GardenLend - rescuing neglected gardens

Which is nice and shows our monarch ‘mucking in’ to some degree - which can only be a good thing.

This does raise the question for us lesser folk who do not have a spare palace or castle to turn over to the land: what can we do?

Following Her Majesty’s example, looking out directly around our various estates, there is quite a bit of green space that is not really doing anything, not even just looking pretty and providing relaxation and solace - ripe for agricultural development.  Step 2 is the really cunning bit: if it is not in your gift to just march in and plant whatever you like, just ask the owner or person entrusted with looking after the said plot if it would be alright to plant some fruit & veg, tend the land and share in the bounty.

This has been the ethos set forth by GardenLend since its inception in 2006: keep it local, personal and sustainable.  If you are still stuck for somewhere to plant, tend and till, then why not join GardenLend and post a message on the boards saying for what you are looking and where you are based?  Similarly, should you have the odd county, field or patch of garden that could do with becoming more productive, why not sign up and post your request for serfs to till the land frustrated gardeners to transform it into a horticultural Paradise?

You will help save the planet, save yourselves a fortune and follow a Royal example.  What could be better?

Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8098799.stm

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According to the Daily Mirror:

“The humble allotment - once thought of as the preserve of EastEnders’ flatcapped Arthur Fowler - is now digging cash-strapped Brits out of a hole.

Demand for grow-your-own plots hired from local councils means in one area there’s a 40 YEAR wait. This week the first major allotment survey in more than a decade reveals hard-up families are desperate to grow their greens to cut bills.

Research among local authorities shows six million of us would love an allotment, but there are only 200,000 in Britain.

Currently 83,000 Brits are on an official waiting list with an average delay of three years. Camden in North London and Blyth Valley in Northumberland are said to have the longest queues - up to 40 and 30 years respectively.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/06/06/national-plottery-115875-21418833/

Now, what happens if you are one of those many budding growers on the waiting lists?  Getting anything like this sorted out by one’s local authority in anything less than an ice age would be the greatest triumph of hope over experience.

The alternative? To organise it yourself!

The first place to look is around your home - front and back gardens are a fertile starting point.

No garden? Why not ask your neighbours?  There *must* be someone down your street who has a garden that is just doing nothing apart from just collecting weeds.  Why not ask them if you can turn it into a (sub)urban oasis, plant some fruit and veg & then share the results of your labours with them?

You will be decreasing your food miles, knowing exactly where your food comes from, helping the environment and - quite possibly - providing a useful service to someone who - for what ever reason - cannot tend their garden for themselves.

If you are looking for somewhere to garden or have a garden that needs help to turn it into a thing of beauty and a rich source of nutritious food, please join GardenLend and post your message in the members’ area:

http://find.GardenLend.co.uk

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Good news from the “Coupar Angus Bulletin” for the residents of Coupar Angus, Ardler and Bendochy
www.coupar-angus.org Issue 42 April 2009

“As reported in the March issue of the Bulletin, some 19 folk have to date expressed an interest in having an
allotment in Coupar Angus in response to the joint campaign by CART and the Community Council.
In response to specific proposals from CART and the Community Council, Perth and Kinross Council agreed to a meeting to consider the initiative, which was held on 6th March. Although we were hopeful of a positive response, regrettably the Council is not able to consider the release of land in their ownership or provide direct assistance for the community to acquire a site for development as allotments at this time.
The Council did, at least, commit to including the demand for allotments in Coupar Angus as part of a Greenspace Strategy across the whole of Perth & Kinross to be developed next year.
As a result CART and the Community Council have decided to put on hold allotments development until next year. We are, however, looking into developing a Garden Lend Scheme.”

http://www.coupar-angus.org/bulletinpdf/cabapr09.pdf

The Coupar Angus Regeneration Trust (CART) is a working community regeneration organisation which was constituted in 1999, the purposes of the Trust are for the regeneration of urban and rural areas in and around Coupar Angus and the nearby villages of Ardler and Bendochy, where there is social and economic deprivation … In short, the aim of CART is to make Coupar Angus a better place to live and work.

What eminently sensible and worthwhile objectives.  Why doesn’t every area have such far-sighted representatives?  More importantly, what is stopping anyone else from following such a lead?

