Londoners dig in this March for biggest community gardening day

More than 60 spaces across London will be given 'green makeovers' as part of 'The Big Dig Day' project, taking place on Saturday 16 March. The event is designed to give Londoners a taste of food growing and  it will see existing community food gardens throwing open their doors to an estimated 2,000 people who want to get involved. The idea which started in London last year, is now being rolled out across the country with over 200 gardens opening their doors across 27 towns and cities.

People are being asked to register their interest in helping out on the day by visiting www.bigdig.org.uk/london. On the website people can find participating spaces local to them, read further details of what help is needed on the day and register their details with the space they would like to help out.

Tasks that spaces need help with include clearing ground, building raised beds and planting seeds and seedlings. No experience is necessary and volunteers are sure to learn new skills in the process.

Seb Mayfield, London Food Link, said: 'One thousand five hundred Londoners volunteered on The Big Dig day last year which was fantastic. As a result all the participating spaces benefitted whilst volunteers were able to get active while supporting their local community garden sites and help make London a greener city.'

Queen's Park Allotment project (Capital Growth space no. 1084) in Brent is one of the spaces set to benefit from the Big Dig. Miko Adam Kando, coordinator of the project said: 'The Queen's Park Allotment was part of last year's Big Dig day with great success. Twenty-five volunteers helped us on the day giving us a great kick-start to the new growing season. We can't wait for this year's event and are looking forward to meeting more enthusiastic locals on the day.'

The Big Dig Day in London is being run by Capital Growth, London's food-growing network that successfully supported 2012 community food-growing spaces by the end of 2012. Launched in 2008 as a partnership initiative between London Food Link, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the Big Lottery's Local Food programme, the scheme now has more than 2020 spaces and involves more than 100,000 people.

Veronica Wadley, the Mayor's Volunteering Ambassador said: "This brilliant initiative will revitalise a multitude of green spaces across London and equip our army of Team London volunteers with some fantastic gardening skills. I hope as many people as possible get involved and make a real difference to our communities.”

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For more information and images please contact Seb Mayfield – seb@sustainweb.org or 0203 5596 777 / 07816852206

1. Capital Growth was launched in 2008 to provide practical and financial help to Londoners wanting to set up or expand food growing spaces.
The scheme is funded by the Mayor of London and by the Local Food programme, a £57.5 million funding programme supported by the Big Lottery Fund. It is managed by London Food Link, part of the environment charity, Sustain. The programme was awarded a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Commendation in 2010 for its success in getting communities growing. For further information go to www.capitalgrowth.org

2. Capital Growth has spaces in a diverse range of places including schools, a prison, on roofs, in skips, on canal banks and on housing estates. Some spaces are engaged in social enterprise and bee keeping whilst providing skills and training.

3. Boosting the amount of locally grown food in London has a range of health and environmental benefits, such as improving access to nutritious, low cost food in urban areas and helping to increase flood protection. It also reduces food miles and cuts carbon emissions. There is rising interest in self-grown food and inner London boroughs have waiting lists for allotments that can be decades long.

4. As a result of last year's successful Big Dig event in London, The
Big Dig is now a nationwide campaign aiming to find 10,000 more volunteers for community food-growing gardens. Managed by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, and funded by the Social Investment Business, the campaign is operating in 27 towns and cities in the UK.

5. The Mayor sees Capital Growth as a key part of his Team London initiative to encourage Londoner's to get engaged with volunteering in their communities. Team London is the Mayor's ambitious programme to mobilise an army of volunteers across the capital to improve life in London through programmes that will increase opportunities for youth and improve quality of life by cleaning and greening London and building stronger neighbourhoods. Since 2008, the Mayor's programmes have galvanised tens of thousands of Londoners into action and Team London is working to galvanise the thousands of people who volunteered or where inspired by the Olympics volunteers to start or continue to do something great for their city.
www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon