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In early spring this year I was lucky enough to be able to move from living in a flat in a town centre with no private outdoor space to a cottage in the countryside with a generous garden. On moving in I was presented with what appeared a wonderful blank canvas opportunity. The previous owner of the property had nurtured two large perennial borders in the front garden, by all accounts caringly weeding, mulching, pruning and dividing his beds. As he grew older the beds became less tended and when my landlord came to buy the property, sadly they were overgrown and unmanageable, so he decided to clear them completely. The landlord gave me the choice of either he grassed it or left it as was, two strips of bare ground. Being a renting tenant knowing I would not be living at the property forever I did not want to invest in expensive perennial plants and shrubs but was keen to get my hands dirty in the garden and not just have lawn to look at. I decided to use the beds as a vegetable patch.
I had some previous experience of growing veg through helping my Dad out in his garden when growing up but had not been involved for some years. I felt a little research was needed and picked up a cheap and simple book on growing veg and looking at what was relatively easy to grow with potentially good yields, ordered a range of seeds and bought some basic tools. I dug, raked, planted, watered watched and waited and vegetables appeared. Of course not everything simple grew and bore fruit. Hares visiting from the neighbouring fields nibbled away the baby beetroot plants and slugs and snails accounted for the loss of several junior courgette plants. But these losses made the success taste even better.
By getting in the garden and growing vegetables I found myself paying more attention to the day-to-day happenings of the world outside the window. What was the weather going to do that day, did I need to cover the new potato plants from a late frost or were baby salad plants wilting after a hot day? I learned which animals were visiting the garden and what they were after figuring out that very basic low netting and leaving an area of longer grass at the back of the garden was enough to keep the hares from eating my food and a circle of sand around the young courgette plants was effective in giving them a decent start before any mollusc onslaught. I spent more time outside away from screens and books, moved more and felt fitter and stronger from the physical work. Then there is the excitement of harvesting home grown veg: unearthing potatoes, pulling carrots and picking salads and then eating it within the hour felt hugely satisfying. Home grown produce tastes better, has no food miles, I my case is completely free of any chemicals as I have grown organically and reduces the weekly shop.
So what’s the point of this rambling about me? Going from growing nothing to quite a large amount made me think about the value of being able to get outside and grow and the lack of opportunity available to others. From speaking to friends about my vegetable growing, it seems that many of them (and perhaps this is symptomatic of my and younger generations) like the idea of growing their own food but either lacked the confidence or space to do so. Potentially much of our population, especially those in urban environments have become increasingly disconnected from growing and lack an understanding of where the fruit and veg that they put of their plates (if any at all!) comes from. In a world where sustainability and health are two of the favourite buzzwords, what is more sustainable and healthy than growing and eating your own food? Of course the vast majority of people will not grow or rear everything they will eat but by growing some of it they will receive some health benefits and contribute to a more sustainable way of life.
I realise not everybody is as lucky as me in having and large private space to grow in. There is a demand that is not always supplied, in areas of some towns and cities there are lengthy waiting lists to get access to an allotment garden. However in other areas allotments go begging. An allotment is a huge commitment, takes up some serious space and perhaps not the best format for young or beginner growers due to its size and the possible intimidation factor that brings. I feel we need to bring more people into contact with growing and give them the opportunities to benefit from it as I have done, both physically and mentally by providing more accessible and manageable growing spaces and teach the skills needed to be able to make the most of them.
Growing teaches us how to care for living things, the need for perseverance in responding to a failure by finding the cause and treating or trying another option, it allows us to grow as individuals. The psychological health benefits are widely recognised and growing spaces are often included in health centres such as the Swansea Maggie’s Centre which terra firma were involved in developing. But in the same way we care for our physical health through diet and exercise should we not be looking to prevent mental health problems first and cure second by encouraging everyone, not just the sick, to take part in therapeutic activities like growing? In fact physical and mental health are connected and growing can contribute positively to both.
On some of the school projects I have recently worked on I was pleased that we have been asked to include growing areas, usually in the form of raised beds and school is an obvious way to reach large numbers of young people. It would be great to see horticulture being given the same value as more traditional disciplines such as food and materials technology or sport. In public space as part of residential developments we are occasionally asked to include growing space however this is usually on particularly large schemes, often in rural areas and often driven by local demand. There does not seem to be a regular requirement from planning authorities to provide growing space and there is a lack of it in urban environments in the UK.
For the benefits listed above I feel growing space is close to being as important as play space but the emphasis on providing for play is currently far higher and more formalised in the requirements for LEAPs and LAPs associated with housing developments. As landscape architects I feel we should push to provide more growing spaces within public space and work with communities on finding ways to get a greater proportion of our population outdoors and growing. They do it in Todmorden, West Yorksire where community group Incredible Edible have turned the whole town into a vegetable garden with produce shared by local residents illustrating how possible it is to incorporate growing more regularly in our landscapes. https://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/home
