Jenny Mollison: Take your pick of allotment design

When people ask me if there is a blueprint design for an ideal allotment site, I can only suggest that they go and have a look at the rich variety of others for inspiration. Visiting them is a treat. They can be so different.

The long-established ones up Dundee Law with beautiful south-facing views over the Tay have something in common with the terraced vegetable gardens of Madeira. On flatter ground, plots stretch out in a regular patchwork. An Edinburgh site bounded by a railway, burn, and cemetery has no panoramic views, but a wonderful feeling of having stumbled into a secret garden. Even in inner city areas blighted by graffiti and vandalism, sites have greenhouses and polytunnels which seem to survive intact.

The independently managed Dean Gallery allotments in Edinburgh, which were once the kitchen garden to an orphans' home, have no huts at all but a communal brick-built shed embellished with Ian Hamilton Finlay's artwork.

Adapting to harsh conditions is not a Scottish peculiarity. In the Scilly Islands, I came across allotments with tiny plots surrounded by high escallonia hedges offering all year round wind protection. Beyond the hawthorn hedge on our site I can see the sea and a castle on a hill. Except for distant traffic noise and the rumble of trains on the east coast line, I could be a long way from civilisation.

Facilities vary too. A communal hut was once considered a necessity, being the venue for the annual produce show and sometimes even film shows in the winter. Nowadays they are as likely to be used as a trading post for bulk bought seeds and compost.

Our site committee meetings took place in a vintage railway truck until the floor rotted away. Now they happen in a metal shipping container which, at best, is secure but short on ambience and numbingly cold in winter. Social activities are limited to summer when our barbecue area comes into its own.

I particularly admire the arts and crafts style pavilion gifted to the Perth Working Men's Garden Association by AK Bell, a philanthropist who made his fortune in whisky.

This characterful building was opened by the Duke of Atholl in 1938 and has stood the test of time. With the establishment of new sites hampered for lack of cash, it got me wondering if there are any modern day wealthy benefactors who might consider gifting some creature comforts to their local allotments.

• This article was first published in The Scotsman Magazine, April 24, 2010