For the love of all gardens, all hail the NGS!!!

I'm actually going to write a post about gardening!! Well, sort of. I'm certainly going to write a post about gardens.

Every year I make an effort to visit an NGS garden or several. I do this for various reasons but mainly because I do love a garden and I really like to see what people are doing, how they're using plants and why they are using them the way they do. It's fascinating to see how people put together their gardens, be they designed in a specific way, or with a nod to a specific garden genre or even a specific garden. Sometimes the plant pallette is the definitive design brief, be that English cottage garden or jungle, or sometimes it can be the size of the space that defines the design. And sometimes there is no design brief and its a persons very individual collection of plants that creates a garden that is opened.

I have visited some spectacular gardens, ranging from urban jungles to cottage gardens, to ex-Chelsea show gardens and productive biodynamic gardens to garden squares and designed landscapes. Gardens that have taken years to evolve and gardens that have been designed and installed in mere weeks. Gardens that are entire life's works, including gardens of passionate plant collectors where one species is very much in the fore, to gardens that are still evolving and new. Gardens belonging to young and old, to men, women, couples and families. But most importantly, and here's the thing, to people who are passionate about their outdoor space and the way in which it is used. 

To gardeners. To growers. To plantspeople. Call them what you will, these are the people behind the gardens. Those who work tirelessly in the days and weeks before they open for that one day, to create their idea of heaven for you to see and wonder around, notebook and camera in hand. They make cakes, prepare plants for selling and often produce leaflets with planting lists and plans so you can take inspiration from their gardens away with you.

And they do this for love. Proceeds, which this year are £2.637 million, go to a variety of charities, including MacMillan Cancer Care and the Marie Curie nurses, as well gardening charities such as Perennial and supporting the Garden Museum to have a garden intern each year. They are Macmillan and Marie Curies biggest donators, giving each £500,000 this year. 

I have never opened my garden, but my mother opened hers the year before she died. It was, ridiculously, to her the biggest achievement of her life. She felt her garden was far from 'finished' but had been encouraged by a friend who also opens her garden each year, and it was an enormous success. Teas were drunk, cake was eaten, plants were sold and over 200 people visited and stood in awe of the spaces that had been created in 5 short years. The rill and pond, the woodland garden, the kitchen garden, the rose arbour and the loosely named orchard, were visited, discussed, photographed and enjoyed by a line of people who were genuinely interested and pleased to see what was going on. For a woman who had spent years teaching and inspiring young people, to think this was the biggest achievement she had ever had was a little ridiculous, but I think it shows the passion of the hundreds or maybe thousands or millions of gardeners who create these beautiful spaces that we so rarely get to see. 

Ironically less than a year later we were relying on Macmillan nurses to see Mum through the last days and hours of her life, and they occasionally retreated to the garden for a tea break, aware of the sad irony of the situation themselves whilst returning to her to tell her what they had seen, or to bring her a posy of what was flowering in her beloved patch at that moment.

Occasionally a dissenting voice arises about the NGS and the gardens that open, as if the dissenter expects to see something designed to Chelsea Flower Show standards behind each entrance. To those I say, behave!! These are people's gardens first and foremost. They are little pieces of paradise. Visit with open minds and be prepared to understand the people as much as their garden. Marvel in the fact that in their spare time this is what they do, what they love and be happy that they want to share it with you, even though they are often terrified. Understand they are often baring their souls by opening this space, in a way that only an amateur artist accepted for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy might understand. Be kind, be mindful and suggest thoughts but be mindful of open criticism, particularly if you aren't find of it yourself!!

But most of all I say, in a bizarrely proud and British way, visit these gardens, these people, these souls. Buy some tea, take some photos, support those charities and enjoy the gardens whilst being proud of the charities you are helping to support.

To find your local gardens visit www.ngs.org.uk, where you can also discover how to go about opening your own garden to visitors through the NGS, whilst supporting their charities.

Expanding our environmental view

This is a piece I wrote for the People's Republic of Stokes Croft but I've also shared it here as I think it's an interesting topic that many don't quite see. The environment is not just land in the countryside, or parks and gardens, but it's avery space we inhabit, icluding our homes and so we need to expand our view of environmental issues to cover everything that covers. Which, I might add, is pretty much everything.....

