GardenLend

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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“Want to grow your own organic fruit and veg but don’t have the time? Why not find a neighbour who longs to garden but doesn’t have the space? Tanis Taylor reports on the rise of garden-sharing schemes inThe Guardian Thursday September 4 2008” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/04/ethicalliving.organics

Summary of article

The idea of garden-sharing began in cities, among people who wanted to grow fruit and vegetables to eat but didn’t have the time, space or confidence. Communal gardens cropped up, gardening groups emerged. Fritz Haeg created an edible estate in the front gardens of a Southwark tower block. Projects such as the Tavistock Garden Share Alliance and pilot schemes such as LandFit and Swapaplot paired up unused gardens with the green-fingered. People began to share support and tips at first, then labour, compost, watering duties and harvests. The GroFun (Growing Real Organic Food in Urban Neighbourhoods) project in Bristol encourages members to pitch in on each other’s gardens and, in exchange, can call an “action day” for help in their own garden. Rich Andersen and Valentina Cavallini, self-confessed plant killers, posted an email on the GroFun Yahoo message board for help with their garden. In London, where locals retain a cautious distrust of their neighbours and face greater space constraints, project Food Up Front concentrates on the front garden. “Some 47% of members had never grown food before,” says co-founder Sebastian Mayfield. One neighbour grows potatoes in another’s border; and every Monday and Thursday a group of Streatham volunteers work the garden of an arthritis sufferer - growing tomatoes, brassicas, salad greens such as chard and sorrel, potatoes, cabbage and runner beans, and sharing the crops.

What a relief to find that we are not lone voices in the (urbane) wilderness.  GardenLend.co.uk has been running since 2006, putting forward this very idea.  Now that the idea has been shown to actually work, why not join us and share the benefits?  Please visit http://find.gardenlend.co.uk/ucp.php?mode=register to register.

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  “National Allotments Week is promoting awareness of allotments and encouraging municipalities to provide more land for them. This is important because one of the big problems is that many of the sites used to be on the outskirts of towns, on unwanted land. As cities expanded, many of the sites have become prime development locations and are being lost. Councils may offer alternatives, but they are even farther away and require back breaking work to make the soil good and fertile. Last year a century old allotment garden was demolished for the London Olympic site and the replacement land turned out to be clay soil in a water-logged valley.” 

 From http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/national-allotment-gardens-week.php

 Sounds a bit like Charlton Athletic’s pitch, but on to a more serious note:

 Some of the problems faced by potential allotment owners are: the lack of allotments and the long waiting lists, often as land has been earmarked for housing development, often some years off; councils and unitary authorities selling off allotments; the poor quality of land - usually areas that no-one else would touch except for dumping rubble.

 The simplest solution seems to be turning over your garden to fruit and vegetable production. 

 This raises 2 possible problems; both readily resolvable:

 What if you do not have any suitable green space or are unable for whatever reason to cultivate the land that you do have?

 Simple answer: join GardenLend.

 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.

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

 It couldn’t be simpler and avoids all the waiting involved with local authorities coming to a decision about allocation of dwindling land resources and you get to do exactly what you want without the bureaucratic red tape and regulations of pettifogging officials - what could be better?

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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.

You can also find garden supplies on our pages and links to sites of interest to gardeners, as well as our shop.

Ian (ian@gardenlend.co.uk)

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

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