Category — England

On a visit to King’s Cross, in London, John Denham and Hilary Benn saw the way in which local charity Global Generation is using a temporary lease to create portable allotments in a series of construction skips, located on one of the capital’s largest regeneration schemes

Grow your own revolution gets major land boost

Communities and Local Government
Great Britain
3 March, 2010

Plans to bring under-used and uncared for land back into use so that local communities and keen would-be fruit and vegetable growers have somewhere to get digging, were announced today by Communities Secretary John Denham and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

There is a huge interest in ‘growing your own’ with people wanting to get more in touch with where their food comes from, as well as staying active and spending more time outdoors.

About 300,000 gardeners in England already have allotments but demand still outstrips supply and the Government is therefore announcing new ways of meeting people’s desire to dig in.

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Commonwealth Orchards Project- Glasgow. Photo by Local Action on Food

Urban orchards plan starting to bear fruit

By MARK McLAUGHLIN and MICHAEL BLACKLEY
Edinburgh News
01 March 2010

It has planted the seed of an idea which has the potential to blossom across Edinburgh.

The unlikely creation of a fruit orchard in one of the most deprived areas of the city is set to be followed by projects city-wide.

The city council-backed initiative could see school grounds, parks, allotments and even back greens used for growing fruit

The Evening News told last year how a community initiative had led to an orchard with apple, pear, plum and cherry trees being created in Wester Hailes.

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The New Urban Farmer
By Celia Brooks-Brown
Quadrille Publishing Ltd
March 2010

As the New Urban Farmer, Celia has been detailing the day-to-day goings on at her North London allotment since April 2007 through her blog for the Times Online, and March 2010 sees the launch of her monthly column, “Grow to Eat’, in BBC Good Food Magazine.

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Garden number 5. Cuba – Alberto’s Huerto, Havana. An urban vegetable garden in the space left by a collapsed building.

Around the World in 80 Gardens – BBC

Around the World in 80 Gardens was a television series of 10 programmes in which British gardener and broadcaster Monty Don visited 80 of the world’s most celebrated gardens. The series was filmed over a period of 18 months and was first broadcast on BBC Two from 27 January to 30 March 2008. A book and DVD based on the series were also published.

These food gardens were featured the series:

Garden number 32. USA – Liz Christy Garden, Manhattan, New York. The first community garden in New York City, founded in 1973 by local resident Liz Christy on a vacant lot on the corner of Bowery and Houston Street.

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The Kitchen Garden.

British artist, Richard Adams’s Kitchen Gardens

Richard Adams (b. 1960) received a BA Hons in Graphic Design at Leicester Polytechnic. He spent his childhood amidst the British countryside in the south Cotswolds. Its outstanding landscape has had a strong and lasting influence on his art work.

Richard Adams creates a dream world often adding ‘odd’ people that seem to float above the ground and seldom stand upright. Full of humour Richard Adams paintings are beautifully drawn and highly imaginative.

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Farming Heritage Project -‘Digging our Roots

Wellington-clad visitors to Heeley City Farm this weekend (Sunday 21 February 2010) can muck-in to help with the final stages of a long-running archaeology project in partnership with the University of Sheffield.

University of Sheffield´s Media Centre
19 February 2010

The Iron Age Roundhouse activity day will take place from 11am to 4pm and people will be encouraged to roll-up their sleeves and use a mixture of clay and straw to help finish the walls of the farm´s constructed Iron Age Roundhouse – a very early form of housing in Britain.

The reconstruction of the Iron Age Roundhouse forms part of a partnership with the University of Sheffield´s Department of Archaeology and the University´s Archaeology Society. Academics and students have offered advice throughout the project and will be on hand to give assistance, information and work on the Roundhouse.