In 1980 the right to buy council housing became law in the new Housing Act and thousands of people up and down the country achieved what they had never thought possible-a home that they owned. Little wrong with that  I hear you cry but in reality what happened was that, instead of reinvesting the monies raised by building new social housing for a population that was growing exponentially, that money was ring fenced by the then Tory government, and the growth of building of social homes has steadily declined ever since, whilst the prices of housing has risen at rate that is almost unbelievable. With land being seen as an asset, it’s cost has risen and average house prices, which includes the prices of all those once council houses, have risen alongside that at a rate that soon will make home owner ship by anyone other than the wealthy impossible. Average house prices in 1977 were still less than £10,000 where today the average price is around £190.00 nationally and in London and the South East that figure rises to just over £400,000.

Of course for the generation that were able to buy their council homes this has lead to the possibility of making huge sums of money on homes that were sold for enormously more than they were purchased for and these homes are now a part of the national housing stock and sold as such, meaning that they are now generally not affordable homes at all. Indeed the governments’s idea of an affordable home is one that is 20% less than its average cost which is still completely out of the average wageholders budget of £26,000 per year. With mortgage companies generally asking for at least a 5% deposit and often far more we have created a situation where we will have future generations renting and never being able to get onto the property ladder, already saddled with huge debts from university fees and relying on more and more unscrupulous landlords as need for housing outweighs availability.

Constantly we hear the cry that we must leave the world a better place for our children and our children’s children. That we must care for greenbelt, encourage more conservation areas and SSSI but rarely do we see housing mentioned as a part of this. However, how can it not be? Our environment is not just the outdoors, the countryside or parks, but it is everything we live in. It is our cafes, those areas in city centres between buildings, that grassed area behind the fence on an estate. Our environment is the space in which we live.

So on Stokes Croft, Bristol’s independent district where creativity is at the centre of so many lives, how can we look at a building that is threatened with a London developer’s plan of gentrification as any other than an environmental issue. Stokes croft, the area known for its incredible squats, its street art and its independent spirit, who fought as a community to keep Tesco at bay cannot be the place to put a gated community in any way. In fact, frankly, gated communities, designed with mainly safety and security as its main criteria, cannot possibly help maintain any form of independent spirit. The fact that only 7% of the dwellings will be affordable and that is likely to be just the 20% lower rate rather than social housing, in an area where the housing crisis can be seen every day, on the streets, ought to be seen as a scandal and a disaster for our future generations, rather than a positive solution to a building that has been crumbling for many years.

Positive solutions need to be the way forwards, looking at how we ensure people are safe and secure in homes they can afford and in communities where they feel they are safe and secure. Rather than continually looking at constant development at the outer edges of our cities of box type homes, we need to look at the building stock within our cities, leaving the greenbelt alone for our ever growing population, and looking at the amount of buildings that could be turned into decent homes within the city, where people will be able to be car free, and rather than looking at bus routes that stretch ever further out of the city, the routes can concentrate on the areas that are already populated. With a larger population living within city boundaries, parks budgets and budgets for urban landscaping could increase, helping the city to cope with rising temperatures due to our changing climate. 

With all this in mind surely at the centre of the Carriageworks plan should be community. The Carriageworks Action Group and Knightstone Housing have put together a plan with community at it’s heart, and that must be the plan that is implemented at the very least. Imagine a beautiful city centre community building, with homes that are affordable and with the quantity of social housing that Bristol city Council recommends in all housing schemes of 30%-40% available to people struggling to pay the ever increasing private rents in the area. Imagine that it has beautiful and productive gardens that are open for the entire community of Stokes Croft to use and which people can safely use as a path through to the area at the back of the building 24 hours a day. With small shops and workshops built in at affordable rents on the ground floor, it can also become a centre for micro businesses to begin and flourish, creating a truly local economy and holding the money spent within that economy, adding to it’s wealth, both financial and creative.

This should not be a dream. This is the vision of green and sustainable living that we must move towards if we are to create a world that we are proud to leave for our children. As a species we must stop looking at houses as assets and begin to look at them as homes. Only then can we leave a planet that we are proud of for future generations.

The recognition of confusion

Yesterday one of the papers decided it was a good idea to let us all know that supermarkets that sell daffs have been asked to make sure that people are aware that they aren't a vegetable and therefore not to eat them. And needless to say on social media there was an immediate backlash, with comments such as who "would be so stupid" abounding. And I guess to us, to the converted who know what ingredients look like and understand that narcissi are poisonous, it's pretty basic knowledge and something we are unlikely to do. But, the question is, what if you don't.

