Capital Growth

Learning your ABSeeds

Universities are catching the food growing bug, with more and more edible gardens appearing on campuses. Now the ABSeed competition is offering them yet another incentive to get growing, explains Michael Dees.

The School of Oriental and African Studies was one of the first Universities to join the Capital Growth campaign to create 2012 new food growing spaces by 2012.  Its Good Food Society aims to introduce students to sustainable food, raise awareness of where food comes from, how it is produced and how it is used,and food growing is one of the main activities.

In 2008, a group of students got permission to turn a littered and overgrown piece of land into an edible garden. A grant from Capital Growth funded top soil, seeds, plants and tools, and open days on Saturdays were held for volunteers to help out in return for a share of the harvest. They now intend to expand the growing space to include a small forest garden, a soft fruit cage and on-site water harvesting.

SOAS is just one of a number of universities that have taken up the spade in the past few years, with other food-growing spaces at Roehampton, Birkbeck, LSE, Westminster, City and UCL.  Now schools, nurseries, colleges and universities could win a range of prizes including tools, raised beds, fruit trees, seeds and gift cards as part of Capital Growth’s ABSeed competition.
There is even the opportunity for two people from secondary schools or universities to spend a day shadowing top chefs at Fifteen London, the restaurant founded by Jamie Oliver to instil in staff and apprentices a passion for great food and a respect for the environment.

One of the winners of last year’s competition, which was open to primary schools, was South Haringey Infant School where pupils created a bug hotel to encourage insects. “This project has demonstrated how much can be achieved in a garden and provides an engaging and healthy environment  for pupils who may not have access to the outdoors at home,” says headteacher Raj Rotbcha. “They also got to taste the delicious produce, with enough potatoes being harvested to feed all of the 180 pupils.”

To register for the competition, visit www.capitalgrowth.org/abseed or contact Paola Guzman at paola@sustainweb.org or at 020 7837 1228. The deadline to register is 3 June 2011. Capital Growth is supported by the Mayor of London and the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund.

GROWING CALENDAR

april

  • Sowing season is now in full swing. Most can  be done outdoors, but start more tender crops indoors - squashes, courgettes  and cucumbers.  
  • It can be a wise investment to buy seedling  plants of crops such as tomatoes and chillies, as they are best started off early and require extra heat to germinate. 
  • If you start plants  off indoors, brush them with your hand whenever you pass – this helps to  ‘harden them off’, mimicking the action of the wind.

may

  • Prepare for planting out your squashes and  courgettes. Ideally add well-rotted manure or compost. 
  • Don’t forget the edible flowers, especially  the wonderful nasturtium. It thrives on neglect and you can eat both the  leaves and flowers.  
  • For bushy plants, pinch out the growing tips.  This works well for basil and chillies.

june

  • Take your time when watering – a deep soak,  less often, is far better than regular rushed sprinklings. 
  • If salad or herb crops are starting to  flower, pinch them off to prolong their use-able life. 
  • Apply netting over  ripening soft fruits. A barrier will deter  birds from feasting on forbidden fruit! Pick fruit to eat fresh, or for  juicing, jellies and jams.

Tom Moggach of City Leaf