Since most of our attempts to find:

1. People wishing to have others working on their gardens
2. People wishing to work on others’ gardens
3. A garden for ourselves

have met with only moderate success (none at all in no. 3), I set down to think about what we were missing.

Then I had a flash of inspiration - if people did not want the intrusion of strange gardeners nor the prospect of unpaid toil in the vineyards of another, why not just swap the domiciles and attached gardens?

This boiled down to keeping the houses and gardens as they were and - instead - swapping the residents.

Such a solution would work out for all concerned. People would have the garden they wanted without interlopers or the risk of exploitation.  Oh, did I mention? we might also find someone who would want to swap their ground floor flat and garden with our 2nd floor flat and balcony.

We have been trying to swap to a flat with a garden for some years, having tried our local council, housing association and various housing exchange websites.  The one shortfall in all these organisations is that they do not take garden or greenspace requirements into account when allocating or exchanging properties.

All I would need do would be to set up such a site where provision and meeting of garden requirements was paramount.  Like in so many other endeavours, if one feature - such as a garden - is of over-riding concern, then others - such as location - are more flexible.

Sublime genius!  Now only to put it into action.

There need to be 3 categories:

Domicile with Garden offered
- in exchange for domicile without a garden;
Domicile with Garden wanted;
- in exchange for domicile without a garden;
Domicile with Mismatched Gardens
- in exchange for domicile with a differing garden;

And lo! a new forum subject area and three subsidiaries were brought into being:

• House (and Garden) Swap along with its message boards:

• • Domicile with Garden offered

  • Domicile with Garden wanted

  • Domicile with Mismatched Gardens

These forums are designed to allow people wanting to swap a domicile with a garden for a domicile with either no garden or with a differing garden or green space to contact each other and to start the process of exchange.

You will need to contact your landlord and / or solicitor to actually set about the legal process of exchange.  GardenLend is only acting as a conduit for exchange of initial information; all else is the visitor’s responsibility.

There! All done.  Now all we need is for people to register and post their requirements in the appropriate forums or to reply to messages posted.

By the way, we have a lovely flat in sunny SW20 and are looking for a garden flat almost anywhere in the country, preferably with ready access to a river or canal.

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A previous question, finally answered: LandShare

http://landshare.channel4.com/ - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s latest initiative to to make British land more productive and fresh local produce more accessible to all.

Your thoughts are appreciated, as always.

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Story by Laura Jones of the Evening Leader

“HOMEOWNERS in a Flintshire village are being asked to give up parts of their gardens to meet the soaring demand for allotments … Flintshire county councillor Klaus Armstrong-Braun has backed the idea, saying that local authorities are legally obliged, to provide allotments and also that more urban land should be allocated for ‘agricultural’ use, adding “People using gardens as allotments is a win-win situation.”

from http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Flintshire-councillor-backs-39give-up.4632052.jp#3377934

This is a brilliant idea - one that my wife and I have been expounding for some time.  At the end of June, I contacted the Wrexham Leader in response to the rise in food prices push up demand for Wrexham’s allotments.

Nearly 4 months ago, I said

“According to Matt Sims of the Wrexham Leader, demand is soaring for allotments in Wrexham as rising food prices, growing concerns over food miles and demand for organic produce prompts a new generation to grow their own. http://www.wrexhamleader.co.uk/news/Rising-food-prices-push-up.4219320.jp

The scheme - although online - is locally based and led, based on need and availability.  People wanting garden space to grow fruit and vegetables register their desire so to do, giving brief details of their aims and ambitions.  Others, with gardens that are underused or neglected, post the details of the land they have that could be turned over to more productive use.  Either by browsing the lists or by replying to details posted, the two then contact each other - firstly online - and, should they want to take matters further, arrange the finer details, including share of produce and take matters from there.  Couldn’t be simpler and avoids all the waiting involved with local authorities coming to a decision.

Please register at http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/ucp.php?mode=register and take the first steps towards your green dream.”

Quoted from:
http://blog.gardenlend.co.uk/2008/06/29/rising-food-prices-push-up-demand-for-wrexhams-allotments/

Similar voluntary schemes are taking off in Totnes, parts of London and are being discussed in Transition Towns.  Surely Wrexham is ideally placed to take the lead in Wales?

Will keep you all posted of developments; why not get on to your own council to see if such a scheme would take off in your area?

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My daily crawl of the Internet for gardening and garden-sharing schemes finally paid off today; two such schemes outside of GardenLend being launched - in Totnes and The United States of America.

