Urban gardening: The real green revolution

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Urban gardening, the gardening in the towns and suburbs, is highly political. Anyone who belittles this movement blocks his own view of this societal change.

If one would want to measure the success of a movement on the number of those that claim that it cannot possible be any good then the Urban Gardening Movement has during the few years that it has been in existence come a long way already.

Unfortunately there are some writers in newspapers and other media who belittle this to the extent that the state that those who long for the countryside and for gardening and farming should move to the countryside because towns and cities have been sealed, poisoned, and so on. They find it laughable that people are planting Marigolds in front of their doors or tomatoes on their balconies.

But many of those writers have actually no idea, it would seem, what this urban gardening and urban farming is all about. It is not about just growing food for oneself but to actually grow food for the people in the city, and in some cases those urban gardens are created in such a way that everyone can have the food for free (or almost for free) and the movement is growing regardless.

Urban gardening does not mean annexing of ground for private use but free access for all to grow food. It is a fact that the almost 500 urban community garden in Germany, for example, are some of the few places in the gentrified towns where people from different social strata meet in the public realm and interact by creating such gardens and working them.

Those urban community gardens are an innovative contribution to the restructuring of the living together in towns and cities where there is an increasing delineation between the different classes (and I do use the word class/classes here deliberately) which produces a great many risks for our living together in those spaces.

While growing produce for use by all, in community gardens “managed” and worked by all, by people from different strata and classes in the city, is one part of it such gardens also and especially aim to overcome the borders that have been created between people of different groups in society, in our increasingly gentrified towns and especially cities.

Through gardening together in reclaimed public spaces collective forms are created that can be seen as part of an ever strengthening commons movement even and especially in our towns and cities. Those forms could be the basis for new political framework to change society and all for the better.

Though not everyone may be realizing the potential that the urban gardening movement has to change the political structure and through it society as a whole. The powers-that-be, however, are well aware of its potential and thus use the media to belittle those that participate in this, whether in the form of community urban gardens or simply by trying to be somewhat more autark by turning their front and back yards and their balconies, etc., into spaces in which to grow at least some of their food.

People who are independent – to some extent – from the markets and people who join in community of whatever kind are perceived as a threat by the powers-that-be and thus every attempt possible is being made to discredit them in they eyes of the majority not as yet involved.

© 2017

Working on an allotment is GOOD for your health...and this is why...

DO YOU want to know the secret to a long and happy life?

Vegetables.

Not so much the eating of vegetables (though that certainly helps) but the growing of them.

According to scientists from Essex and Westminster universities spending half an hour a week on an allotment results in an instant reduction in stress and fatigue, as well as boosting self-esteem, vigour and a general feeling of good health.

They also found that allotment holders are less likely to be overweight, have more energy and are not so prone to anger, depression and anxiety.

In a study published in the Journal Of Public Health the authors say: “We found that fewer than 30 minutes of allotment gardening produces a measurable and beneficial health effect.”

None of this is news to anyone who has an allotment.

Whether it’s a pristine, award-winning mini farm producing perfect vegetables all year round, or a scrubby bit of dirt by the railway tracks yielding a bagful of runner beans and a couple of dozen potatoes every other autumn, the simple pleasures to be found on the plot go far beyond the act of actually growing anything.

My wife Heidi and I have had our allotment for 10 years.

When we moved to Oxford from London almost the first thing we did was join the waiting list for a plot in our local area of Osney.

Read more here.

Academia and allotments: the students growing their own food

Thanks to a growing awareness of sustainability issues, students around the country are swapping evenings on cheap beer for afternoons spent growing their own fruit and veg. Natalie Leal looks at the rise of edible campus initiatives

As students head off to university this autumn many will be able to dig up some campus-grown potatoes or pick an apple on the way to their halls of residence thanks to a recent rise in edible campus initiatives across the UK.

More than 20 such growing projects now exist around the country, see students growing fruit and vegetables on site with some keeping chickens or beehives. Enterprising undergraduates at universities from Exeter to Newcastle have set up the student equivalent of farmers’ markets and veg box schemes with some even producing their own beer, honey or jam.

This may not sound like typical student behaviour, which stereotypically involves cheap cider and beans on toast, but the organisers of the projects stress that there is, in fact, a large and growing number of engaged young people desperate to do something practical. They want to make a positive difference – both in their immediate environment and to the world – and they are doing this through food.

