Watering in the first salads & seedlings

For my husband Tom and I one of the most important issues to tackle the ‘peak oil’ issue is local food- “we live opposite a huge Asda- but are committed to shopping local! So we avoid Asda and buy from our local shops- the fruit and veg shop, the health food shop for things such as milk, veggie sausages, loo roll etc and the local bakery for bread and such, we also have an organic box delivery. People always ask if its more expensive and to be honest I’ve found I spend less (I’ve been ‘non-supermarket shopping’ for 5 years now) as I don’t buy ‘special offer’ extras and I’m not tempted by rows and rows of stuff that I don’t need!”

We are now taking their commitment to local food up a level, by starting a community food garden. We approached the council about a piece of ‘wasteland’ next door to their home, which was being used as a dumping ground for old mattresses, bike bits, bags of rubbish etc. We found out the land was owned by a local Housing Association, and after putting forward a proposal and design, the Housing Association have now granted them permission to use the land for a community garden.

“Its better than an allotment, as its near by, there are no waiting lists and we are all (neighbours and Transition group friends) working together, so lessening the work load” Rachael told us.

With no funding, We set to work with some funding requests, and were awarded a start-up grant of £250 from the Housing Association which was used to clear the site, buy tools and a new gate. We have also received £50 from the Action Earth Fund which paid for some yummy food for the BBQ at the recent garden ‘action day’ (where volunteers cleared up the site and began planting).

Rachael building the new gate

We have planted in fruit trees and bushes, potatoes, onions and have lots of salad stuff waiting to be planed in to the raised beds which are next on the ‘to do’ list.

Tom plants the first apple tree

“The focus is very much about community building and growing food- we see this as the most important response to peak oil and global warming- we need to start sharing resources and helping one another!”

The land before the community garden