My partner and I have just recently acquired an allotment or, at least, half a plot, in our new home town of Stroud. We are relative newbies to the growing thing, having helped a friend out with her allotment back in Bristol for a season. We found this experience rewarding, not just in terms of the vegetable yield, but also how we found a peace and sense of wellbeing.

Maybe it was getting our hands in the soil that did it? Maybe it was the physical exercise in the outdoor space? Or the sense of achievement when we brought home squashes, broad beans, potatoes, onions, all grown by our own newly soiled hands and cooked them up in delicious ways? Or even just watching plant life grow from seed, into bright green seedling, and the fully fledged plants, eventually fruiting? Something about the wonder of bringing new life into the world and nurturing it and watching it grow?

After one season of this, we both felt like deep down perhaps we were gardeners at heart, having tapped into some hitherto unknown instinct for the green-fingered life. A contrast to the usual sensation of tap-tap-tapping on a keyboard. A different view to the artificial glare of a brightly-lit screen. And we were sorry to have to stop when my friend gave up her plot. So, having been on a waiting list for some six or seven months, we were thrilled to get our hands back in the dirt again.

We’ve been lucky. Our plot isn’t too big and had been fairly well maintained. But my word, the weeds! Life does find a way, doesn’t it? Just the merest crack in our paving at home and something green is forcing its way through. I kind of love that as a concept but I’m no martyr – my back and knees did not love it when I was plucking the darn things out of the ground. ‘No dig’ is looking more and more appealing by the moment.

But to extend the metaphor for a moment, let’s dig a bit further into some of the – scienfically backed – benefits of allotment keeping:

1. It’s organic, baby!

Yes, it’s expensive to buy, which is why growing food on an allotment can seem relatively cheap if you forget the initial outlay for seeds etc. But here’s the headlines. Organic fruit and vegetables obviously contain no chemicals that can interfere with the body’s systems. Exposure to such chemicals in pesticides, herbicides etc is linked to hormone issues, neurological effects, and risk of certain cancers. They also contain higher levels of certain antioxidants and nutrients, making them a more healthful alternative to supermarket bought non-organic equivalents. And they tend to taste much better too, and since you’ve grown them yourself, you can harvest and get them on the plate super quickly for maximum freshness. Indeed, some of them went straight into my mouth when I was growing before – and you can’t get much fresher than that!

2. It’s wonderful for your wellbeing

If you’ve ever found that a spot of gardening has cheered you up, you are not alone. The University of Plymouth reviewed qualitative and quantitative studies on allotment gardening and found five major areas that boost health and wellbeing:

• It’s stress‑relieving – a refuge from the strains of modern life
• Encourages healthier lifestyle (exercise, fresh food)
• Creates social opportunity (community, sharing)
• Provides contact with nature
• Enables personal empowerment / self‑development

There really is a sense of achievement in bringing home a bag of own-grown produce for your cooking pot, basking in the knowledge of the extra nourishment you will be giving your body into the bargain.

3. You get the side-benefit of soil microbiome exposure

There may even be a very scientific reason why you feel good after a stint with the soil. Exposure to soil microbiomes through gardening – including allotment gardening – can positively influence personal physical and mental health. Given that healthy soils can contain billions of microorganisms in a single teaspoon, there’s lots of scope for microbial exchange which may even permanently interact with or colonise our own skin, gut and respiratory microbiomes in beneficial ways.

The ’Old Friends’ hypothesis suggests that as humans co-evolved with many soil microbes, regular exposure could help the immune system regulate itself, helping with allergies, chronic inflammation and autoimmune disorders. Getting hands in the soil or breathing in aerosolised particles, or even ingesting soil from the food you grow can all improve health – as long as the soil is healthy! Note – polluted or contaminated soils will have the opposite effect, so know your soil before you start putting muddy fingers in your mouth.

One key microbe is called Mycobacterium vaccae. This wonderful organism has all sorts of marvellous effects on the brain – stimulating serotonin production (important in mood and sleep) and inflammation reduction (inflammation is linked to depression). Regular exposure to soil increases gut flora diversity more broadly, reducing the likelihood of certain diseases and improving communication between the gut and brain via the vagus nerve. Some soil bacteria produce compounds that are antibiotic or even anti-cancer!

So, all in all, I’m very glad that we got our allotment even earlier than expected (the average waiting time is a year and we got ours after 7 months). My friend has just given us some plants that do well in the colder months – chard, bok choy and mizuna – that we can just plug in and pretend are all our own work – haha! She’s also given us some heritage squash seeds – too late for this season but ready to go for next year – and there’s nothing I like more than a hearty squash soup or stew.

If I’ve missed off any other benefit of allotment growing, please comment below. No doubt there are others. Or if you’d just like to share your own story, that would be nice too.

In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about your own microbiome, and ways to optimise your own health and wellbeing, please drop me a line at jop.naturalnutrition@gmail.com to book a FREE discovery call.