Please contact me at info@GardenLend.co.uk if you would like to have your local area represented more closely than on a regional level within the members’ area

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The Wandle Residents Conference 09 (FUN - Friendly, Understanding, Neighbour) was held on 25th April 2009 at the Croydon Park Hotel, Croydon. The introductions went off well enough, followed by the guest speaker, Maria Arpa from Wandsworth Mediation Service and Centre for Peaceful Solutions, giving an affirming speech on “Building Communities - it starts with ME.”  This was followed by morning workshops on:

• Understanding conflict and changing behaviour
• Interactive voting
• Practical DIY
• Leaseholders

Lunch followed, along with a chance to mingle and explore other activities on offer, which included:

• Healthy living and money-saving tips
• Head and neck massage sessions
• Face-painting and balloon modelling (for children released from the creche)
• Meeting and informal chats with Wandle’s directors
• Meeting resident candidates for the Board *

Afternoon workshops covered:

• Why do people fight?
• What are your housing options?
• Gardening workshop
• Saving energy, money and the planet

This last workshop on sustainable homes, headed by Waheed Chaker, was of greatest interest.  Along with tips for saving money, reducing energy usage and the environmental impact of one’s daily actions, we brought up the topic of GardenLend and the potential for matching up frustrated gardeners having no green space with those who are not able to get the most from their gardens.  To this end, as it says on the lid, a forum (well, two actually) was born for Wandle residents and Leaseholders in search of gardens and gardeners:

Gardens Wanted ‹ Greater London ‹ Wandle and

Gardeners Wanted ‹ Greater London ‹ Wandle

What could be easier?

We hope to be included in a forthcoming Wandle newsletter - watch this space … !

Should you want to get your Housing Association or Landlord involved in such a simple - yet effective - scheme to bring communities together, grow fruit, vegetables and flowers whilst helping save the planet, please get in touch with them and with us and we will do our best to facilitate your needs.  Just email ian@gardenlend.co.uk

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* Of the candidates, Abdul Basit (South West Area) was most impressive, with a background in public service, mediation, arbitration, and voluntary work with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association.  His traditional values and desire to help bring communities together is both obvious and tireless and he will be - in our opinion - an asset to the Board.

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One of our most recent requests from a fellow member of MAGA*

Gardener wanted to mind garden for six months - SW20

• very local (120 metres from the MAGA* shop)
• no lawn – lots of low-maintenance shrubs
• Nominally 4 hours a month
• use of greenhouse to end of year
• free seeds
• will pay sensible rate

Please contact Richard Davies on 07787 127506 or via email on < r.davies@ndy.com >.

Please reply soon – I leave on the 4th May 2009!

(I’m not giving up gardening! I’m spending six months on a bicycle, travelling from London to China!)

* MAGA: Merton Allotments and Gardens Association

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Our shop http://shop.GardenLend.co.uk has - at last! - been incorporated into our blog, streamlining the gardening, garden sharing, environmental and home security experience that may be had here. The shop is now to be found in the GardenLend Pages under GardenLend Shop - how much more simple could it be? Our product categories include:

Books: on Gardening and Environment & Ecology

All you could want for the Home & Garden

and Security for indoors and outdoors to protect, you, your family, pets, plants and garden

plus Stick Insectalia along with The Tiger Lillies (two areas of additional personal interest!)

Please feel free to drop by, look around, buy something that takes your fancy or let us know if there is anything else that you need that we can stock for you. All this and more at the GardenLend Shop page.

Should you be looking for environmentally-friendly web hosting, please click this link: Super Green Hosting

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A STAMPEDE for healthy living on a shoestring has left green-fingered gardeners in parts of Birmingham waiting for up to five years for an allotment plot.

Healthy-eating campaigns and the credit crunch are thought to be behind the flurry of applications by people wanting to grow their own fruit and veg.

Now Birmingham City Council figures show that it has 140 on waiting lists for its 560 plots and the Birmingham and District Allotments Council (BDAC) said there were similarly long waits for non-council run sites in the area.

In areas of the city where working the land is most popular, including Sutton Coldfield, gardeners could be waiting half a decade for a coveted plot.

Clive Birch, chairman of the BDAC, said: “It’s certainly true that it quite a few places in Birmingham you can’t get an allotment for love nor money.

“In places like Sutton Coldfield, people might be waiting even longer than five years.

“But I wouldn’t want to put people off by saying that there are none available because on the east side of Birmingham, there are quite a few.

“Having that said, at the rate they are going, people need to be quick because we have seen a phenomenal take-up rate in the last few months and significantly there have been a lot of women taking on plots.”

Mr Birch said the number of women taking on allotments was due to changing attitudes about the activity and because allotments have been made safer and fostered a more family-friendly “community spirit” than in the past.

The figures were released by Birmingham City Council following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

A council spokesman said: “Although we don’t control all of the waiting lists, we believe there are about 900 people waiting at the moment.

“But there are vacancies in parts of Birmingham with an occupancy rate of 86.5 per cent.

“Waiting list times are longer in Sutton Coldfield that other parts of Birmingham for example.”

There is always the option to join GardenLend to find gardens that have been neglected or whose owners can no longer tend them.  As well as putting disused land to more productive ends, there are all the social benefits to be considered, as previously highlighted.

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2009/03/16/birmingham-gardeners-left-waiting-up-to-five-years-for-allotments-97319-23150116/

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The “Land Share” listings pages have gone live, according to the email I received this morning:

http://landshare.channel4.com/

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