One of the first institutions in the UK to start looking into the idea was the University of Brighton. Inspired by the first ever edible campus at McGill University in Canada, architect and research initiatives leader Andre Viljoen and his colleague Katrin Bohn wanted to create something similar. But, he says, 10 years ago people were generally nonplussed by the idea.

Read more here.

Council bans gardeners from selling fruit and veg grown on allotments

Jobsworth council bans gardeners from selling fruit and veg grown on their allotments - because just ONE person complained

• Gardeners started selling produce to raise funds to improve allotments

• Spent weeks supplying fruit and vegetables to their friends and neighbours

• But they were ordered to stop after one resident complained to the council

A group of gardeners were banned from selling fresh fruit and vegetables grown on their allotments after the council received a single complaint about the enterprise.

The group, who call themselves The Plotties, started selling their produce to raise funds to help improve the site in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

They had hoped to buy a year-round composting toilet, and to build a community room where they could teach others about growing and gardening.

But after weeks of selling their greens to friends and neighbours, The Plotties received a notice from the local council ordering them to stop.

Read more here.

Living the Good Life

Great reasons for having an allotment

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Allotment sites are managed in two ways, but it also depends on the local borough; on some sites the plot-holders rent direct from the council and on others there is an association of allotment plot holders that manage the site. And depending on the “rules” set by the associations – the councils may have different ones – not only can you grow fruit, vegetables and flowers, but you can even keep chickens. Whether you would want to do the latter on an allotment that may not be near your home is a questions that only you can answer. I, for one, would not.

So and here are some of the reasons for having an allotment:

Exercise

Any way you can increase the amount of exercise you do will benefit your physical and mental health. A few hours spent digging, hoeing, bending and straightening is more satisfying than slogging away on an indoor gym cross-trainer, especially when you end up with something you can eat! In addition to that science has discovered – oh dear, have they now – that dirt is actually good for you. Not necessarily ingested, though a little of that does not hurt either, the opposite rather, but handling it apparently releases stress and such.

Stress buster

Taking time away from your PC to work on your pak choi and swapping your BlackBerry for a blackberry is an excellent way to combat stress. Gardening is often repetitive, offering a quiet space for contemplation and allows a space for your brain to take a break. You may feel more clear-headed after time spent in the allotment, even if you haven't been thinking about anything of importance.

You are what you eat It's a lot easier to feel inclined to munch down on your five-a- day if you've grown some of them yourself. You can pick and eat your crops within hours and you can decide whether to grow organic and know exactly what you are eating, reducing you and your family's exposure to pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

It's not in the supermarket

Yes, you can grow spuds and French beans (and why not if you like spuds and French beans) but one of the joys of having an allotment is growing the produce you just cannot pick up easily in most supermarkets. Whether it's an exotic crop like strawberry spinach, a forgotten classic like skirret, something the supermarket never seems to have enough of like Swiss chard or simply a more flavorsome variety of carrot, it's your domain to grow what you want.

Community spirit

The comradeship between allotment holders is tangible and yet you can be as social or as self-contained as you like. Swapping seeds, offering surplus plug plants and sage advice (pun intended) is all part of the allotment experience. And someone is always around who will commiserate when the blackfly get to your broad beans before you do and help celebrate when your first tomatillo is harvested!

If you have a backyard then you can make your allotment there instead of renting one from the council. That way you do not have to deal with any rules that some allotment sites and -associations have and you can grow what you like without interference. However, you do not get the help and advice that you will find on an allotment site.

Or do both. Have a home allotment and a plot on an allotment site. Then at home you grow the things that some association frown upon, like Jerusalem Artichokes or wild edibles, aka (edible) weeds.

If you don't have space for a garden at home where to grow food then, obviously, an allotment is the only option really if you want to, somehow, life the “good life”. But, depending on the area, there may or may not be a waiting lift for allotment plots.

Happy digging, growing and harvesting...

© 2015

First Great British Bee Count reveals allotments make the best bee habitats

Allotments produced more bee sightings than parks, gardens and the countryside over the 12-week summer count

Allotments are the best habitat for bees according to the results of the first Great British Bee Count this summer.