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Incredible Edible Todmorden: Introducing Britain’s greenest town

By Joanna Moorhead
The Independent
29 November 2009

It’s an ordinary small town in England, but its residents claim they’ve discovered the secret that could save the planet. And with world leaders preparing to gather in Copenhagen in just over a week’s time to debate how to do just that, the people of Todmorden in the Pennines this week issued an invitation: come to our town and see what we’ve done.

In under two years, Todmorden has transformed the way it produces its food and the way residents think about the environment. Compared with 18 months ago, a third more townspeople now grow their own veg; almost seven in 10 now buy local produce regularly, and 15 times as many people are keeping chickens.

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Access to fresh produce such as that sold on this mobile farmers’ market is limited in some urban areas. See the video here.

The healthy approach to meals on wheels

By Philippa Thomas
9 February 2010
BBC News, Richmond, Virginia

America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama, has launched a campaign to improve the way families eat, encouraging Americans to face the fact that one in three children is overweight or obese.

As part of her initiative, she stressed the need to make healthy food more accessible. I met one couple who are trying to do just that, by running a mobile farmers’ market in Virginia.

It is a sight that makes people stop and stare.

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Airborne Vineyard by Soonil Kim

From the Architectural Association, School Of Architecture In London, Taught By Nannette Jackowski And Ricardo De Ostos.

From the blog Pruned, on Landscape Architecture and Related Fields. By Alexander Trevi.

Airborne Vineyard by Soonil Kim

Writes Kim:

Inspired by the urban grains especially the railway network from both St. Pancras and King’s Cross Station around the site, the design is a formal continuation of the topography while reinforcing the colonisation of air space by winery branches. The audacious structure, the winery and the vineyard for red wine grapes are connected by a suspended transport network enabling the use of ground space for a public park. With a capacity to produce 10,000 bottles of red wine annually the project re-articulates private and public space blending productive infrastructure with quality areas to Londoners and tourists.

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Photo by LunaModule

Just 10 minutes from Canary Wharf (London’s second financial district and home of the UK’s three tallest buildings) on the Isle of Dogs, is a wonderful city farm – Mudchute Farm. On 32 acres of fertile land (nutrient-rich as it is just next to the Thames) live 200 animals, mostly rare breeds. Mudchute Farm is also home to 70 community allotments, a farm kitchen and restaurant, horse stables, and smokehouse. Wood from the farm is used in the smokehouse where butter, geese, and cheese are often smoked.

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By The National Trust
2009

Excerpts:

Gardens connect people with food

21 per cent of people have taken up gardening to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

The Trust now cares for 26 working kitchen gardens, from Trengwainton, Cornwall, to Wallington, Northumberland. At the magnificent 2.5 acre kitchen garden at Knightshayes Court in Devon we work with local schools who now come on a regular basis to tend their plots and learn about growing
food.

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Started in 1979, Nottingham urban farm needs help

The Petition

Stonebridge City Farm being pressured by the city council to give up of 10% of the farms land as a condition of renewing the lease for the farm. The council wants the land to be used by the farms neighbours to park cars in front of their houses.

After a “consultation” with 31 neighbours next to the farm it is said that 15 neighbours wanted this parking scheme. Were the 10,000 visitors to the farm last year consulted? It appears not.

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The government plans a landbank to pinpoint unused plots where communities can grow their own food. Photograph: David Levene

Ministers consider temporary allotments scheme?Fruit and veg plots part of strategy to cut reliance on imports

By James Meikle
guardian.co.uk,
4 January 2010

The government plans to launch a “grow your own” revolution by encouraging people to set up temporary allotments or community gardens on land awaiting development or other permanent use.

It aims to develop a “meanwhile” lease to formalise such arrangements between landowners and voluntary groups and is considering establishing a “land bank” to broker better links and ensure plots are not left idle.

Ministers believe the move could foster community spirit and skills as well as improve physical and mental health.

