GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

A STAMPEDE for healthy living on a shoestring has left green-fingered gardeners in parts of Birmingham waiting for up to five years for an allotment plot.

Healthy-eating campaigns and the credit crunch are thought to be behind the flurry of applications by people wanting to grow their own fruit and veg.

Now Birmingham City Council figures show that it has 140 on waiting lists for its 560 plots and the Birmingham and District Allotments Council (BDAC) said there were similarly long waits for non-council run sites in the area.

In areas of the city where working the land is most popular, including Sutton Coldfield, gardeners could be waiting half a decade for a coveted plot.

Clive Birch, chairman of the BDAC, said: “It’s certainly true that it quite a few places in Birmingham you can’t get an allotment for love nor money.

“In places like Sutton Coldfield, people might be waiting even longer than five years.

“But I wouldn’t want to put people off by saying that there are none available because on the east side of Birmingham, there are quite a few.

“Having that said, at the rate they are going, people need to be quick because we have seen a phenomenal take-up rate in the last few months and significantly there have been a lot of women taking on plots.”

Mr Birch said the number of women taking on allotments was due to changing attitudes about the activity and because allotments have been made safer and fostered a more family-friendly “community spirit” than in the past.

The figures were released by Birmingham City Council following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

A council spokesman said: “Although we don’t control all of the waiting lists, we believe there are about 900 people waiting at the moment.

“But there are vacancies in parts of Birmingham with an occupancy rate of 86.5 per cent.

“Waiting list times are longer in Sutton Coldfield that other parts of Birmingham for example.”

There is always the option to join GardenLend to find gardens that have been neglected or whose owners can no longer tend them.  As well as putting disused land to more productive ends, there are all the social benefits to be considered, as previously highlighted.

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2009/03/16/birmingham-gardeners-left-waiting-up-to-five-years-for-allotments-97319-23150116/

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The “Land Share” listings pages have gone live, according to the email I received this morning:

http://landshare.channel4.com/

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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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“During Soil Association Organic Fortnight, people across Britain will be celebrating all things organic. From 6-21 September, individuals, businesses and communities will be hosting events to raise awareness of the environmental, health and social benefits of organic production. Not only that, but the campaign gives everyone a chance to enjoy organic products from delicious food and drink to beauty and textiles.

The fortnight kicks off with the Soil Association Organic Food Festival, Europe’s largest organic celebration, which takes place in Bristol on 6-7 September. The campaign closes on a high with the Soil Association Scotland’s Organic Food Festival on 20-21 September.”

A fortnight is a laudable idea as a means of kick-starting interest; where do we take it from there?

With rising food prices, garden-grabbing by the unscrupulous or short-sighted and the increasing demand for decreasing public space for allotments, what better to do than to turn over one’s garden to organic food production?

Not a garden owner? Not willing or able to tend your garden?  Why not join GardenLend to find a garden or a gardener?

GardenLend 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.

By the way, it is free: no membership fees, no joining fees, no obligation to us.  All arrangements are those that you and your fellow members make privately between yourselves.

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

What have you to lose?  A whole world to gain.

http://www.soilassociation.org/organicfortnight

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1064987_residents_in_allotment_battle

http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/3631990.Council_land_could_solve_allotment_shortage/

http://www.loughboroughecho.net/news/loughborough-news/2008/08/28/more-demand-for-allotments-73871-21624198/

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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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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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