GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

“The government is consulting on how it can ensure that the UK’s food supply remains secure in the future.

While the current situation in the UK is good, ministers warn that factors such as climate change and population growth could have an adverse effect.

Producers, supermarkets and consumers are being encouraged to submit their ideas on how a secure food system in the UK should look in 2030.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8189549.stm

Surely, growing your own in your own space is probably the ideal?  If you don’t have a garden or easy access to years’ long waiting lists for allotments, why not join together with your neighbours and work together on a shared garden or even some unused piece of land – with the owner’s permission, of course.  That way, you can grow what you like within seasonal and climatic constraints and join a common goal (planetary survival) as well as getting some exercise and great healthy food into the bargain.

Please join us at http://find.gardenlend.co.uk or why not just ask your neighbour, friend, relative, local landowner if they would like some help with a plot that could be better put over to growing fruit and veg.  Left to any government to organise, we will all surely starve.

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Organic food is no healthier than ordinary food, a large independent review has concluded.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8174482.stm

It may have no more or fewer nutrients that the processed equivalents, but organically produced food has a lesser, if not positive, environmental impact and – especially if you GIY (grow it yourself) – converts the equation from “food miles” to “food feet”.

If you have not got your own garden to grow fruit and vegetables, why not ask your neighbour if you may share theirs?

What do our readers think?

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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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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

(All maps are accurate within 100 metres)

Photographs:

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World food prices soar while you have an unproductive garden – does this make sense?  With allotments as rare as hen’s teeth these days, why not turn your garden into one?  Can’t be bothered or have no time? Join GardenLend and meet up with gardeners with no place to garden IN YOUR AREA and then you can both benefit from what your garden can produce.  With the economy in a downward spiral and food prices rising, doesn’t it make sense to maximize the value of your home by turning your plot into an old-fashioned kitchen garden?  You can grow fruit, vegetables and herbs – saving money and getting better quality than you can from supermarkets.  Your carbon footprint will be down and your feelgood factor up.  You can grow the basics that you use every day, or expensive produce like asparagus that will soon be even more of a treat than you’d like.  Join GardenLend and get growing.  Find a garden or a gardener on our site.  Help save the planet and your money too!

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