Whether it is facing the death of a loved one or staring into the face of death yourself, these individuals have turned to cultivating their allotments in an effort to nurture a seed of hope through difficult times.
Allotments can be found throughout the UK, with the latest survey from the allotment society estimating there to be around 330,000 nationwide. Allotments are often advertised as a great way to keep your general mental and physical wellbeing in check and a cheap way of growing your own fruits and vegetables.
However, there seems to be a lot more to allotments than digging, growing and fending off pesky slugs and green flies. This form of gardening has helped people come to terms with the loss of their loved ones and even their own mortality.
Richard Duffy, 28, from Warwackshire, has been interested in gardening since he was young, where he first became exposed to the world of gardening after completing a master composting course when he was just 15.
In his early 20s, Mr Duffy was diagnosed with Cancer and stuck to gardening and allotment work after his treatment as a means of getting back on his feet. He said:
“I got my plot shortly after treatment, just after I moved out of my parents house actually. I started working on it during my recovery but I did do a bit of gardening when I had my treatment. It gave me something to look forward to and it helped me to keep myself busy because I basically had a whole year off everything. It was great for me mentally. When I first got my plot it was actually Teenage Cancer Trust that helped give me money to buy a lot of my start-up equipment.
“I still enjoy the calmness of it, I like being able to watch something under my care.”
For Richard, his allotment has helped him understand the necessity and inescapability of death and helped comfort him in knowing that death is not entirely the end. Richard Duffy added:
“I often find it comforting knowing how the different cycles of the seasons reflect life, death and regrowth and how all these seasons appear every year. It helps me realise that one day my time will be up, just like all my plants and for me that’s ok.
“I also do a lot of composting so often the death/decay process is absolutely necessary to grow my plants. Which reassures me that death isn’t the end and that there can be positives that come out of death. This stuff is all very important to me.”
Working on allotments is hard-work and requires almost constant supervision. However if you can keep up with it, it can be a valuable outlet.
“I think working on an allotment can become quite a valuable way of easing thoughts surrounding death, but it’s a big commitment. It has to be something you want to do and have time for. With that being said, I know many allotments offer community schemes where people can help out despite not owning their own plot. So I guess they can get the benefit of being outside working on the plot without the commitment of maintaining it.”
Another case where allotment work has helped someone come to terms with death is 25 year old Katie Roberts from Edinborough.
Ms Roberts’ gardening journey started around the age of 8 when she used to help her grandma water the roses and mint in her Grandma’s back garden. At age 14 she began to help her granda water the various fruit and vegetables that he had growing on his allotment.
At age 22 she came into the possession of her own allotment after her granda’s neighbouring plot owner offered her half a plot he had no use for. Of which she still uses to grow fruits and vegetables today.
In late March 2025, Ms Roberts found out that one of her closest friends from her secondary school had passed away from breast cancer.
“For the next few months after her death, every time I worked on my allotment, all I could think about was her. There were times when I was gardening and I just saw it as utterly futile and pointless, but as time went on it became a place of calmness and it became quite meditative for me.
“As trite as it sounds, I now look back at that time on the allotment as really helpful in my grieving process and I believe my plot has become a physical manifestation of my continued relationship with her.”