven-year-old Tom on the list.
She applied for an allotment in September last year and has moved up 10 places in nine months. She said she had all but given up hope for herself, but was planning for “her children's future” in case they were unable to find properties with gardens.
Mrs Carr, who has lived in a house with only a roof terrace for 21 years, said the length of the waiting list had become a family joke. “I am going to be dead for sure by the time I get one, but that is why my children are on the list.
“We have had a pretty good laugh about it. The kids think I have lost my mind. Tom would come with me, but Nancy and Mary have no interest — they want to be in Camden Market or cafés.
“But soon they will be 45, longing to have a cup of tea and sit in a chair and look at some vegetables. It might be that I need to put my grandchildren on — that might be more realistic.”
Mrs Carr said she and her 49-year-old husband Steve, a teacher, often walked from their home to Hampstead Heath, where they hope to be given a space at the Fitzroy Park allotments.
“It is about what you can teach your children from it. I've not totally given up hope but it is kind of a comedy hope,” she added.
Camden council confirmed there was a 40-year wait and said more than 800 people were now on its list. Hilary
Burden, the council's allotment officer, said applications for plots had increased dramatically in the last few years. About 200 people joined the list last year, with 100 having applied this year already.
“Camden does not have obvious areas to create allotments. There are only four sites and 195 plots,” she said. “People at the top of the list are waiting 10 or 11 years, but because numbers are growing so much, the wait at the bottom is much longer.” Camden is encouraging those on the list to contact neighbouring authorities such as Barnet and Brent.
There are 83,000 people on allotment waiting lists across Britain.
Geoff Stokes, secretary of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, said the interest was encouraging. “Allotment gardening has so many benefits, it's cheap, it's good for you, and it can save you hundreds of pounds a year on food.”
Reader views (1)
That's good isn't it?You apply for one when you're twenty and couldn't give a toss about a plot of land then it'll be ready for you when you're sixty,when you have the time and interest to tend to your fruit and veg.
- Steve, London, 03/06/2009 14:11
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