Louth Community Food Garden
A Transition Town Louth Initiative
The Blog|
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Louth Community Food GardenA Transition Town Louth InitiativeThe Blog | |
To contact us about the Garden phone Maggie on 07852286806 or Send an e-mail |
Guerilla Gardening - the Elephant and Castle video.
from meeting minutes of 12/01/2010
5. Community Garden
Anisha, James and Maggie met to agree aims, objectives and options.
Successful meeting with James Lascelles, Headmaster at King Edwards’. He agreed to set aside a 25x15m plot behind Foundation House for nominal
rent of £5 pa. Unrestricted community use available outside school hours – otherwise CRB checks necessary. JL offered to prepare the site and
to incorporate it into the School’s Sustainable/Eco Schools programme. He’s happy to be kept informed via the School’s Community Cohesion sub
committee (that happens to be chaired by Bob).
Need to check public liability.
Agreed to continue to seek other sites, especially those in prominent public locations. Anisha has written letter, which is to be sent out to
organisations.
Next meeting of sub group at Maggie’s on 25th January – any further ideas for sites to Maggie, please.
Hello lovely TTL! just to let you know that Maggie, James, Sarah flores and myself had a v successful subgp meeting today regarding the louth community garden. We have ideas for land, aims and objectives and we're meeting with King edwards tomorrow to discuss a potential bit of land to dig! Watch this space and more to talk about on tuesday...see you there, Anisha
I am writing to you on behalf of the Transition Town Louth Group, who are concerned about the effects of Peak Oil and climate change on the community. We would like to develop a Community Garden within Louth where people can work cooperatively to grow and prepare their own food. We require the loan of a plot of land large enough to be used to grow fruit and vegetables, (minimum 50sq metres), with close vehicular access and ideally access to water.
A dedicated core group would be created from members of the Transition Team who would initially organise and oversee the garden's development by providing plants and seeds as well as monitoring its progress. They would volunteer to commit a few hours each week to be at the garden to meet and work alongside interested members of the public. Several educational courses could be arranged each year helping individuals or local groups to share ideas and learn more about growing vegetables and other produce.
It would be an opportunity for people of all ages and abilities, particularly appealing to those who might not have the time for an allotment or vegetable plot of their own but do have an interest in growing their own food. Any produce grown would be shared by all taking part. It would also be an opportunity to promote the aims of the Transition Town to involve people in sustainable community projects.
If you are aware of any suitable plot which your organisation either owns or is responsible for and would wish to see developed in this way then please contact the following for further information or viewing.
Contact: Tel …07852286806.. Email m.m.appleton@btinternet.com
Thanks, Maggie
Guerilla gardening happens in London
and in Poland.
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What we need is spare bits of land like this:
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View Larger Map Close to the heart of Louth, in an area of high housing density, there is a plot of abandoned land. Sheltered by magnificant mature trees, a patch of rough grass is waiting to be turned into a Community Garden. Local residents will cultivate the ground, organically and with permaculture principles, to provide healthy vegetables and fruit. Well, it's a nice idea but the owner didn't agree, so we're off to find another plot. If you would like to join in and become part of Louth's first Community Garden scheme please Send an e-mail |
In a low energy and localised future food growing will again regain the central importance it once had in community life. It will be more common place to see food being grown in gardens, in towns and cities, and anywhere that people are around to look after it and eat it. There will be more people employed in growing, preserving, processing and supplying local food. There will be a shift from community members just being consumers, to being producer consumers, adding to the market diversity as well as taking from it.
A community garden can be a first step towards bringing about the changes needed to reach such a resilient local food future.
The best way for people to know that local food works is to see it happening. A community garden is a place that community members can visit and see sustainable food growing in action.
Once the motivation is there to do something on their own patches or to get involve in a different community project, there is the question of skills. In the past food growing skills (and seeds) were passed down from generation to generation, and children started to learn from a very early age. There have been a few generations missed in this process so a community garden could be used to reskill the community. To teach about species and varieties of fruit and vegetables, how to grow them, how to manage the soil so it locks in carbon and feeds the plants with the minimum of work. How to recycle natural resources and put them to work in the garden. How to save the seed so that the process can have the minimum of outside inputs, increasing its resilience.
Once established, a community garden becomes a meeting place for locally interested people and a place to visit for people inside and outside of the community to 'see how it can be done'.
So who is going to run this community garden? Might seem a simple answer but no less valid - members of the community! This specific site was identified by some local TTL members who live nearby. They are in the process of seeing who else in the area might be interested in helping in the garden. Beyond the immediate locality there are a range of people who might want to commit to an hour a week or a month to work on the garden. With allotment waiting lists growing a community garden would be a great way of gaining some experience(and produce) while waiting for your plot to come along. There are people in our comminities who have the skills and the knowledge but are no longer physically able to have their own plot but would love to pass their skills along and get involved in a community activity.
And how about resources? I have already mentioned the skills and man power available in a community. There are also many resources in a community which could become available to a social enterprise like a community garden. Timber, tools, green waste can all be put to good use in a community garden and are resources to be found in a town. In terms of money, the national lottery fund such projects and the local council have a community fund. Garden Organic provide advice and seeds for such projects and the local allotment association is a wealth of knowledge and experience.
So in summary a community garden can provide a first step on the way to a low energy more resilient food future for our community.
If anyone would like to get involved, have resources they can pledge, or knowledge and experience to share then please get in touch through the website or come along to our next TTL meeting.
Nick & Sarah
Canalside Environment Group, Oxford
