GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

Counting your food miles

What’s the real environmental impact of your weekly shop? Caspar van Vark reveals the truth about food miles.

An obsession with locally sourced food is sweeping the nation. Restaurant menus boast of the local provenance of their ingredients, while TV chefs remind us that British is best. If we buy a pack of mange tout from Kenya, we do so with a vague sense of shame.

The environmental impact of food miles is now a big issue for shoppers and supermarkets. On the surface, it seems simple.– buying apples from Dorset must be better for the planet than transporting them all the way from New Zealand.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=101544638307&h=9PmLk&u=wCrMl&ref=mf

Counting your food feet

Why not turn over your garden – or your neighbour’s garden if you don’t have one of your own – to food production? Negligible food miles, plus social, health & environmental benefits all round!

More at http://find.GardenLend.co.uk

“food feet” is possibly hereby used for the first time to illustrate the possibility of growing food in your garden or in one nearby and its authorship is claimed by Ian Springham for and on behalf of GardenLend.co.uk

Any questions, drop us a line: info@gardenlend.co.uk

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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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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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“An influx of allotment applicants has prompted Frome Town Council to appeal for residents with large or derelict gardens to come forward.

Around 80 people are on the waiting list for a plot in one of the seven sites in Frome, and now the council is considering a number of new ideas to help these people gain a pitch.

The council, which now owns all the sites, has already been sub-dividing a few of the larger 115 plots, and has been looking at buying and renting new sites in the town.

But so far this has proved fruitless.”

From http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Frome-goes-crazy-allotments/article-768935-detail/article.html

My suggestion would be to look towards neglected and underused gardens with a view to asking the owners if they would like to share them with the burgeoning number of allotment growers.  This would provide numerous additional social and personal benefits, leading to greater social cohesion, along with fruit, vegetables and a better quality of life all round.  What will the good Burghers of Frome decide? You’ll have to read the article at http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Frome-goes-crazy-allotments/article-768935-detail/article.html

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Cyclist Leela O’Deal was given her job by British Waterways of scouting out for places along London’s canals, including the Grand Union, which can be turned into allotments.

She said: “Even in central London we have plans for mooring unused barges filled with earth, for people to come along and manage them as allotments.

“My job is to help make more use of some derelict pieces of rough land as well. There are little patches even a few square metres that can grow vegetables, quite near very built-up areas.

“We’re appealing to people to get together, and offer to run these places.”

Ms O’Deal’s job was sparked after British Waterways agreed to help London Mayor Boris Johnson fulfill a target of finding 2012 new allotments in London by the year 2012. There is currently a huge waiting list for plots in areas such as Fulham allotments, in Bishop’s Road.

Chimney sweep Fenton Willis, who has a barge called St Florian and lives on west London’s waterways, revealed what rich land can lie behind banks of canalside scrub and grass.

“The wages of canal workers used to be at starvation level, and they grew their own food here to survive. This is just the sort of land that can be added to the idea of the floating gardens.

“Anything that makes our canals better known is brilliant. The more people know the more they’ll fight in the long term to keep this wonderful slice of history.”

Excerpted from:http://www.londoninformer.co.uk/london-news/london-local-news/2009/03/09/grand-union-canal-team-looks-for-allotment-land-113489-23098836/

Just think of all the gardens than back onto the Canal and towpaths that could be more productively used.  If you either have such a garden and would like it turned over to fruit and vegetable production or would like to volunteer your services and helping in such growth, please sign up and post your emssage at http://find.gardenlend.co.uk

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Narberth’s campaign for a community allotments scheme has finally borne fruit.

Amber added: “We approached a local landowner on the outskirts of Narberth, who agreed to lease us a field, and after a poster campaign, over 20 people requested an allotment.”

The allotments are next to Narberth Compost Corner, on the right before Heron’s Brook.

“Two gardens in Narberth town centre have already been loaned to people on the allotment waiting list, and if anyone has land in Narberth that they think could be used to grow food, then we would be pleased to hear from them.”

A film about life on an allotment site – Grow Your Own – will be shown at the Queens Hall, Narberth on Sunday, March 29th at 7.30pm.

Some half and quarter allotment plots are still available, and anyone interested, or who has plants or equipment for the community garden, can contact Amber on 01437 731472 or narberthallotments@hotmail.co.uk

http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/4180840.Victory_in_community_allotment_campaign/

If they can do it, so can you.  Please join GardenLend and post your request at http://find.gardenlend.co.uk

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“Town fails to find allotment site.
A Somerset council has lost its chance to spend £10,000 of lottery money to buy land for allotments after failing to find a suitable plot” according to the BBC at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7930123.stm

Looking from above through Google Maps at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&sll=51.054371,-2.730575&z=15 the area seems surrounded by green stuff which farmers seem reluctant to turn over to useful local food production.

Two solutions spring to mind: (1) Guerrilla Gardening on the ample fertile land belonging to others and (2) sharing gardens for more productive horticulture.  The former has several failings and shortcomings, highlighted in earlier posts.

Those with gardens (of whom there appear to be several, from my aerial investigations) who are unable to plant fruit and vegetables could allow their neighbours to do so, sharing in the harvest, whilst those with green fingers and no space could offer to tend the gardens of those closest to them – their friends, family and neighbours.

The social benefits of sharing such resources are enormous: providing care, security, involvement, empowerment and increased sense of community in increasingly difficult times.  This would be a series of private arrangements between individuals, not beset by the bureaucratic bungling of their inept local authority that seem only capable of wasting and losing money and opportunity.

If Somerton Town Council – and all others, by extension – supported a scheme such as GardenLend they would not have to waste their time, effort and rate-payers’ money in the search for cheap land to allot when there is already so much of it available far closer to home.

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“THE Forres Allotment Group are digging in for a council meeting being held next week, which will decide whether they can lease land near Bogton Road to provide allotments for keen gardeners in the town.

A list exists of nearly 70 people from the Forres area, who are keen to get a portion of land which would allow them to grow their own vegetables. A steering group was formed last year to try and take the issue forward.

Chairperson Carin Schwartz, from Forres Transition Towns, which is the umbrella organisation for the allotment group, said the council officials she had been dealing with had told her that the issue of the lease would now be decided at a meeting of the policy and resources committee due to be held on Tuesday (March 10) – nearly a month after it was first due to be heard.”

More at:http://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4248/Decision_looms_on_allotments.html

Looking at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=forres, the area seems full of green space and even gardens – could these not easily be put over to more active production without the  bureaucratic bungling of the local authority?  All that is required is the private agreement between land owners and those who wish to use the land – they can register their interest at http://find.GardenLend.co.uk and connect up with each other to their mutually greater benefit.

Seems a lot simpler than the struggle to get their council to agree anything; your thoughts are – as ever – warmly welcomed.

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