It is over 10 years since City of York Council held a Best Kept Plot Competition for allotment tenants. To celebrate the diversity of York’s allotment sites and the dedication of allotment gardeners, we are launching a new allotment competition this year.

Categories

There will be two categories of plots:

1. New tenants: for gardeners who took on their plot since January 2022
2. Established tenants: for gardeners who took on their plot before January 2022

Entry Forms

Entry for the 2023 Best Plot Competition is now closed.

Judging

Site judging will take place in early July 2023. The panel of judges will include allotment site secretaries, and association representatives, from other sites.

The judging criteria will include:

• Condition of the plot: productive, free of weeds, layout, well maintained and tidy
• Crop quality: range of plants grown (considering the size of the plot), health of plants, disease, crop rotation
• Sustainability and biodiversity: composting, wildlife habitat, encouraging pollinators, recycling
• Where applicable: structures (sheds, greenhouses, polytunnels) in good condition, water harvesting from structures.

The size of plot will not be a factor in the competition.

Structure of the competition

There will be a winner in each category for each site.

It is then intended that the allotment sites covered by YACIO will be grouped into areas. The site winners will go forward to the Area finals.

The Area winners will then go forward to the Overall winner final for each category.

There will be prizes for the winners; it is hoped that these will be awarded at a ceremony during National Allotments Week (7 – 13 August 2023) (to be confirmed).

The details of the winners will be published in a future YACIO newsletter and there may be other local publicity.