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allotments, Big Dig, botanical, canals, Community Gardens, environment, gardening, Greater Manchester, growing food, London, natural dyeing, sustainability, urbanism, Wendell Berry
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating.”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
The end of the summer and the beginning of autumn is a time for harvesting the efforts of the year in growing terms. The Edible Open Gardens Day in London organised by Capital Growth, on again last weekend, shows just how popular community gardening has become, particularly for growing things to eat. The Edible Open Gardens Day was this time part of The Big Dig’s work to encourage more people to volunteer funded by the Cabinet Office’s Social Action Fund and co-ordinated by Sustain:the alliance for better food and farming. London was one of six UK locations taking part – the others being Brighton, Coventry, Greater Manchester, Middlesbrough and Sheffield.
Floating allotment, Kingsland Basin, Hackney, London
Cordwainers College, Hackney, London
Cordwainers College, Hackney, London, dye plants
Cordwainers College, Hackney, London, natural dyeing
Cordwainers College, Hackney, London, rust dyeing workshop
Canal Club garden, Tower Hamlets, London
Canal Club garden, Tower Hamlets, London
Canal Club garden, Tower Hamlets, London, Bangladeshi gourds
Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London
Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London
Mind allotment garden in Haringey, harvested and re-sown for green manure
Hulme Community Garden, Manchester
Hulme Community Garden, Manchester
Other growing initiatives this year have included the Chelsea Fringe events in London during the Chelsea Flower Show, which included a trail around Islington.
Islington Gardeners’ Forgotten Corner, the Whitehall Park Garden, Islington, London
Grenville Community Allotment Garden, Islington, London
Birdbox city in Islington, London
New River Garden, Islington, London
Many allotments and community gardens now take part in the London Open Squares weekend and open in London and all around the UK as part of the Yellow Book Scheme.
Downings Road Moorings, Southwark, London, one of 7 floating barge gardens
Downings Road Moorings, Southwark, London, one of 7 floating barge gardens
Regent’s Park Allotment, London
Quinoa, Regent’s Park allotment, London
I thought I would also look back on some other ingenious sights I have seen over the summer in London, where people are growing in small spaces, finishing with more views of the wonderful Queen Elizabeth Hall community roof garden, now in its second year.
Hertford Union Canal, London
Hertford Union Canal, Hackney, London
Lea Valley, London
River Lea, Hackney Wick, London
Peace Garden alongside Hampstead Heath Overground Station, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London, courgette flowers
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden, South Bank, London
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
See also:
http://www.capitalgrowth.org/events/opengardens/
http://www.bigdig.org.uk/news/
http://www.kindling.org.uk/node/781
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Hi. I love the birdbox city and the colors of the canal boat! Jane
You have a great blog. Thanks!
Awesome post! It’s like an adventure lol. Thanks for the post!
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Thank you Diana, it’s so inspiring and encouraging to see the fruits of growing projects all over. A lovely way to say goodbye to the summer and settle into autumn nesting with plans and ideas for next spring!
I am trying to keep summer going as long as possible!
Lovely images and quotes Diana. There is something really humble and homely about the way plants grow and how people tend them at close quarters. A sort of un-selfconsciousness and almost sweetness comes through in so many of these images, the little blackboards and the plants. What a feast! thank you.
A feast is a lovely way to describe it – thanks!
This post was a full adventure. Thank you for the colors and shapes so rich they can almost be smelled, and especially for delightful touches like Birdbox City.
Thanks for looking and appreciating!
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Brilliant post as always
Thanks for the encouragement Neil!
What a wonderful post! Great photos full of inspiring places full of ideas. Many thanks for sharing them.
Thanks – I think you must have inspired me!
Loevly post, Diana. I have seen similar bird box cities in parks in Norwich too. I don’t know why it is but urban allotments always cheer me up – they seem such hopeful, positive places.
I agree – I think there is a making the best of things attitude which is very positive. Glad you liked it.
Great images Diana – love birdbox city! Also, the Wendell Berry quotes and these urban greening initiatives made me think of Patrick Geddes’s Environment Society in the Old Town of Edinburgh. They would cultivate urban waste ground by making small gardens and planting trees, vegetables and fruit. Way back in the 1880s!
Thank you for that – I missed an opportunity to mention Geddes, our hero!
Superb!
Glad you liked it Gerry!
That’s really great. It calls to mind a couple of things I’ve read in the past. One are some journal papers by environmental pragmatist Andrew Light about urban gardening in New York. The other was a collection of essays about the Cuban government instigating an urban gardening policy, that saw that all green space – including window boxes – be utilised for growing food, as a response to trade embargos. Alas I can’t find that book, (either in my flat, or online), but if you happen across it, it might be worth browse.
Thanks for some further reading suggestions! I know it is a big thing in New York but don’t know of Andrew Light specifically so I’ll check him out. The Cuban book sounds great too – they have always been ahead of the game!
Beautiful post, Diana. Simply that. Much hope, much love, in all those flowers and produce, on boats and on land. Thank you
Thanks Kathryn, there have been visual and edible delights all summer!