Food Glorious Food: growing spaces across Wessex
17.02.10Would-be gardeners across Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire will soon be reaping the rewards from new community allotments developed by the National Trust.
Nationally the Trust has already created over 300 new allotment plots, in the first year of its campaign to create 1000 plots for local communities to grow their own fruit and vegetables. In Wessex, 33 new plots have been created, bringing the total to 97 across the region and the Trust is committed creating a further 114 in the region, reaching over 200 by the end of 2011.
“This year we have been working with local communities to identify where allotments are needed,” said Carol Holt, who leads the Trust’s Food Group in Wessex. “We’ve been restoring many of our kitchen gardens, as well as opening up new allotments on agricultural land owned by the Trust or on vacant land close to our properties.
“A lot has already happened but this work is ongoing, and our garden teams and volunteers will be very busy in the coming year developing new gardens and allotments for use by communities. It’s a really exciting opportunity for community groups and individuals without their own gardens to grow their own fruit and vegetables.”
Kingston Lacy in Dorset has been leading the way this year. The gardening team has been restoring the old kitchen garden to create new allotments where they are now growing carrots, beetroot, cabbage, broad beans and more for use in the restaurant, with any surplus being sold to visitors. They have also been breeding pigs for the first time - as living weeders and rotavators.
Six new plots for less-abled people are ready for planting and the Trust is getting local schools and community groups involved.40 new plots are also planned for 2011. Three trial plots next to the restaurant in the main garden are ready to plant with Swiss Chard, Pak Choi, Radish, Beetroot, and Runner Beans, and will be used to demonstrate how veg can be decorative as well as tasty. Visitors will be encouraged to help with the planting and ongoing care, ask questions and can keep up-to-date with progress via Twitter (@Kingstonlacygarden).
There are 24 allotments at Langton Matravers, Purbeck, Dorset, managed by a community allotment association. This was a community-led initiative and the the Trust’s tenant farmer agreed to give up some of his land for growing fruit and vegetables.
The allotment initiative was launched nationally in February 2009, in partnership with the Landshare website – www.landshare.net - in response to demand for growing spaces for people to grow their own fruit and vegetables, meet like-minded people and to simply get some fresh air and exercise.
Interested would-be gardeners can find out about new growing spaces available throughout the UK on the Landshare website, as well as those being created by the National Trust. The website, set up by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, acts as a ‘match-making’ database of keen growers and those who have land available. The Trust is also posting updates via a blog as and when new sites become available.
www.landshare.net
