The Allotment Society: Garden plots and the gentle politics of tomatoes

Harriet Combe

Every allotment has an unspoken code, and most of it comes down to tomatoes: who staked theirs too early, whose plot looks a little too tidy, and who quietly leaves extra courgettes on the bench for no one to claim. This is a wander through that small patch of earth and everyone who tends it, the rivalries that never quite turn sour, the shared tools, the weather talk, and the slow satisfaction of a season well grown. Warm, observant, and easy to sink into.