What if you don't cook from scratch? 

What if you don't recognise certain veg? 

What if you can't read the label?

Now some might raise their eyebrows at these questions but let me tell you a tale of an afternoon I had last year.

During Food Connections Festival in Bristol there is an awesome series of lunches run by, among others, Fareshare's Surplus Supper Club. The food is cooked by the chefs from the supper club from food that sound otherwise be wasted, along with several people from the immediate community, which in this case was the Silai Centre in Easton, an amazing place where there is a nursery, the Single Parent Action Network (SPAN) offices and several other community organisations. The ladies who had helped the chefs were all Somali, and they told us some things that really made me sit up and think. The most shocking and sad of these things for me was that whilst they feel they're struggling to be a part of the community, that there are also huge issues surrounding food. One lady described attending a class where they were to make leek and potato soup, and how she had felt in that class not recognising a leek, let alone what to do with it. Not knowing which end was to eat, whether any of it should be thrown away or if parts of it were poisonous. And then knowing that her English wasn't good enough to be able to ask someone. It was clear this was causing serious issues both for this lady and her friends and fortunately the SPAN had picked up on the issues and begun classes that were accessible to this community. But what of the many other pockets of new communities across the city or, actually, countrywide? 

I can't imagine being in that place, and I genuinely hope neither I or anyone I know ever are. Feeding ourselves, our families and loved ones should be something we can take for granted. And more importantly something we are prepared to help people with if we see them struggling. Imagine not feeling that you could feed your family on top of the struggles of a new country and not being able to access help to change that.

As Emma Cooper has pointed out today in her blog, Chinese Chives don't look that dissimilar to Daffs just before they break into flower and let's assume that the public health body that asked for this to be done has done so because people have made the dreadful mistake already. Suddenly it's a truly tragic and human story, that could be touching any of us who live in a multi-cultural and vibrant city. I say shame on the papers for reporting it in a way that was open to mickey taking and good on the overrun public health organisations for getting their concern out into the public sphere. 

The Innocence of Childhood

The last few days have been a roller coaster of emotions, despair leading to optimism and back again, sometimes in the blink of an eye.

And then I heard a story. And a true one at that. A story that made me smile and made me cry all at the same time. Perhaps a story of naivety, of immature innocence but still one that warmed the cockles.

Many of you will be aware of Skipchen, and many of you will have seen Sam or one of his colleagues talking passionately about their Pay As You Like restaurants that are popping up UK wide, feeding people with food that would otherwise have gone to landfill, and asking people to pay what they'd like, or what they can, for the food. Any way, Sam spoke at an event I was at last night and here's the story he shared........

Bristol has a reasonably affluent area called Henleaze, which has the city's only full sized Waitrose, who regularly throw food into skips that go to landfill. There had obviously been some conversation around food waste at school, and Skipchen had obviously been discussed. So 25 children, as only children could do, wrote to the manager of Waitrose and asked him to give his food that normally went into the skip, to Skipchen.

And he agreed!!!

There's a lesson to be learnt here. If a child says to you, but that doesn't make sense, listen to them. Ask them why. Enter into a meaningful discussion with them without using any adult rhetoric or economic figures. Just listen. 

Food that goes into skips to go to landfill?

Beans being brought from desert areas in Africa? 

Cutting down trees on our most fertile soil?

I could go on but you get my point. 

And we'll done Sam and the Skipchen crew. You're awesome. As are all the other organisations out there putting food into mouths rather than bins and shouting about food waste and the horrors of it.

Standing up for your beliefs.

I went to bed, under my nice warm duvet in my comfortably heated flat, last night, in the full knowledge that there were protestors sleeping in freezing temperatures in the trees on our beloved plot, to try to keep the chainsaws at bay. Over the weekend they had slipped onto the land where the trees are and begun to set up a camp in the trees, determined to try to stop the chainsaws that were originally set to begin today.

So today I went to site, mainly to say thank you but also to see how things were and chat with other people about the protest and their part in it. What I found was a group of people aged from 1 right up to folk in their 70s. A group of people connected to the land, not necessarily at that site, but to land all across the city. A group of people who have worked on many different community projects that rely on our land to survive. Community projects that change and improve lives and if you have any doubt of that, please read Mrs Seven Storeys Up on this blog.

