Growing the Future: Meet Our New Youth Ambassador and Competition Winners

What we were looking for

Our Winners

Celebrating Every Young Grower

We were genuinely inspired by the response to our Youth Ambassador Competition, with entries arriving from young growers across the country. We received everything from fantastic drawings and poems to photographs, written stories and videos, each one offering a glimpse into a young person’s growing journey. We loved hearing about what they grow, who first inspired them, the time they spend on their allotments and, above all, the enthusiasm they have for gardening and the outdoors.

The standard of entries made choosing our winners incredibly difficult. While not everyone could take one of the top places, every young person who entered should feel incredibly proud of what they achieved. Their creativity, knowledge and passion for growing showed us that the future of allotment gardening is in very good hands.

We would like to say a huge thank you to every young person who entered, and to the parents, grandparents, families and allotment communities who encouraged and supported them.

 Helping children discover the pleasure of sowing a seed, caring for a plant and eventually harvesting something they have grown themselves can be the beginning of a lifelong love of growing.

We are also delighted that we will be celebrating more of our entrants and sharing their stories in the Quarter 4 edition of Allotment & Leisure Gardener.

We want their efforts to be recognised because, whether they sent us a poem, a picture, a story or a video, every entry demonstrated exactly what this competition was about: inspiring and encouraging the next generation of allotment gardeners.

Meet Finn – Our New Youth Ambassador

Bodie – Growing Alongside Grandad

Ten-year-old Bodie has been helping his grandad, Graeme, on their allotment plot in Stansted, Essex, for the past three years.

He is already involved in the whole growing process, including planting many of the seeds himself in the greenhouse before helping to transplant the young plants onto the allotment.

Bodie loves visiting the plot and helping his grandad maintain an allotment they are both understandably very proud of.

That intergenerational connection is one of the things we love about allotments. Skills, knowledge and enthusiasm can be passed from one generation to another simply by spending time together sowing, planting and tending a plot.

Bodie's family told us they are incredibly proud of his achievement in the competition – and that Bodie himself was “ecstatic” to discover he was a runner-up!

We are delighted that Bodie and his family hope to keep in touch and share occasional articles, photographs and videos about his adventures on the allotment.

Congratulations, Bodie!

Jaykob – Fascinated by What Happens Beneath the Soil

Ten-year-old Jaykob's love of gardening began when he started helping his Nana on her allotment.

What began as simply enjoying spending time helping soon developed into a real fascination with how plants grow.

Jaykob would ask his Nana questions whenever they visited the plot, learning something new each time. One subject in particular captured his imagination: roots.

He loves investigating root systems and discovering what is happening underneath the soil – from the way roots take up water and nutrients to the different types of root systems produced by different plants.

After a long wait, Jaykob and his family eventually got an allotment plot of their own.

Like many new allotment holders, they discovered that getting a plot can be just the beginning of the adventure! The site was very overgrown, so Jaykob has been helping cut back hedges, strim grass, prepare the soil and begin planting.

It has been hard work, but that certainly hasn't discouraged him.

He is currently growing sweetcorn, strawberries, rhubarb and runner beans
, regularly checking on his plants to see how they are progressing.

For Jaykob, one of the greatest pleasures is seeing something he has sown turn into food.

Gardening has also taught him an important lesson: patience.

Plants don't always grow exactly as expected. Sometimes things go wrong and sometimes you simply have to wait. Jaykob has learned that the answer is to keep trying rather than give up.

We also loved his explanation of why the allotment is such an appealing place to spend his time. Rather than always sitting indoors playing on his Xbox, he enjoys being outside, checking what is growing, investigating plants and deciding what he might grow next.

Perhaps the best summary comes from Jaykob himself:
“My Nana helped me find my love of gardening and now it’s one of my favourite things to do.”
Jaykob was reportedly “over the moon” when he discovered he was one of our competition winners.

Congratulations, Jaykob – keep asking questions and investigating what is happening beneath that soil!

Jesse – Growing, Selling and Talking About Gardening

Jesse , has already packed an impressive amount of growing experience into his young life.

Jesse has been gardening for around four years and has developed considerable knowledge and enthusiasm along the way.

But he doesn't just grow produce.

When Jesse has more fruit and vegetables than the family needs, he sells the surplus from an honesty stall outside their home – a brilliant way of sharing home-grown food with the local community.

His enthusiasm has even taken him onto the airwaves, with Jesse being interviewed on the BBC Radio Leicester breakfast show about his gardening.

We loved Jesse's competition video. He spoke clearly and confidently, and his enthusiasm and knowledge were immediately apparent.

We think Jesse has a bright growing future ahead of him, and we hope his example will encourage other young people to discover that gardening isn't simply something adults do.

There is a whole world to explore, from sowing and harvesting to sharing and even selling what you grow.

We hope to keep in touch with Jesse and hear more about what he is growing, his latest projects and how his gardening journey develops.

Congratulations, Jesse!

Inspiring the Next Generation of Growers

Finn, Bodie, Jaykob and Jesse remind us just how much allotments can offer young people.

Growing food teaches practical skills, but the benefits go far beyond knowing how to sow a seed or harvest a runner bean.

• It encourages curiosity.
• It teaches patience.
• It helps young people understand where food comes from.
• It provides opportunities to spend time outdoors and experience the changing seasons.
• And, perhaps most importantly, it gives young people the satisfaction of being able to stand back and say: 
  “I grew that.”

Their stories also highlight the incredibly important role families can play in nurturing that enthusiasm.

Grandparents, parents and other family members who take children to allotments aren't simply getting an extra pair of hands to help with the weeding. They are passing on skills, knowledge and experiences that could remain with those young people for the rest of their lives.

Today's young allotment helper could be tomorrow's plot holder.

Follow Their Growing Adventures

This competition may have finished, but for our young growers this is really only the beginning.

Over the coming months, we hope to share updates from Finn in 
his new role as National Allotment Society Youth Ambassador , as well
l as keeping in touch with Bodie, Jaykob and Jesse and following their growing journeys.

We hope their enthusiasm encourages other young people to get involved too.

You don't need to know everything about gardening to begin. You don't need a huge amount of space, either. Start with a packet of seeds, ask questions, get your hands in the soil and see what happens.

Because every experienced gardener started in exactly the same place – with something they wanted to grow.

Congratulations to Finn, Bodie, Jaykob and Jesse, and a huge thank you to everyone who supported their entries.