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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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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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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Well, it just goes to show how unaware you can be: I just found out that October 1st was “World Vegetarian Day.”  What a relief that I did not miss out on the whole month.

More info at: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/world-vegetarian-day.html

“What”, I hear you cry, “has this to do with me?”  Well, quite a bit.

A vegetarian diet is good for you because:

• It is healthier – processed foods are just not as good for you
• It takes far more cow food to feed a cow only to eat it than is required to gain the same nutrition by people eating the grain and cereal crop - and cutting out the middle cow from the cycle of birth, exploitation, death, use of dwindling resources and general rumination
• the Bible tells us so; as do most religious texts if you squint at them hard enough with the lights low
• it is far easier to grow plants to eat than to have a cow wandering around your back garden, although possibly not as much fun in the short term

Since the chances of finding someone willing to make garden-space for your errant bovine is limited to the point of extreme unlikelihood, why not instead offer to grow plants, fruits and flowers in their garden?  The garden gets to look better and become productive, you all have a nice warm feeling like you have just eaten the Ready Brek kid and helped save the world and the cow gets to roam freely elsewhere.  All this and the added health benefits thrown in for free.  What are you waiting for – some gun-toting longhorn to rally the sleeping herds?

Another benefit – you can even get to cook and eat the resulting produce.  Some fab recipe books are to be found in our shop.  Please drop by and have a look around.

Thanks for bearing with me, please join GardenLend, if only for the cows …

Ian

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