Growing Round the Houses – Food production on housing estates

Brixton urban agriculture. More photos here.

Growing Round the Houses – Food production on housing estates

By Ben Reynolds and Christine Haigh
2008

Rising food prices and increased interest in healthy food, means more people are looking to grow their own. Growing Round the Houses, a briefing paper by Ben Reynolds of Sustain and Christine Haigh of Women’s Environmental Network, explains how social housing providers and their tenants can work together on their estates to grow food. As well giving advice on how to set up a food growing project on their estate, it describes examples such as the Spitalfields Estate Community Garden, where residents worked together to build themselves a food growing space for vegetables and herbs popular with the local ethnic minority community.

With urban allotments like gold dust, housing estates, with wide, underused green spaces are coming into their own, turning over their lawns to food growing plots. Ben Reynolds said “There’s incredible interest in growing your own food. Vegetable seed is overtaking flower seed sales for the first time. We hope this work will be the catalyst for a new dawn for urban agriculture.”

Christine Haigh, who works on WEN’s Local Food programme with women’s groups in East London, says “This paper provides inspiration and useful guidance for residents and social landlords looking to set up similar projects.”

Simon Donovan, community development manager at Tower Hamlets Community Housing comments, “The food growing project on the Spitalfields estate is an inspiration. Residents are talking to their neighbours, taking charge of their own space and having a pride in it. As well as cheap healthy food, there are physical and mental health benefits from the outdoor activity involved.”

See the publication here.

See ABUNDANCE: urban agriculture demonstration plot on social housing estate here.