There have been plenty of news stories about this today, which is great as its been nigh on impossible to engage with any national papers until now. But I think it's important to keep reminding people of a few vital points. Primarily, Bristol has the title of European Green Capital in 2015 ànd however much it is widely understood that improving the transport system must be a part of that, concreting over Grade A soils cannot possibly be. A good transport system, which connects the whole city and its suburbs well and efficiently is definitely needed in Bristol. Metrobus however, is not it as it misses out large pieces of the city(an estimated 100,000 people in East Bristol alone) and fails to support any of our hospitals or schools. The cynic in me thinks it moves people from South Bristol where there is a lack of local employment, up to huge business parks in South Gloucestershire. Business parks that are full of call centres and retail areas where people are unlikely to be earning the Living Wage. Hardly the jobs of dreams or the local jobs for local people that we should be encouraging.

We are also in the International Year of the Soil. A year in which we should be looking at the damage we have done to our soils since mass use of agro chemicals was brought in post the 2nd world war. A year in which we should be looking after our soils, encouraging good practise in order that we begin to repair our soils. A year where we look at how, going into an uncertain future, we protect the good soils we have, many of which are in urban areas where great soils such as that at Stapleton and on our Blue Finger are. After all it's not as if we have unending amounts of best and most versatile soil-there is less than 3% of such soil across the entire UK.

But for me, what's most important is that we start to appreciate locally grown food on local land. Food grown by local producers, that support their community by producing top quality produce that keeps the local economy buoyant. Unless we start to fight for our land, this can't happen. Remembering that not just an allotment site but an award winning community food project, Feed Bristol, is at risk here, I ask you to look for your local community project and support it. You never know when it might be gone, possibly in the name of progress. 

Why I'm an allotmenteer

Generally I don't make these posts directly about me but on Monday something will start to happen that is, to me, beyond belief, and so I thought I'd try to put into words what my allotment means to me. And why.

I've grown on various allotments since childhood. The seasonal processes of looking after the land, feeding it, digging and weeding it and growing food on it is part of who I am. And it's not just because I love growing and eating fresh, local, organic food, although obviously that us part of it.

Working the land grounds you. It soothes the soul and allows you to slow down, to feel the seasons in all their beauty and in all their extremes. Being in the plot on a really windy day listening to the trees creaking brings the realisation of how we are, and always will be, in natures hands. Feeling the soil, working it gently and caring for it in a way that you know will bring it into maximum fertility, slows you down and forces the ears and eyes to hear and see what your hands are feeling and your brain to process that in a way that makes you think about the seasons, about past experiences. The turning of the seasons, the seasonal produce and the repetition of all these things whilst looking after and caring for that land is a powerful thing and one that as the seasons and the years pass, we realise we only know a tiny amount about. 

Sitting on the plot on a perfect summers day, listening to birdsong, watching the clouds as they pass, sowing seeds, potting plants on all with the heat of the sun on the back feels like a gentle caress. Talking to allotment neighbours, swapping plants and produce brings community to life. But even winter digging when the robin appears with every turned doc, looking for worms, makes you feel like someone or something powerful is pushing you on, willing you to succeed.

Working the land soothes the soul. We know that there is a compound in soil that raises seratonin levels, meaning that anyone suffering from low mood genuinely will be helped by working the land. Horticultural therapy works, and mixed with the sense of community on a site raises the spirits. Good food, good company and a natural antidepressant has saved people from despair.

And yet, as Monday approaches all of this is put into jeopardy. Trees that are wonderful for nesting birds and wildlife are bring felled as the horrors of a bus route that will cut 3 minutes off a journey, as long as traffic is clear, comes to life. 

The sadness I feel today is beyond explanation. 

A Bridge Too Far?

