GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

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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“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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According to Horticulture Week, “consumers fed up with the credit crunch will look to escape the news blues in 2009 by heading for the garden.”

This is something surely to be welcomed, but what of those who do not have a garden or access to any areas in which they can plant, sow and tend fruit and vegetables?

Aberdeen council is looking at implementing a similar garden sharing scheme to the one in place in Edinburgh and ,as previously noted, council-run garden-sharing schemes are starting to pop up; probably far too slowly for those waiting and eager to start growing their own.

One of the problems of such municipal set-ups is the amount of bureaucracy involved: by the time any authority has stumbled across the idea, run it “up the flag pole”, got it considered at a council meeting, thought a bit further, paid some consultants a ridiculous amount of money to agree the bleeding obvious, reported back and even got half-way started implementing the project, several seasons and vast amounts of tax payers’ money has been wasted.

Monitoring will no doubt play a large part in any such schemes, adding additional layers of bureaucracy to an essentially simple idea, thereby causing further waste and delays.  If anyone has had any experience of council-run initiatives, the thought of them running on time or budget, smoothly or efficiently, without invasive interference, is at best a pipe-dream.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “LandShare” project may encounter some of these problems; another that springs to mind is to which any “Guerrilla Gardening” operation is prey: namely that such “abandoned” or under-used plots of land that may be considered “up for grabs” need to have “designated guerrllas” else anyone could end up tending and – possibly more importantly – harvesting the fruits of another’s labours.  To circumvent this, “guerrlla police” will be required or perhaps the formation of a quango such as “OffMyLawn” or “OffPlot”, further adding layers of officialdom to what should be a community-led scheme of private agreements between growers and land-owners.

Hopefully, GardenLend, being a series of private arrangements between those with and those wanting space to grow food and plants, should not fall victim to these particular problems.

That said, all these initiatives are worthy and welcome in their own right: the more such projects and new ways of sharing the limited resources for the greatest good of the most people is surely in the interests of all.  Your thoughts – as ever – are warmly welcomed.

To end on a high note and to quote the mighty Zim: “It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves”

Sources:

http://www.hortweek.com/channel/GardenRetail/article/870554/Consumers-will-head-garden-2009-says-HTA-president/

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1016164?UserKey=

http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/idiot-wind

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To kick-start the GardenLend House (and Garden) Swap forum I am adding my request for a mutual exchange to a ground floor flat with private garden access, in exchange for our 2nd floor flat with balcony.   We have registered with the first two exchange sites below, having set up the third due to our exasperation in being unable to find somewhere with a garden through more conventional means:

Homeswapper.co.uk details

HouseExchange.org.uk details

find.gardenlend.co.uk details

Our details

Property type:

Flat

Room details:

One bedroom

Features:

Balcony
Central Heating
Double Glazing

Landlord:

Wandle HA

Additional details:

This is a great flat with a long hallway with a good sized living room and bedroom, a smallish kitchen, a separate toilet and a bathroom all leading off. There’s additional storage space in the loft. The flat is located in a quiet cul de sac off Martin Way. It’s a stone’s throw from South Merton station, bus stops for Sutton and Wimbledon, and local shops (including a Post Office). It’s a 10 minute walk to central Morden (Morden Northern Line Underground Station) with its supermarkets, banks, bars and restaurants, and a 10 minute bus journey to Wimbledon with its huge shopping facilities. Rent is £87(including maintenance)per week (from 02.04.07). There’s a well – maintained communal garden and recycling bins are provided. It’s a good location with quiet neighbours in a pleasant area of Wimbledon. A bit shabby chic at the moment, the entire block is being refurbished externally next year, with significant improvements proposed such as secure storage areas for each flat (for bicycles etc.), extended bin facilities and enhancements to the balconies. We love it here but we need a garden.

Requirements:

The swapper is seeking a one bedroom bungalow, house, flat or maisonette, almost anywhere in the UK.

Additional requirements:

Private garden for own use. Ground floor or semi-basement. Close to shops, Post Office and public transport (bus / tube / train.) Within easy reach of river or canal preferred.

Contact details:

Email address: ian@GardenLend.co.uk
Mobile phone: 07985 980 669
Daytime phone: 0208 286 9116
Evening phone: 0208 286 9116

Map data ©2008 Tele Atlas – Terms of Use

(All maps are accurate within 100 metres)

Photographs:

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From the Harborough Mail 15th September 2008
http://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/39Stay-of-execution39for-allotment-holders.4479046.jp

‘Stay of execution’ for allotment holders  

Summary

“ALLOTMENT holders in Lutterworth have been given a reprieve in their fight to keep their De Verdon Road plots. Harborough District Council was due on Monday to decide whether or not to buy land in Moorbarns Lane as a replacement site for the allotments. The district council has an option to buy the Moorbarns Lane site but this is due to expire on September 20.

Cllr Alistair Swatridge, who was elected leader of Harborough District Council at Monday’s meeting, said: “My personal feeling is that council would be wrong to recommend the purchase of land without first obtaining planning permission.

Cllr Swatridge added that there could be a considerable risk to the authority if the De Verdon Road site failed to earn planning permission.  Other town councillors pointed out that Lutterworth Town Council had not paid its rent for the forthcoming year and allotment holders could be ‘kicked off’ the plot at any time.

Town councillors agreed to defer any more decisions on the allotment until their October meeting.”

A meeting that will occur after the option to buy the Moorbarns Lane site has expired.  Does anyone else spot a fait accompli in preparation?  Is this another example of greed over sustainability or just plain old ineptitude?

With the housing market in free-fall, ripping up prized allotments for ill-advised property development does seem short sighted.  What is wrong with buying up the land in Moorbarns Lane for housing, rather than forcing the allotment holders to start their horticultural efforts from scratch? Apart from the A4303, a school and a lorry park?

Your thoughts, as ever, are gratefully appreciated.

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