More bees were seen on allotments than on any other habitat including parks, gardens, and the countryside during the 12-week bee count from June to August.

More than 23,000 people across the UK took part in the count using a smartphone app to log their sightings of 830,000 bees.

An average of 12 bees per count were spotted on allotments compared to 10 in the countryside, eight in gardens, seven in parks and only four on roadside verges.

Bumblebees were the most frequently seen type of bee in all regions with 304,857 sightings including common species such as the buff-tailed bumblebee, garden bumblebee and white-tailed bumblebees. Honeybees were the second most-seen bee with 193,837 sightings. Of these, 42% were in rural areas, 30% in suburbs and 28% in towns and cities. The ginger-tufted tree bumblebee, which is often found nesting in bird boxes, was the third most identified bee with 69,369 sightings. It only arrived in southern England from mainland Europe in 2001, but the survey shows it has now spread throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Great British Bee Count was developed by charities Friends of the Earth and Buglife and retailer, B&Q, with the aim of providing annual comparable data and trends that will give a broader picture of bee health. Bee experts believe the mild winter, warm spring and long summer created good weather conditions for bees to thrive this year.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/28/first-great-british-bee-count-reveals-allotments-make-best-bee-habitats

Green spaces fall short in asset of community value bids

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Only around half of applications to list a green space as an asset of community value (ACV) have succeeded, an analysis by a planning consultancy has found.

The study by Development Control Services (DCS) looked at 134 English local planning authorities to see which assets local people had asked to be registered and which were given the status.

It found that authorities approved 43 assets termed "outdoor spaces and recreation", 36 "open spaces" and 12 "allotments", while applications to list 22 open spaces and one each of outdoor sports and recreation and allotments were rejected. Applications for a further two allotments, three open spaces and one outdoor sports and recreation were subsequently withdrawn.

Pubs are most likely to get approval - 88 per cent - with libraries not far behind. But only about 50 per cent of open spaces are given the status. The average approval rate was 79 per cent.

In this case it must be obvious why businesses, unfortunately, are favored above parks, open spaces and allotments. It has to do with money in the form of application fees, business rates and such like. Parks, open space and allotments do not generate that kind of income for the local authorities.

The Localism Act 2011's Community Right to Build allows community groups to nominate land and buildings as ACVs. To be added to the register, the authority must find that the asset has a use that "furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community".

The status allows community groups a six-week window to submit a bid request if the asset is put up for sale, then a six-month moratorium to prepare one, before the asset is sold on the open market. ACV status can also be a material consideration in planning decisions.

ACV applications are often sparked by the knowledge or concern that a community asset is to be sold or developed. In June, the Heritage Lottery Fund research report State of UK Public Parks found that nearly half of parks managers surveyed said their local authorities were thinking of selling or transferring management of their parks.

In July, the Park Lodge by Bridgford Park, Nottingham, due to be auctioned by Savills, was withdrawn at the 11th hour after a local group lodged an application to register the lodge as an ACV.

In the same month, local Government secretary Eric Pickles urged councils to "turn idle assets into money" to pay for frontline services such as parks.

Of the 134 councils in the DCS figures, 87 had received at least one ACV application. In total, these authorities had received 616 applications, made 550 decisions and listed 433 community assets, the analysis reveals.

Should this pattern be repeated across England's 326 local planning authorities, there would be more than 1,000 assets listed.

Parks consultant Peter Neal said : "This is going to be the direction of travel where local authorities are going to develop stronger partnerships with local communities. But it's not a quick fix."

If central government and local governments were really and truly serious about the Localism Act and other such legal provisions they would place much greater value on parks, open spaces and allotments.

Public parks, and open spaces, to some degree also fall under this, were established under the Public Health Act and reenforced in them many times over and that for good reasons and the same applies to allotment gardens, though another law made them a statutory requirement.

In today's world, however, both central and local governments are trying to claim that they are no longer statutory and also that they cannot afford them. But can we afford a sick population, not that we do not have one already? The answer to that question is a loud no, we cannot.

Furthermore, especially as regards to allotment gardens, they allow for true localism and resilience, especially in home food production and and national food security. We must not fall prey to the beliefs, as held by some in government, that we need neither farms nor vegetable gardens “as we can get all the food we want from abroad”, as was stated by at least one minister.

