OXFORD’s best amateur gardeners have revealed what inspires them to lead the Good Life after winning prizes at the annual allotment awards.

More than 2,000 people now hold plots in the city and Oxford’s top 18 gardeners were honoured at the Oxford and District Federation of Allotment Association’s annual award ceremony last Thursday.

Cutting the cost of food bills, staying fit and healthy and better tasting grub were reasons given for taking up the hobby by the passionate gardeners, some of whom grow more than 40 different types of fruit, veg and herbs.

Aged 74, Reg Curnock, of Brambling Way in Blackbird Leys, grows produce from three plots on the estate’s Kestrel Crescent allotments including dozens of veg and more than 22 fruit trees and bushes.

Mr Curnock, a former assembly line worker at the Pressed Steel factory in Cowley for 40 years, won the prize for best senior citizen over 70 as he tends his allotment for up to four hours a day.

The father-of-six said: “You name it I grow it.

“I have food off my allotment nearly every day especially in the summer and in winter I use parsnip, butternut squash and marrows for soup.

“It’s great to use fresh food. It doesn’t travel so there are no food miles and you can get it from plot to plate in less than an hour.

“It isn’t hard work if you enjoy gardening, and it keeps you mobile and healthy. It’s great to have a hobby, if I wasn’t doing this I’d be sat at home in front of the TV.”

When he was feeding his large family in the 1980s Mr Curnock estimated he used to save £11 a week on food bills from his homegrown produce.

And he has now spread the bug to his son-in-law Paul Layden, who won the Standingford Shield – a runners-up prize for allotment holders who did not win a main prize.

Mr Layden, 45, owns an allotment with wife Veronica in Blackbird Leys.

He said: “It felt absolutely amazing to win. I only started in this game three years ago and had no interest in gardening before that.

“I had even slabbed my entire back garden. So it feels really good to have won an award after such a short time.

“I used to be involved in lots of activities and youth organisations, but I had to come out of them because of work and I got bored.

“My wife and I needed to do something, so took on an allotment and it went from there. We grow all standard vegetables, from cabbages and sprouts to squash and lots of herbs, peppers, marrows and strawberries.

“We just got stuck in from the beginning, but you learn the most by talking to other allotment owners. There are a lot of old-timers down there and they are so friendly, always willing to help or give you some plant feed.

“The best thing about having an allotment is that you get over there and the worries of the day just disappear.

“You get involved in doing it and all the stresses go. You can make a lot of savings money-wise, but it’s mostly about shutting the world out and having three or four hours without worrying about anything.”

Jeremy Hyde won the Challenge Trophy for best overall plot just three years after he picked up a spade when he wasintroduced to the benefits of fresh veg by his ex-girlfriend, Christina Freis.

My Hyde now grows 30 different types of veg, five fruit and nine herbs from his plot in Cripley Meadows allotment.

The 47-year-old, who lives in Walton Well Road in Jericho, said: “Fresh food has more taste and you can look after each item as you see fit rather than pass by in a tractor spraying them.

“My father and grandfather were big gardeners so it was in my blood, but I needed a catalyst to get started.”

Runner-up in the under-35s category was Jo Faulkner, 26.

She said: “I started working on my allotment about a year and a half ago because I wanted to get out and about and do some exercise.

“I was brought up with it though, going down to the gardens with my parents and grandfather.”

Miss Faulkner, a hairdresser in Wootton, runs an allotment in Southward, near Kennington, with her fiance Paul Fainz.

She said: “A lot more younger people are getting into allotments now. With all the interest in carbon footprints and organic food, it’s become very popular.

“Everything we grow, we eat or give to friends, so that’s really nice too.”

“What I like most about it is the community down there. People are always on hand with a bit of advice or a cup of tea.”

Competition committee chairman Tim Treacher said plot holders were judged on their range of crops, quality and overall productivity of the allotment.

He said: “People take great pride in their allotment and are very pleased to be recognised as good allotment gardeners.

“Almost all the allotments in the ring road have waiting lists and we have a very high standard of entrants in the competition.”