Community Gardens

Community Gardens

I’m working for the council in Nottingham. “Here take this”. Jim, the foreman of the local parks gardening team throws me something shiny. “It’s a golden key”. He says with a smile. “With this key you can get access to any padlocked council owned area in the town, look after it well”.

This was a big responsibility for me. From my first days there the foreman dished out responsibilities, some of which I rose to, others made me crumble. In my six months of working with them, they had trusted me to look after hundreds of budgies and care for the bowling greens as well as allowing me on the road in a tractor and trailer, all of which I achieved with honours. Then there were times when I was asked to dig trenches five feet deep by a mile long, across wasteland. If that was a test, I failed and spent the day watching trains go past on the local freight line from the colliery. I was ready for the responsibility of a key though- it’s wasn’t too physically demanding. “First thing I need you to do”, continued Jim, “is to define the edges of the paths on the allotment sites around the town.”

Off I went in my tractor to hole up the traffic and visit the first of five allotment sites. I pushed the key into the lock of the heavy steel gate, and with a satisfying click, I was in to another fabulous world of lush green growth, recycled pallets, old plastic bottles, manure heaps and a very knowledgeable group of gardeners.

The allotment sites were created in the war when it was necessary to Dig for Victory. Food was scarce because of the lack of workers, but in the area where I was working the mines had to stay open to keep producing the coal to make the trains run and to smelt the iron to produce tanks, planes and bombs and anything else the war asked. The allotment sites were all near to largely populated areas, and over the years had matured to be central focal points for the communities. Home made huts, greenhouses and polytunnels were dotted around the allocated sites and everyone on the allotments were on hand to give tips and advice in the art of vegetable and fruit growing to their neighbours. My job was to re-instate the edges of the paths with a spade. It should only take a few days to shovel the fallen soil, but I managed to spin it out for a few weeks, as there was so much to learn from the men working the land.

Being close to the houses meant that the gardeners only needed a wheelbarrow for their tools and picked products. They could get home in two minutes with enough vegetables to feed their street.

The golden key meanwhile played a big part in my teenage years mainly due to the fact that it unlocked the cricket pavilions on the parks, where I would sleep undisturbed for hours on foggy mornings.

Boom times

The boom times in the economy caused allotments to fade in popularity in some areas and unfortunately it was more profitable to develop the land, destroying the culture and history of the social allotment. So much so that nearly a whole generation have lost the art of working with the land. Other social initiatives such as the LETS system of bartering without exchanging any money dwindled in interest as people opted to buy new instead of making do and mending. With the recession though has come a resurgence of interest and popularity in community based projects as we realise just how important these are for a healthy life. The growth of new allotments around Ireland is unprecedented with new initiative springing up in all the counties, the old skills are being re-taught.

Comparing the allotment to a Community garden

There is a bit of confusion about comparing allotments to the new trend of community gardens and although they both serve to supply people with healthy home grown food and a more active lifestyle, there are a few differences between the two.

Allotment

An allotment is a green space, which is divided up into small plots of land of which individuals, or families rent from the town council, county council or entrepreneurial landowners and farmers who put unused land back into being productive in return for financial payments, usually on a yearly basis.

Community garden

A community garden on the other hand is more focused on communally growing crops. Individuals are guided by more experienced gardeners and all work together as a group. The produce from the community garden can be divided among those involved in growing the particular produce, divided equally amongst the members and in some cases sold to raise funds to enhance the facilities on the site. They provide spaces for community interactions and social events, for learning and creativity, for experiencing nature and for exercise. Community gardens bring people together, build relationships, re-connect people to nature and the soil. They can be places to educate young people about where food comes from and how it is grown. Community gardens help subsidise people who are on low incomes, saving money on regular trips to the shops It has been demonstrated that the growing of food, either as a community, on an allotment or in your own back garden can build self-esteem, confidence and encourages medium levels of exercise.

The titles are different but the positive results speak for themselves. Statistics from the Cuban crisis back in the late 1990’s speaks volumes. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country went into a severe economic crisis as Soviet subsidies dried up, generating severe food and fuel shortages. People were forced to slash their calorie intake, eat more natural food and to travel everywhere on foot or bicycle.

According to a study in the Journal of Epidemiology, between 1997 and 2002, deaths in Cuba caused by diabetes declined by 51%, coronary heart disease mortality dropped 35% and stroke mortality by 20%. Another interesting point about this is that as the economy improves, obesity is rebounding. Around 30% of adult Cubans are now overweight and a quarter have a tendency toward obesity.

More reading

There are a couple of websites where you can get more information about community gardens. GIY Ireland, set up by author Michael Kelly, which has groups all over the country and are setting a couple up in Donegal this year. There is also the Irish Community Food Growing (ICFG), which is an all-Ireland network of Community Food Initiatives (CFIs) – community gardens, allotments, school gardens, education gardens and market gardens.