While it is true that governments are strapped for cash because of overspending on infrastructure and defense projects that are of no value to the people but only to big businesses, often foreign ones, a small change in priorities, that is to say dropping some of them, such as the HS2 rail idea, and replacing Trident and the nuclear deterrent, for instance, would bring much needed cash into government and thus could be used for better provisions on the three levels discussed here, as well as others. Chance would be a fine thing, however.

Instead of providing for the people government spent almost the entire GDP of the country on bailing out the banks that were “too big to fail”, which are now continuing with “business as usual” and still hold us all to ransom. And the people have to carry the can with cuts in services and more and more austerity with public sector workers having been forced to accept a pay freeze, which became, due to price increases, etc., in reality a pay cut, for several years which Members of Parliament voted themselves an about seven percent increase every year.

Thus there is no money for provisions such as parks, open spaces and allotments and threats are made, time and again, by councils that those services may have to go, be managed differently, and so on, and even statements from leaders of the LGA claiming that neither of those are statutory requirements and thus would have to be accepted as some of the first to go. May I suggest that a check is done in the statutes as to which really is the case.

© 2014

Urban gardens are key in times of crisis

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Allotment gardens have often been sources of local resilience during periods of crisis. During World War I the number of allotment gardens surged from 600,000 to 1,500,000 in Britain, supplying city people with food and other ecosystem services.

The gardens were planted in parks and sports fields, and even Buckingham Palace turned up the earth to grow vegetables. After declining abruptly in the 1920s and 1930s, World War II saw a new explosion in the numbers of allotment gardens in cities of Britain and other parts of Europe.

In Germany, and several other European countries, allotment gardens have always played a great role for the people and in giving them a small measure of self-sufficiency in food though some do manage to grow more than enough for themselves and their families as far as vegetables are concerned.

In Britain the law, theoretically, states that councils have a duty to provide land for allotment gardens if a certain number of people demand them. This appears to be (1) a little known fact and (2) something councils often do not follow either, even if the demand is there.

In other European countries the allotment garden movement is far more active than it is in Britain and also much better organized and there are allotment colonies all over the place. Cities, towns and even villages have them and they are well used, it would seem.

However, we need more urban and suburban community gardens where people can grow their own food and there is enough derelict land around in most places so that this can be possible, also in the UK, and in the middle of the cities. Where the soil may be contaminated it is quite feasible, though it means bringing in healthy soil, to do the growing beds in large containers such as reused builder bags which nowadays, to 90%, are not reused by the companies and cannot even be returned. This is, basically, killing two birds with one stone namely having a place in which to grow food and also keeping such bags, made predominately from woven polypropylene, out of landfill.

Using this approach could turn many empty urban lots in any town or city into productive community gardens without needing to dig the ground, which might be covered in concrete or tarmacadam and thus cannot be easily dug or ground that is possibly contaminated. Yes, it would require bringing it good soil to fill the bags with and then grow the food therein but that still is better than not having such gardens at all.

Allotments must be made available also to all that want to work such plots and not just in urban areas but in them and suburban areas especially as there less land at home is available for the growing of food and people must be encouraged to grow at least some of their own food at home or at allotments and similar gardens.

Our food security depends on this for our individual regions as much as for the country as a whole and there was a time when all cities had market gardens and small farms surrounding them and even almost in their hearts, as did Paris before World War One and we must bring this back to make local foods available to all.

Allotment garden, known as Schrebergaerten or Kleingaerten in German, have in that country been in use for about a century or so and they are, as previously stated, well received and they are much like that Dachas in Russia, and in some cases, just like on their Dachas in Russia, people spend their entire summers, growing plants, both flowers and vegetables, living in little cabins.

During the Second World War the roads and streets of Germany, including those in towns and cities, were lined with fruit trees to provide fresh fruit, especially apples, pears and plums, for the population during the war time and many of those trees were still about in the 1980s though rarely anyone made use of the fruit provided by the trees.

There were also, once upon a time, so-called common trees of various fruits that lined the country lanes of Britain but most of those trees have been grubbed out by now as they were deemed a danger to motorists. The car has to come first, obviously. But, actions of guerrilla gardeners grafting fruit tree branches to that of city trees and the reception of this by the people proves that it would be popular to have fruit trees lining the streets and being found in our parks and open spaces. Many, the majority, in fact, of our common woods in the countryside were a mix of timber trees with fruit trees (the latter in the end also will provide valuable timber) to a ratio of 2:1. Proof that it is all possible and that food security can be created for every area, including our urban and suburban areas. Time we got going.

