Renting a farmers field, allotment business.

[WHARTY]

Hi

I was wondering if it is possible to rent a farmers field on a long term lease.
I was thinking maybe 10 years or something.

I am researching (again) another potential business idea.

I want to bring allotments up to date.

I like the idea of offering plots that have one good size polly tunnel and several raised beds for other crops etc.

I want to aim it at a different sort of customer though. I want to aim it at busy proffessional people.

It seems most people give up after a few months because allotments are such hard work and require so much time putting into them.

I was wondering if i could offer a service where for a basic £15 a month you can look after everything yourself or for say £25 per month you could have a gardener employed on the site that would keep an eye on your crops.

Obviously the gardener would be looking after the other plots too.

The gardener would keep the poly tunnels ventilated and all your plants watered etc. They would also do all the weeding and general up keep of the plot.

The idea is that busy people don't have the time for these things but want to eat good healthy food.

I think like me a lot of people enjoy pulling up carrots or potatoes and being able to eat fresh food but just don't have the time for it.

You get the benefit of your own fresh food but non of the hard work.

Most allotments i see resemble some sort of shanty town and i really think this way of life could be modernised for busy people.

You would be able to speak with the gardeners and they can show you how to do it all. They would be there for advice and for help.

I also thought that you could loan equipment for the day rather than having to buy it.

How nice would it be to go down to your plot and just chill out with a BBQ and eat some of those potatoes and corn on the cobs you just pulled up!

You can do as little or as much work on the plot as possible and still enjoy the rewards of being in a chilled out, relaxed environment.

 

[Gecko001]

Basically you are wanting to rent a farmers field and then sub-let it to others. You might find a farmer who would be willing to do that but he would probably ask a lot. To be honest it would probably be cheaper to buy the field from him.

 

[Subbynet]

If I'm honest I don't see the point in marketing this to professionals, the reason being if they're not in it for the gardening itself, they could always spend that extra £15-25 monthly expenditure on organic veg from ever a greengrocers (increasingly hard to find!) or a supermarket.

There's plenty of demand for allotments, so I think the idea has legs, but I'm not sure if busy professionals is the best market to target.

The largest age section growing in the UK is the over 65's. I think you shouldn't rule them out as tbh, whenever I've looked in an allotment, it's mostly older aged people using them. Dare I say target the 50+, better-off semi/early-retired, and others who can afford to give it more time.

Also, I know £15-25 isn't a great deal of money, but in some ways it defeats the growing your own idea of saving money. So I think if you had a number of active "growers" on your site, you could maybe hold a weekly/monthly produce sale where they or you could sell the surplus, and reduce their costs as well and maybe they'll make a small profit. With so many different growers you're bound to have quite a variety of produce to choose from.

 

[Ashley_Price]

By "professional people" I am assuming you mean those with money, but no time.

Then, as has been said above, they might as well just buy the vegetables, or have one of those box delivery schemes rather than an allotment.

At what point does the gardener's work stop? If s/he ends up doing all the work then it seems a bit pointless to be spending £15-£25 a month to not then do anything yourself.

I would love to have time to grow my own veg - and I have a big enough garden to do it in, but it is the time factor. But I wouldn't go employing someone else to do it for me, that defeats the object of the exercise. Would you say you want to be a landscape painter, but get someone else to do most of the painting and you just fill in a few gaps at the end

Most councils offer an allotment scheme and even if they don't, if enough residents request one, then the council has to find the land. However, many are well maintained. Here in Lewes, the Town Ranger visits the four or five allotment sites on a regular basis and he keeps a close eye on those that don't appear to be being looked after. They can be taken back to be rented to someone else.

 

[Vectis]

Like the others have said, I can't see 'busy professionals' being interested in this. Not much point paying for an allotment only to have someone else grow everything for you. May as well pay the £25 a month extra and shop at Waitrose.

If you shift the emphasis away from the 'busy professional' to others who might be interested in an allotment, I think you'd find that, in many cases, a farmer's field will be too far away from where most people live to be of much use. That's why allotments tend to be in towns. Not many people will want to drive out into the country to tend their allotment.

 

[Subbynet]

Most councils offer an allotment scheme and even if they don't, if enough residents request one, then the council has to find the land.

I admire your optimism Ashley!

Around here, well, in fact I believe for a lot Bedfordshire really, the waiting times for allotments are counted in the years. My uncle put his name down for an allotment when he moved, and I think it was something like 8/9 years later he got one, and he lives in a small place called Ampthill, surrounded by countryside which you'd think the county council could find somewhere to use. In the larger towns you can wait even longer.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Around here, well, in fact I believe for a lot Bedfordshire really, the waiting times for allotments are counted in the years. My uncle put his name down for an allotment when he moved, and I think it was something like 8/9 years later he got one, and he lives in a small place called Ampthill, surrounded by countryside which you'd think the county council could find somewhere to use. In the larger towns you can wait even longer.

I was making the point that if there is no allotment provision at all.

The lengths of time to wait for an allotment here can be just as long.

 

[Subbynet]

I was making the point that if there is no allotment provision at all.

The lengths of time to wait for an allotment here can be just as long.

So allotment provision is pretty much terrible everywhere I take it! I think the waiting times can only be a good thing for someone wanting to set-up private allotments. The demand is there, and I'd say people will go a little but further than normal to get hold of one.

 

[roydmoorian]

And you would need the relevant planning approval.

A ten year FBT (Farm Business Tenancy) would not be suitable for allotments.

It wold probably be easier to get approval for a cemetery (seriously) but you would need much more than 10 years.....