Garden Swap
By Homegrown Evolution(Homegrown Evolution)
Urban gardens are not only fun; they support low-carbon food production, create economic development, inspire healthful eating, build community, create opporunities for education, address watershed health concerns, create productive …
Homegrown Evolution - http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

The Totnes Garden Share Scheme on the BBC
By Rob
Rather than waiting for allotments to be forthcoming, Garden Share is a great way of unlocking land for growers, especially when it is accompanied by the gardening training we are currently runnning. Garden Share is run by TTT with …
Transition Culture - http://transitionculture.org

At last, the penny is starting to drop and people are realising that in these increasingly financially straitened and environmentally perilous times that co-operation is the only sustainable way forward.

Please join GardenLend at http://find.GardenLend.co.uk and help both yourselves and your neighbours grow nutritional, quality foods locally.

The BBC have a video of the Totnes scheme on their site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7668344.stm and the Totnes scheme is online at http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/gardenshare/home

Now that we can truly said not to be lone voices in the gardening wilderness and that such schemes actually do work, why not join us?  Membership is free and the usual rules of posting apply - basically good manners and respect for each other.  We do also have a shop on the site for all your gardening needs.

Frustrated gardeners and garden owners - now is your chance to take the plunge and to help transform not only your lives but that of those around you and - in time - make for a better planet.

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A headline inspired by this morning’s “Pearls Before Swine” cartoon by Stephan Pastis.

With world-wide financial meltdown, dwindling everything, too many people and too little space, along with a planet nearing exhaustion, the timeless expression “surely something must be done” springs to mind.

The “HowStuffWorks” web site has a great article on “Victory Gardens“, along with the thought that “Although the U.S. is engaged in a war today, some Americans are turning to victory gardens for economic, not patriotic, reasons.”  Full article at http://home.howstuffworks.com/victory-garden.htm

The site does have a few suggestions for those without gardens: indoors, container and community gardening; all laudable ideas in their own right, but no thought or mention of sharing existing under-used or neglected gardens.  The resurrection of the (sub)urban sharecropper  is surely due?

Meanwhile, the intrepid reporter Gayle Ritchie of Scotland’s “Sunday Mail” has been out and about with Glasgow’s Guerrilla Gardeners to work on a patch of neglected land at the back of Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary. More at http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/09/28/gayle-joins-night-garden-guerrillas-in-latest-eco-craze-78057-20756884/

With one journal having to rekindle a long-forgotten siege mentality reminiscent of the “Dunkirk Spirit” and the other passing off people’s desperation to plant and sow as an “Eco-Craze”, until we take a level-headed practical approach to local sustainable food production, the  future does look rather blighted.

Your thoughts and feedback are - as ever - welcomed.

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Please let us know your thoughts about GardenLend …

Comments are naturally also welcomed.

This poll is from the members’ site and can be found at:

http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9

Results as they come in can be viewed at:

http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=d&view=viewpoll

Please let us know what you think.

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According to Matt Sims of the Wrexham Leader, demand is soaring for allotments in Wrexham as rising food prices, growing concerns over food miles and demand for organic produce prompts a new generation to grow their own. http://www.wrexhamleader.co.uk/news/Rising-food-prices-push-up.4219320.jp

With no allotments in the whole of Caia Park, where a quarter of Wrexham’s population lives, surely some alternative arrangements must be made.

With local councillors launching a consultation to find out how many people in the area would like an allotment, the process could take forever.  Even though there was an election pledge to provide allotments and there is local demand for space for growing fruit and vegetables, persuading the council to allocate land, finding and identifying the right land and getting the project off the ground looks set to get bogged down in bureaucracy.  Meanwhile, residents of Caia Park, Wrexham, Wales and beyond are left in limbo.

According to recent figures released by the Local Government Association, more than 200,000 allotments have been lost over the past 30 years in the UK despite demand having never been greater.  Presumably, the land has been turned over to unaffordable housing, which is not much use when one cannot afford the mortgage or to feed oneself; that is another matter for further discussion.

If you are planning on growing your own to survive the credit crunch or waiting in an endless line to get an allotment, why not join GardenLend?  We also need those with gardens that are not in use to join, to provide space for the keen but landless growers.

The scheme - although online - is locally based and led, based on need and availability.  People wanting garden space to grow fruit and vegetables register their desire so to do, giving brief details of their aims and ambitions.  Others, with gardens that are underused or neglected, post the details of the land they have that could be turned over to more productive use.  Either by browsing the lists or by replying to details posted, the two then contact each other - firstly online - and, should they want to take matters further, arrange the finer details, including share of produce and take matters from there.  Couldn’t be simpler and avoids all the waiting involved with local authorities coming to a decision.

Please register at http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/ucp.php?mode=register and take the first steps towards your green dream.

Message threads for Wrexham have been set up at
http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7  for Gardeners and

http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=8 for Garden Owners

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The Wimbledon Eco Festival 2008 was relatively well-attended and filled with all the stalls and features that would expect from such an event, plus a few new and interesting ventures focusing on limiting the impact caused by our waste, warmongering, greed and pollution upon the environment and each other.

