In recent years we have seen an increased interest from people to have a space to garden, whether it is to grow beautiful flowers or to fulfil a more self-sufficient desire of growing vegetables. Gardening by the masses suffered a dip during the late twentieth century compared to the pre- and post-war years, when it was seen as a necessity if Britain was going to be able to feed the nation.
Before the Second World War, Britain, as it does today, sourced much of its food from abroad. This included wheat and corn from the United States and meat from South America and New Zealand. During the Second World War, Britain came very close to starving due to the German U-boat submarine attacks on our supply ships [1]. Along with rationing, the British Government encouraged everyone to grow as much of their own produce as they could to help combat the short supplies. Whilst we are not today in a state of world war, there are arguably still important debates surrounding whether countries should ensure that their food security can be met by their own means of production. The World Health Organisation states that food security is a “complex sustainable issue” [2] and that arguments surrounding it range from the view that it is of paramount importance to the position that food security is no longer an issue due to global trade networks [2]. Importing food from abroad also has a much higher carbon footprint than growing our own in the UK.
While the debate continues about the extent to which countries need to provide for themselves, there is no denying that, at the moment, individuals are taking an increased interest in gardening. The Friends of the Earth magazine, Earthmatters, reported in autumn 2010 about a school gardening programme established in Portsmouth [3]. The Charter Academy in Portsmouth is part of a programme where schools are trying to encourage students to get involved in growing vegetables on plots of land around their school [3]. The plots of land that students of The Charter Academy cultivate are situated in close proximity to tower blocks and busy roads [3], which emphasises the diffusing lines of city and nature. For so long we have externalised nature from the city, often seeing the city as superior and indestructible, that the growth of city gardening will help to illustrate that nature is all around us, intertwined in our daily lives and we can very rarely dictate how it behaves.
The project in Portsmouth Schools, which is called Grow to Eat Well, was devised by the local Friends of the Earth Group and grew out of the promotion of schools having their own composting [3]. The programme has found that many students are eager to learn about gardening and keen to spend time outside with nature [3]. In the Charter Academy, vegetables are being sold to teachers, indicating how successful the programme has been [3]. Programmes such as these are vital to encourage children to interact with nature, especially if they do not usually have access to green spaces. Many of us grow up in the confines of city walls with limited access to green spaces, so school allotments help to establish a sense of importance for the green spaces we do have and the need to preserve them, for both beauty and necessities such as food production.
Any easy way to get into gardening would be to start home composting your food waste to create a cheap and environmentally friendly compost to put on your plants.
References
[1] The Second World War Experience Centre [Online]. Available from http://www.war-experience.org/education/homefront/food/worksheets.pdf. Accessed 4th January 2011.
[2] The World Health Organisation (2010) [Online]. Available from http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/. Accessed 4th January 2011.
[3] Earthmatters, Friends of the Earth supporter magazine (2010), issue 77, London.