© 2013

Lost the Plot Part One – Book Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

LOST THE PLOT (From Plot to Plate – A Recipe for Success)
Part One: Taking on a Plot
A Photographic Journal of Allotmenteering
by Allotment Junkie
170 page Paperback 21cm x 23.5cm
Published by: Allotment Junkie
Printed by: Butler Tanner and Dennis
ISBN: 978-0-9575812-0-3
Price: £14.99

From an overgrown suburban allotment plot to the productive beds that this allotment is today - “Taking on a Plot” - the first book in the three-book series “Lost the Plot”, takes us on a journey of one family's quest for fresh, guilt-free and organic fruit and vegetables.

The book is an inspirational guide, and I do not take this term lightly, full of images, advice and tips for both the seasoned allotmenteer and the novice alike and it illustrates, literally, how to achieve success from day one.

As it says on the cover, this book is a photographic journal of allotmenteering and it is an (almost) autobiographical account of the author and his family taking on a rundown allotment plot, with clear sound and precise advice, tips and hints, also as to the pitfalls, written in a very easy style.

The great beauty of this book is that it does not throw about a lot of science with which to bamboozle the reader. Instead it is all handles in a manner that is easy to read and to understand and it is beautifully illustrated with full color photos to boot.

The book and cover are 100% compostable; not that you would ever want to do that, I am sure. It is printed and bound in England on paper from responsible sources. If I am not mistaken the print that has been used may, more than likely, be vegetable based and this would make this a very green book indeed even though the cover is mostly brown.

A real great book and I hope to have the honor, pleasure and privilege to also be able to review Part Two and Part Three in the “Lost the Plot” series.

Although I don't generally rate books on the one to five scale as books are very much a personal thing I would, if I could, however, give this book gladly a six out of five.

© 2013

Green Spaces essential for human health, study finds

Who would have thought? </sarcasm off>

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Now that was the very reason why Parks were created in Britain under the Public Health Act of 1875 and subsequent ones.

You probably also already know about the power of green spaces on your mind and body, but there hasn’t been any sort of real scientific assessment of that – until now.

But, was there really a scientific study needed? Well, maybe yes. Maybe this will make people value their parks and open spaces more.

Frances "Ming" Kuo, Director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois has studied the effect of green space on humans in a number of settings and measured the effect of nature on human health and well being by using data such as police crime reports, blood pressure, performance on standardized neurocognitive tests, and physiological measures of immune system functioning.

What she discovered was what most of us probably already know. "In greener settings, we find that people are more generous and more sociable. We find stronger neighborhood social ties and greater sense of community, more mutual trust and willingness to help others. "In less green environments, we find higher rates of aggression, violence, violent crime, and property crime -- even after controlling for income and other differences," she said. "We also find more evidence of loneliness and more individuals reporting inadequate social support."

Because of this strong correlation between nature and health, Kuo encourages city planners to design communities with more public green spaces in mind, not as mere amenities to beautify a neighborhood, but as a vital component that will promote healthier, kinder, smarter, more effective, more resilient people.

It is for that very reasons that publicly owned parks and open spaces, parks to which the public has access to and gardens at home and especially also allotments must be part and parcel of our (urban) environment.

For that very reason also the provisions for parks and open spaces and those for allotment garden must not be reduced but must be increased rather. More people having access to such areas would, more than likely, reduce a lot of our problems in society today.

Not that that, probably, will make any difference to the people wielding the knife and the axe in Whitehall and other government departments in the UK as well as in countries such as the USA, etc.

They rather tackle the problems than to provide preventive means, which parks and open spaces and allotments are. In addition to that allotments are a vital part of national food security.

When that was mentioned, however, and the fact that we need to be more self-sufficient in food production some idiots in DEFRA and other government departments stated that, as a nation we have enough money to buy our food from abroad. Doh? And what are we going to do when we can no longer (afford to) bring the stuff in because of lack of fuel or of uneconomic costs of same? What then?

© 2011