There is no doubt that the Garden Bridge is causing a lot of discussion across all the social media channels and in the press and that there are a lot of people who believe either that it is a wonderfull thing and equally many who disagree.
When I first heard about it I was thrilled too. Mooted as Londons' equivalent of New Yorks' High Line it sounded like a really innovative and exciting project that could change the way green space is used in London and be an example to other cities both in the UK and worldwide.
Cities are booming, and by 2050 it's estimated that 70% of the UK population will live in an urban area. All around the country cities are addressing how they will manage their green spaces. Visiting Sheffield recently I was lucky enough to visit 2 extraordinarily inspiring projects, The Green Estate and Heeley Park, both of which made me really think about how good design and support for areas that historically have struggled in various ways, is vital in the way we tranform inner city green spaces. These are projects that have changed lives and seen areas with historic problems change themselves through enterprise brought about through good use of the land. I myself am currently working on an inner city project in Bristols' Bearpit roundabout, which is a sunken space in the centre of the city that historically has problems with anti social behaviour, to green the space in a way that will bring an oasis of tranquility to an area that will also be a central hub with food businesses  and a vibrant market as well as lots of thought provoking urban art, bringing an unloved and fairly frightening place back into a space that encourages it to be used by all.
These examples, and there are many more, of cutting edge design mixed with the importance of social outcomes are vital if we are to see our cities prosper and the citizens living in them lead healthy lives. Green space is vital for all and it is those that are most vulnerable and for whom getting out into anything that is at all nature like, who often find accessing it the most difficult. For horticulture within cities to be taken seriously, and city councils to see the importance of this in areas of socio economic deprivation and indeed invest in it, any project taking place in the public sphere must have some need for a good social outcome, and for it to effect positive change within the community it is being placed.
At this point I also think it's worth talking a little about New Yorks' High Line, which began as a project that came about through a group of people, now The Friends of the High Line, coming together and finding the space, getting the necessary permissions and bringing the project to fruition. The friends of the High Line are still very much involved in the project and it's worth looking at their website to seee the story of the project as well as the history of the space itself. Their website can be found at www.thehighline.org.
There is no doubt that cities and the way urban greening is being addressed is changing and so I really thought the idea of a new bridge that could be accessed by all and was green in all conotations of the word was wonderful, until I started to hear concerns. The construction of the bridge will mean an area of green space along with 30 mature trees will be lost, at a time when the tree canopy of cities is being looked at and all cities are being encouraged to increase them. Mature trees support a diverse cross section of wildlife and planting new trees nearly doesn't mean that wildlife will remain in the area. The area of planting is apparently only going to be the size of half a football pitch, which makes me wonder what the rest will be used for, and it won't be open to all, 24/7, but be on a timed ticket as it is expected to be so oversubscribed. Apparently this ticket will be free but I wonder who will pay the admin cost? And it is questionable that cyclists will have access to it, or that it will even be used as a bridge in the sense that it will enable people to cross the water from one side to the other as quickly as if the river wasn't there. It will also be closed one day per month for private functions.
However my biggest problem is the fact that £60 million of public money is set to be used for this and it appears that public consultation has been at a minimum. Effectively this is a vanity project, being put into a space where already there are questions over its suitability, that is not there for the people of London or the local area, but for tourists to visit. This is nothing to do with good urban planning or biodiversity, but all about bringing in the tourist dollar. And we are spending public money to do this whilst we have people regularly accessing food banks, more children accessing free school meals than ever before and are still set to see further cuts in public funding going into the future.
With some of Londons' inner city boroughs being the most deprived areas of the UK, I question how this is acceptable. Half of the money is from Transport for London and I am quite convinced that £30million could go towards greening stations if it is money allocated to that, making them safer, kinder spaces.
So here is my main question. What are this projects social outcomes? How is it commited to the community in which it will sit? Where is the public consultation that we should all be able to access?
If in Bristol, when we embark on a new project we have to knock on neighbouring doors, ensure we have a questionnaire that is acceptable for that area and be positive that we can answer any questions with a positive spin, as well as then going through a thorough council assessment with their environmental/allotment/park and gardens departments, what has been the relevant consultation undertaken for this?
At this point I would like to say it's not too late to change all these things. The building of the bridge and the planting and landscaping could be undertaken by local people, giving them new skills, introducing them to horticulture and construction and giving them a sense of ownership. It would still be a beautifully designed space, but one that had given local people a helping hand. It can be maintained by volunteers from the local community who would talk about it with visitors as only someone can who is deeply and emotionally at one with a garden project. It could become inclusive.
I finish with a horrifying statistic. The projected cost of the bridge, in all, is approx £175million. If each of London's 32 boroughs were to share that money between them it would equate to the possibilty of there being 53 community projects in each borough, each with £100,000 to spend.
Now that would have seriously good social outcomes.....

 Both of these photos are of Sheffield's Green Estate where they have taken parkland and unloved green spaces and encouraged community enterprise through learning. This place goes beyond the extraordinary and should be held up as an example of what cutting edge urban greening and design can do to change communities.