Sarah and I “personned” the Merton Freecycle stall, along with the Freecycle banner, a few bookmarks with additional information and a series of contact slips, cranked out earlier that day on a hastily-cobbled together “Mini-Roneo” (photo at end of article), with the Freecycle logo, the group’s web address and a couple of well-meaning mantras; all with the intention of spreading the word about Freecycle, the need for recycling and re-use along with the vital fact that we must all work together or die trying.  Noble thoughts, indeed; partially achieved too! 

We may have enlisted a few new members and had a number of interesting discussions on the way; mostly based around Freecycle, its methods and message - which is what we were there for in the first place.  I had a fascinating examination of the various models of passing on unwanted items: free, paid for, one-to-one, one-to-many and through distributed networks with and without central points of storage and available transportation links.  The Mayor of Wimbledon agreed that it was a “good thing” and a useful extension of and an adjunct to the work and services provided locally by his charity of choice: the Vine Project in Mitcham, who (incidentally) do have storage and transport facilities.

We had greatest interaction otherwise with Sustainable Merton - thanks Tom for bringing the banner and bookmarks! - and the Green Homes Concierge stalls with whom we discussed all matters recyclable, sustainable and growable. 

One of the stall-holders has been “reduced to guerilla gardening“, such is his lack of green space whilst so much of it goes unused around him at home - one GardenLend card (along with the address for Modern-ism.com - our Modernist jewellery store) was quickly passed to him and the conversation turned to the need for a more equitable distribution, or at least the potential for use, of land for growing plants and vegetables; an increasingly important concern worldwide.

Light relief was provided by Fairtrade tea and cakes available from the Church Hall, along with a Farmers’ Market stall and other environmental and green concerns held under cover, for logistical and meteorological reasons familiar to all who have ever attended a Church Summer Fete.  The strawberry scones more than made up for any shortfall in political discourse or my usual desire to preach the message of Anarcho-Syndicalism as the only way forward, so another victory was to be had.  But for whom is a matter of some conjecture - probably the good folk of SW20 and surrounds.

Sustainable Merton and Green Homes Concierge provided speakers for the later talks, appearing prior to Satish Kumar of Resurgence who was in London for the weekend as part of the Campaign against Climate Change

The Church Summer Fete atmosphere was, in some ways, the disappointing aspect of the whole day.  Everyone seemed to be preaching to the converted.  Even the venue - Christ Church, West Wimbledon and its eco-congregation - had already signed up to the environmentalist message and were set upon the path of worthy endeavours that are so essential should Mankind hope to stand an earthly chance of seeing the next century, let alone the next Millennium. 

This is my point - “at last!” I hear being cried out collectively - we must spread the message to the unbelievers, the uninformed, the downright cussed and to everyone else in between.  Probably the best place to put Freecycle and other sustainability projects is right in the heart of Mammon - shopping centres - where people spend their money on replacing things that are still usable or shopping for things that they can ill afford. 

To start with, food-based shops and supermarkets could be useful allies, as there is no conflict with their core goods and services on offer, also allowing the “green message” to be spread regarding environmentally-friendly products, organic food and recyclable packaging, before challenging the perpetual need for the “latest thing”, be it furniture or electronic goods.  A Freecycle banner in every town and city centre?  GardenLend information and connections everywhere people congregate and complain about their lack of green space? Gardening and growing fruit and vegetables on all the abandoned green areas that you pass by each day?

What do you think?

After all this, on the way home down the hill from West Wimbledon, we spotted so many green spaces that were neglected, just crying out for a gardener …

… along Bushey Road, West Wimbledon,

————————————————

And for those doubters amongst you, the patent Springham “Mini-Roneo”; “Roneo” being colloquialy used as an affectionate generic term to describe all manner of mimeographic machines and often in no way having - as in this case - anything to do with the company Roneo SA.

“Freecycle”, however, does refer to Freecycle, for whom I am the co-Moderator of the Merton group.

Any and all other copyrights and trademarks acknowledged.

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Today is “World Environment Day” - according to the UNEP website: “the day’s agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. “

One way of empowering people that immediately springs to mind - quite naturally! - is to join GardenLend and to put more neglected green spaces to good use. 

Failing that, any thoughts on what can be done to help slow, if not reverse, the planet’s hastening environmental decline are welcomed here. 

Also, please let us and our readers know what you have done or plan to do by commenting on this post.

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“Welcome back to GardenLend

Got a garden? Fed up with it? Can’t cope any longer? Just not interested? Have the weeds taken over?

Want a garden? Frustrated green fingers? Not even a balcony? No window sill? Dreaming of flowers and vegetables?

