Capital Growth

Growing pride in London’s housing estates

London is home to an estimated 750,000 housing association properties, each hiding potential growing spaces. Gaby De Sena reports on how residents are transforming disused areas into flourishing allotments

Case study

The Cranbrook Estate, Tower Hamlets (Rosie Boycott pictured above with estate residents). The playground on the Cranbrook Estate was dangerous, disused and a magnet for disorderly behaviour, when a group of residents who had heard about Capital Growth won a grant to turn the space into a garden. They were awarded £750, to which Tower Hamlets council added £5000, and a local builders merchant, Trads, donated scaffolding planks for the 10 raised beds which are now full of vegetables. The beds are communal so everyone takes responsibility for their upkeep, with food being shared among the gardeners and any surplus given to visitors.

Amid the concrete and the noise it can be easy to forget about our city’s potential for growing healthy and sustainable food, which is why the Capital Growth campaign wants to reconnect us urban folk with our food and environment.

As our regular readers will know, the campaign – run in partnership by London Food Link, the Mayor of London and the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund – aims to create 2,012 new growing plots in London by 2012. At the end of June, it launched the ‘Edible Estates’ competition to find the best community food-growing projects on London’s housing estates, with prizes such as a £250 B&Q gift card, a tool set from Bulldog Tools, a worm café from Wiggly Wigglers and places on the Capital Growth training programme.

“We know from people in estates who are already growing that it can reap huge benefits,” Rosie Boycott, chair of London Food, said of the competition. An example is the Metropolitan Housing Association, one of the first organisations to sign up to the Capital Growth campaign with a pledge to identify 20 plots for its residents. Impressively, it already has five spaces up and running.

And it’s not just about food. Alongside the lettuces and tomatoes grows a sense of community and satisfaction, as well as pride. Many areas which were once troubled by anti-social behaviour and neglect have experienced a positive change thanks to their gardens.

With some London boroughs facing 40-year waiting lists for allotments, there is no better time to take matters into our own green-fingered hands. So the next time you pass an abandoned space, don’t ignore it – you could transform it into an abundant growing plot in no time.

The Capital Growth team will be highlighting the many benefits of food growing in housing estates, such as health, inclusion and sustainable development, at the Edible Estates conference, taking place on 19 October. www.capitalgrowth.org/edibleestates/conference

Growing calendar

October
If you fancy some fruit, start shopping. Specialist nurseries start sending out their ‘bare root’ fruit trees and bushes in November. Protect patches of exposed soil from the extreme weather to come. Green manures such as grazing rye are best for larger plots. Make leaf mould: put fallen leaves in a bin liner stabbed with small holes, add some water if dry, and leave for a year or so.

November
Plant broad beans, garlic and round-seeded peas, so that they’re well-established before sustained colder weather. Protect outdoor crops from frost with fleece, cloches or even layers of newspaper or cardboard overnight. Gear up for winter pruning of any fruit on your plot. Always prune in dry weather, to reduce risk of fungal disease.

December
Put your feet up, and browse the seed catalogues. Get orders in early, but resist the temptation to buy more than you need! Feed the birds. Provide a squirrel-proof feeder and shallow bowl of drinking water. To build your stocks, take hardwood cuttings of soft fruit such as currants and gooseberries. Clumps of established rhubarb are also ready for dividing.

Tom Moggach