Category — England

In September 2011, Brighton & Hove City Council became the first local authority in the UK to publish guidance notes encouraging developers to include food-growing space in new building schemes.

Horticulture Week
13 January 2012

Excerpt:

Included as a case study in the guidance notes is BioRegional Quintain and Crest Nicholson’s sustainable living development One Brighton. Completed in 2010, the pioneering One Planet Communities project was the first development in the city to incorporate on-site allotments in its plans.

Among a host of other sustainable-living features, the apartment roofs house 28 box gardens for residents to grow produce. With 172 apartments in the development, a waiting list has inevitably formed. But on-site green facilities manager Peter Commane says planning permission for further growing space has been secured on a neighbouring former brownfield site to help meet demand.

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The most expensive place in the country to rent an allotment is Runnymede, in Berkshire, which has increased rents from 34p a square metre in 2008 to 55p in 2011.

Royal Horticultural Society
19 December 2011

Excerpt:

Allotment rents fluctuate wildly across the country, with plot holders in Surrey paying more than 50 times as much for their plot as those in Derbyshire, according to a survey of allotment provision carried out by the University of Leicester.

Researchers found rents have gone up by an average of 21% in the last three years, and confirmed that allotment waiting lists remain high, at 86,787, although this is a drop from the previous figure of 94,124 in 2010.

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Cartoon of a food productive house garden. Dig for Victory campaign. June, 1943. Source: Spartacus, 2011.

Using Social Practice Theory To Assess How Transition Norwich Can Upscale Household Food Gardening In The City Of Norwich

By Dionysios Touliatos
Thesis – Master of Science
School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia University Plain Norwich
© 2011 Dionysios Touliatos
August 2011

Excerpt:

The choice of household gardens

According to Jeffcote (1993) urban household gardens in the UK represent a significant percentage of the total surface of a city, occupying more than ten times the area of protected nature reserves (Loram et al., 2005). The UK is the country with the highest number in private gardens per capita of any nation in Europe (Alfrey et al., 2004: 9) but only 20% of garden owners grew food in 1996 compared to 35% ten years earlier, with lawn and flowers being the dominant theme (MINTEL, 1999). Thus, it can be argued that a significant potential of food production in terms of quantity lies in household gardens.

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BBC News

A goat which blows raspberries has become a hit with visitors at a farm in Nottingham.

Lucy, who arrived at Stonebridge City Farm, in St Ann’s, six months ago, took staff by surprise with her unique talent.

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Urban Agriculture – Part One – Down South

By Helen Eva Babbs
Helen Babbs blog
Jan 3, 2012
Over the next year, I’ll be exploring the UK’s burgeoning urban food growing scene for Kitchen Garden magazine. Every month I’ll report from a different town or city, as I seek out urban agriculturists and profile projects ranging from the small-scale and personal to the unusual, ambitious and commercial.

Excerpt:

“The architecture, the people, the seafront, the history – all make Plymouth fascinating” enthuses Darran Mclane, who’s fallen hard and fast for the city since moving here last spring. Plymouth is also the only city with a Food Charter, set-up and run by the Soil Association, which makes it as good a place as any to begin a quest to document, in part, the food growing projects that are changing the urban landscape across the UK.

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Bee hives are run by schools and groups across London, such as Sir John Cass’s Foundation Primary School. Photo by Micha Theiner.

Already, eco-designers have been invited to look round the Olympic site in east London to see if there is potential for a farm after the Games.

The Independent
Jan 8, 2012

Excerpt:

Think of farming, and the rolling fields of the countryside spring to mind. But across Britain’s towns and cities, veggie growers, cheese-makers and honey producers are becoming established. Not since the Second World War, when people were urged to Dig for Victory, has urban farming been so popular.

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River Cottage Urban Smallholding (1 of 5) “Beginnings”

During River Cottage spring (2008) Hugh helped a group of Bristol families start a smallholding on derelict council land.

A talented writer, broadcaster and campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food and has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books.

His early smallholding experiences were shown in the Channel 4 River Cottage series and led to the publication of The River Cottage Cookbook (2001), which won the Glenfiddich Trophy and the André Simon Food Book of the Year awards.

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Todmorden resident Estelle Brown, a former interior designer, with a basket of home-grown veg.

‘There’s a nobility to growing food and allowing people to share it. There’s a feeling we’re doing something significant rather than just moaning that the state can’t take care of us.

By Vincent Graff
The Daily Mail
10th December 2011

Excerpt:

Today, hundreds of townspeople who began by helping themselves to the communal veg are now well on the way to self-sufficiency.

But out on the street, what gets planted where? There’s kindness even in that.

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By Helen Babbs
Timber Press
2011, 144 pages

Helen Babbs is a self-proclaimed city girl who lives on the second floor of a flat in a chaotic corner of London. An urge to find more green in the city and a stronger connection to the natural world leads her to create her first garden, an organic edible garden on her rooftop. This year-long adventure is the story behind My Garden, the City and Me.

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Block of 97 houses on the block surrounded by Hurst Street, Bullingdon Road, St Mary’s Road and Leopold Street.

“If everyone is responsible for the same communal space, it makes everyone feel safe and we can inspire and encourage each other to take steps towards more sustainable living.”