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Is it possible to feed yourself for a week simply with food you find growing wild – in London? Bella Bathurst takes up the urban foraging challenge

By Bella Bathhurst
The Observer
Dec. 6, 2009

Foraging is very now. On trend and magnificently seasonal, all you need is a pair of gumboots, a set of Kilner jars, and the time and inclination to preserve everything you see. There’s wine out there, and gin, and beer, soups, salads and soufflés – a whole great Waitrose of stuff all just waiting to be turned into chutney.

“Everyone,” says one wild food expert glumly, “is making jam this year.”

So why, when it all sounds such fun, should the cities be left behind?

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See larger map image here.

Celebrations As Bristol City Farm Is Saved By Hitting £50K Target

Bristol Evening News
December 21, 2009,

A city farm in Bedminster has been saved from closure thanks to the public, who have helped raise £50,000 in just five months.

The four-and-a-half-acre farm was started on derelict land in 1976 as a result of the demands of local people, and has grown to an attraction visited by 200,000 people every year.

Windmill Hill City Farm, which currently employs 80 people, is a registered charity, so there is no charge for entry, but every donation helps to keep the farm operating as a free community facility for the enjoyment of the public.

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Photo by Carl Warner. Edible city: London’s skyline has been recreated using fruit and veg as part of a promotional campaign. Larger image here.

The city that’s good enough to eat: London’s iconic skyline recreated using fruit and veg by photographer Carl Warner

By Daily Mail Reporter

16th November 2009

A photographer has recreated London’s iconic skyline using 26 different types of fruit and vegetables, with stunning results.

Carl Warner and a team of five model makers spent three weeks crafting the edible panorama and series of landmarks to promote healthy eating.

In the image some of the world’s most famous buildings are given a fruity twist and constructed from hundreds of pieced of fruit and veg – all painstakingly glued together.

The Houses of Parliament are built from a mix of asparagus, green beans and runner beans which are subtly mixed with baby sweetcorn to depict the intricate stonework.

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Larger image here.

Zany Vision or Critical Solution?
Urban Greenhouses Aim to Help Cities Combat Climate Change

By Jess Smee
Spiegel Online
Dec 4, 2009

With its massive glass dome, the Plantagon Greenhouse wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi movie. And if all goes smoothly, one may soon crop up in a city near you. In these days of global warming, its creators argue, it’s not a question of if it will become reality but, rather, when.

Nestled among the skyscrapers is a gigantic glass sphere housing a mysterious spiral pathway. At first glance, the structure may look like an alien spaceship or a modernist architectural fantasy. But, in fact, it is an unusual response to climate change and the challenges of urbanization.

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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.

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Fungi and Rhubarb Garden – The north facing end of the site will be in shade most of the day and most of the year. Large logs would be impregnated with fungi spores, the rhubarb and mint would be grown beneath them providing interesting food and creating am exotic and educational lunch time destination.

Leadenhall City Farm
By Mitchell Taylor Workshop

“Parks, allotments and markets are set to spring up across Britain on the sites of building projects that have been mothballed in the recession.

“Piers Taylor, of Mitchell Taylor Workshop, one of the practices shortlisted for the Leadenhall site has proposed a city farm, populated with colour-coded chickens. He wants to create grassy banks to picnic on and plant blackberry bushes amid the surrounding steel, granite and glass.”
- from The Times Oct 30, 2009

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Beatrix Potter, ‘Benjamin Bunny nibbling lettuce leaf’ © Frederick Warne & Co. 2006

The Real Mr. McGregor’s Garden

Written by Victoria and Albert Museum

“Before she married in 1913, Beatrix Potter would accompany her family on three-month summer holidays in the countryside. In 1903 the Potters rented Fawe Park, a large, comfortable house in the Lake District, on the edge of Lake Derwentwater. Here, Potter was able to escape outdoors, sketching the terraced gardens that sloped down towards the lake and the beautiful fells beyond. The kitchen garden, with its greenhouses, cold frames and potting shed was a favourite retreat and inspired the setting for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904).

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