GardenLend

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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“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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