By Liam Sloan
The Oxford Times
30th November 2011

Excerpt:

Neighbours in East Oxford are being urged to tear down their fences and join their back gardens together to create a communal park.

Six people have been working with Green city councillor Matt Morton to draw up a masterplan for the block of 97 houses on the block surrounded by Hurst Street, Bullingdon Road, St Mary’s Road and Leopold Street.

They believe that if neighbours pool their land to create a single growing area, it could provide fruit, vegetables, eggs, and honey for every household.

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Written by the public and gathered by the BBC

A selection of letters:

Edinburgh allotments
By Elizabeth Gray

At the beginning of the war I was registered as a botanist at Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.

I was enlisted as a gardens allotment volunteer and would go round advising people how to grow food. The same thing happened in the 1914-18 war. Ground was dug up and made into allotments at Blackford hill and Inverleith Park and round about the Meadows in the heart of Edinburgh.

Most folk in Edinburgh weren’t gardeners and we showed them what to do. There was a limited number of seeds and plants and I used to take some seed from my own garden to give to people.

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By Twigs Way & Mike Brown
Sabrestorm
December 2010
240 pages

Beans as bullets’, ‘Vegetables for Victory’ and ‘Cloches against Hitler’: these slogans convey just how vital gardening and growing food were to the British war effort during the Second World War. Exhorted to ‘Grow More Food’, then to ‘Dig for Victory’, Britain’s ‘allotment army’ was soon out in force, growing as many vegetables as possible in suburban allotments, private gardens, even the grounds of stately homes.

Richly illustrated with contemporary photographs and ephemera relating to the ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign, this expertly researched, highly engaging and informative account also includes archive images of home front gardening, garden produce and advertisements.

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The allotment holders of Corfe Castle in Dorset. Photo by BNPS.

Allotments listed on Landshare

Landshare
2nd September 2011

Excerpt:

Over 20 National Trust properties are now running allotments or community gardens or orchards on their sites, many of which are stunning historic properties with incredible views as well as great growing soil. At Kingston Lacy in Dorset a set of 118 new allotments have been established. There are 40 allotments for members of the local community; 26 for school and community groups and a further 52 subsidised plots for individuals referred through local housing associations.

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Fruits of their labours: The Dunn family at their London allotment.

A salad may cost £1.50 in the shops but a packet of 100 seeds less than £1.

By Toby Walne
This is Money – UK
Oct 24, 2011

Excerpt:

Autumn is the ideal time for gardeners to prepare for the following year – and possibly knock £1,300 off the annual grocery bill.

Research from the National Society of Allotment & Leisure Gardeners has found that allotment holders spend an average £202 growing vegetables and fruit every year that would sell for £1,564 in shops.

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Overall winner Reg Curnock.

“He’s an inspiration, but even though he is 75 he can still out-dig us any day.”

By Debbie Waite
Oxford Times
20th October 2011

Excerpt:

The former Pressed Steel worker, from Brambling Way, Blackbird Leys, said: “I’ve had an allotment for more than 40 years. It’s lovely to know my grandchildren who live locally are all enjoying fresh veg.

“Keeping an allotment is hard work and commitment is key, but without this patch of ground and my vegetables I would just be sitting indoors, watching TV. This keeps me fit and in the fresh air and I can deliver fresh fruit and veg to the family every week.”

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Children growing on church land amongst the tombstones. Photo by Arthur Edwards.

“By growing and sharing their own food, people are building independence from global supply chains and a degree of resilience, cushioning the impact of shortages or price rises.”

By Julian Dobson
Urban Pollinators
October 2011

Excerpt:

‘You have to act to hope.’ Todmorden shows how such action can become viral.

The town’s schools are just one example. Every local primary school was given a disused pleasure boat to use as a planter. One school got permission to grow vegetables in a graveyard. All of them have now clubbed together to plant their own orchard.

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Ostrich feather Badge of the Prince of Wales.

The hope that the Patronage of His Royal Highness will help to create greater awareness of the allotment movement

16th September 2011

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has kindly agreed to assume the Patronage of the National Society of Allotment & Leisure Gardeners, which is based in Corby, Northamptonshire. The Prince of Wales has a long standing interest in horticulture and sustainable growing and has always championed the benefits of partaking in such activities.

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Entrance to Shaftesbury Park Allotments, Newport.

Hazardous substances, including lead, were found by investigators.

By thehortchannel.tv
September 28, 2011

An allotments Newport (Wales) where lead was found in the soil could be closed for good from December.

Shaftesbury Park Allotment holders were told by Newport council last month it would close the site after hazardous substances, including lead, were found by investigators.

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City Harvest Festival, London. See more photos from the event here.

You Local Guradian
26th September 2011

Excerpt:

A farm in Colliers Wood has scooped the title of best in London for the second year running at a festival of city farming and community gardening.

Volunteers from Deen City Farm beat their nearest rivals Surrey Docks and attributed their victory to great teamwork and animal handling skills.

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See this excellent film about what is accomplished on the farm. Link here.

A Farm in the Heart of Camden initiated in 1972

Kentish Town City Farm is an educational and recreational project that developed out of the needs of local people.

Initiated in 1972, through the medium of an existing community group, it has provided animals, gardening space, horse riding and a focus for youth education and community work for thousands of users per year.

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