Wendy HurrellSenior reporter, Barnet, London
Wendy Hurrell/BBC
At first glance, judges thought Steve Mills’ fruit tree tunnel was AI generated
This is not an allotment, this is a show garden worthy of the Chelsea Flower Show, I thought to myself as I entered through a hidden gate in Barnet, north London.
A sweeping tunnel of more than 100 fruit and flower trees led temptingly towards more secrets and surprises tucked away in Steve Mills’ plot, which he has been tending to for 14 years.
Mr Mills has just become an award-winning allotment owner, after wowing judges with his three-level S-shaped maze of plants.
He said: “I know it’s unique and I know it’s different. I thought, how do I share it with other people?”
Mr Mills entered the Top of the Plots competition, run in association with the National Allotment Society (NAS) in the hope that “people will see it and maybe get inspired by what I’ve done and take some of those ideas and use it for themselves”.
Wendy Hurrell/BBC
Mr Mills said his bench is his “thinking place” where he sits with a cup of tea
I walked with Mr Mills beneath the arches of fruit trees, interwoven with vines of squash, wisteria and clematis.
We picked and ate pears and apples that crunched with a fresh sweetness impossible to find from supermarket fruit.
Even in autumn, at the end of the growing season, there was an abundance of colour and foliage, bright spots of pink from a dahlia or fuchsia jumping out from the greenery.
Mr Mills started his garden 14 years ago with a “blank canvas”.
The idea to incorporate arches came from his desire to pick apples from above his head as he walked through.
Polytunnel supports created a frame for him to carefully train 100 or so trees to grow over. Now, there are 28 different kinds of apples on his plot.
Mr Mills has cultivated a wonderful mix of vegetables and ornamental plants – a border of peonies, their leaves turning russet shades, grow alongside a patch of spinach.
And there is a green carpet of lush, striped lawn running through the plot that would be the envy of any royal park or palace.
Wendy Hurrell/BBC
Mr Mills’ plot is a celebration of nature, with fruits, vegetables and flowers
Mr Mills is green-fingered in his professional life too, and works in the grounds maintenance team for Westminster Council.
“It’s almost like a busman’s holiday coming up here at the weekend,” he chuckled.
But his “passion for plants” keeps him coming to his allotment on his days off. And in Hendon, he is his own boss.
“Having an allotment gives me the opportunity to do what I want to do. And if I do something wrong it’s not a problem, I just correct it or just carry on,” he said.
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Mr Mills dreamt of being able to reach above his head and pick an apple
Mr Mills was one of 100 entries to the competition and said he was not expecting to win the Plot of the Year and Best Garden Plot trophies.
It “took my breath away,” he said humbly.
The head judge, author and permaculture gardener, Huw Richards told Mr Mills that his entry was so impossibly beautiful, he initially thought it had been generated by AI.
Mr Richards said: “When you see things that are amazing and unbelievable, it makes you a bit suspicious.
“The uniqueness, work and dedication was quite standout.”
He said Mr Mills’ polyculture, nature-inspired design inspired him to think about creating his own fruit tree arch.
“Basically, my first thought was: ‘I want one’,” he said.
Praising Mr Mills’ years of work on the allotment, he added: “He’s a serious gardener. He understands how important it is to work with nature, rather that against it.
“The way I see it is plants and varieties are like an artist’s colours. How they plan and plan their garden is how they paint their canvas.”
Wendy Hurrell/BBC
Even in autumn, Mr Mills’ allotment brings bright flashes of colour
There are around 130 plots at the West Hendon Allotment Society, which is surrounded by sports fields and the Brent Reservoir.
It is a community of people with heritage from all around the world – and that diversity is reflected by the foods and plants growing here.
“Everybody brings something from where they come from,” Mr Mills said. “We’re learning about unusual varieties or different cultivars.
“Us South Africans, we like our gem squash, so I grow quite a lot of them – that’s what I’ve brought.”
Getting an allotment is tricky because there are long waiting lists. In the meantime, Mr Mills advised that if gardeners have only a little space, they should grow vertically.
Train trees over arches and put creeping vines into pots to sprawl up walls, he said.
Mr Richards added that for anyone wanting to get planting this autumn, they could start on their broad beans, or use a greenhouse or polytunnel to start sweet peas, spinach, mustards and winter lettuce.
Allotments in London
London’s oldest allotments to still exist were created in Ealing in 1832.
Northfield Allotments were created on Ealing Dean Common and began with 20.5 acres of growing space. They have since decreased to about a third of the original area.
During World War One and World War Two, many London parks transformed into spaces for allotments. Even the Tower of London’s moat became an allotment during the Dig for Victory campaign of World War Two.
By the early 2000s, the number of allotments in London had drastically declined to about 500 sites, according to the London Assembly.
By 2017, there were more than 700 allotment sites across Greater London, with more people in the capital looking to grow their own.
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