Look no further. Well, only a little further.

GardenLend is a website that links up neglected gardens and their owners with keen gardeners who have nowhere to garden.  The site has undergone a revamp and we aim to have as much as possible of the services and features available online.

Registering at our members’ area all that it takes to start to solve your problems. We provide the contacts and you take it from there.”

Such a simple and brilliant idea – almost foolproof, it would seem – but few, if any takers so far and – equally mysteriously – no indications why this revolutionary approach to rescuing neglected gardens and to maximising the enjoyment of limited green space that we have to the greatest benefit of the most people has not been the rip-roaring success that it merits.

In the wake of the Environmental Audit Committee report on Carbon Trading, what better way to add to your personal carbon credits?

The Idea

GardenLend.co.uk is one of those sublimely simple ideas that – to coin a phrase – “does what it says on the tin” and as such is almost above explanation.  Just in case we have missed the point, it is a forum allowing garden owners to advertise for people to help and for those wishing to plant and grow fruit, vegetables and flowers to find such places to a mutually beneficial outcome.  In addition, the planet gets to look a bit prettier, carbon dioxide levels reduce, healthier food grows in season in more natural surrounds and everyone is a little less stressed about the forthcoming Armageddon, or at least whence the next courgette is coming.

The site and its features

In addition to Gardeners Wanted and Gardens Wanted, there are discussion forums (fora & fauna?) on a range of subjects: Introductions, New Members, Ask GardenLend, General Advice, Container Gardening, Edible Gardening, Garden Design, Green Gardening, Grass and Lawns, plus Gardening News and General Discussion in the members’ area.

A blog about GardenLend and related horticultural, political and amusing thoughts on the great gardening issues of the day provides an irregular update on matters of interest, allowing visitors to contribute to the great debating points of the moment.

The site also boasts an online shop where people can also find garden supplies and books, as well as links to sites of interest to gardeners.  For the more enterprising amongst our visitors, www.GardenLend.com offers e-Commerce Web Hosting for all that you need for your own online store.

The history of GardenLend

GardenLend.co.uk started as a joint collaboration between the husband and wife team of Ian and Sarah Springham, back in 2006.  The initial idea was Sarah’s: “When I was a child I grew up in a house with a big garden. My mother taught me to garden and I loved it. As I grew up, I moved to smaller and smaller places until I ended up with just a balcony. I really missed my garden and took up an allotment. Every day as I walk there, I pass a lot of neglected gardens and want to knock on the door of the house and say ‘Can I have your garden, please?’  With this site, I hope to enable frustrated gardeners to do just that. I’m sure that behind the door is someone who looks out of their window every day and wishes that someone would transform their garden into a thing of beauty. My husband, Ian, had to do gardening as a punishment as a child, but now enjoys our allotment and thinks this is a great idea. Between us, we can make this work and bring pleasure to more people.”

Ian is an IT professional of what seems to be many, many decades’ standing and needed a project for an online course in web entrepreneurship – thus another marriage made in Heaven was struck and the site was developed.

Initially, the site contained almost all that it now does, but in a pretty static and – dare I say it? – slightly bland format; the idea was so great that it did not seem to need much frippery attached.  Providing a constant stream of home-generated content did seem a trifle daunting, but we pressed on regardless. Regardless of low activity on the site, little rescuing of gardens or gardeners and almost no income from this noble venture. 

We sent out press releases, thought up brilliant promotional schemes, were featured a couple of times in our local newspaper – even being nominated for the Green Guardian Awards last year, optimised the site for search engines – key terms getting right to the top 10 on Google listings, did everything that we could think of to get GardenLend off the ground, but still no joy.

A change of approach was the only solution: the site had an overhaul, the low membership fee of £5.00 abandoned; the site, blog, forum and shop linked together more tightly and the whole endeavour became focussed much more on interaction with Gardeners and Garden Owners. 

The present situation

As shown, GardenLend.co.uk has been extensively revamped, with the aim of making it freely accessible to the burgeoning numbers of people wishing to grow their own fruit, vegetables and flowers and to those with green spaces that they feel are not being used to their greatest potential.  Ancillary services, such as the shop, with its host of accessories and books for home and garden plus the latest “reviewed and recommended reading” and the blog also cater for the needs, material and philosophical, of our growing membership.

Membership is free and relatively easy to join  There are few restrictions, outside of the usual ones regarding legality, privacy, common sense, taste, decency, good manners and appropriateness.  So what are you waiting for?

The future

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 feel-good 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. 

Links

Site: http://www.gardenlend.co.uk/

Members: http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/

Blog: http://blog.gardenlend.co.uk/

Shop: http://shop.gardenlend.co.uk

Email: info@gardenlend.co.uk

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