Growing Free Food (and sharing garden spaces)
The Incredible Edible movement, which began Todmorden (Yorkshire), has changed how locals see food, public spaces, and community spirit. The project invites anyone to pick, plant, and share fresh produce grown in public places.
Keeping People and Pets Safe in Gardens
Whether you grow food (or flowers) in community gardens (or any type), know a few little garden rules to keep all creatures safe. Remember you may not have pets, but others will.
- Many plants (including all bulbs) and trees (along with some mulch and fresh compost) are all unsafe near animal friends. Read more about pet-friendly gardens and humane slug/snail deterrence (to avoid toxic pellets).
- Never use netting to protect food (nearly all sold has holes way wider than recommended by wildlife rescues, to avoid creatures getting trapped).
- Acids can harm compost creatures, so bin citrus, tomato, rhubarb and allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots and chives). Same with tea/coffee grounds (due to caffeine). Read more on making garden compost.
- If growing indoors (including greenhouses), avoid facing indoor plants to outside spaces (to help stop birds flying into windows).
Grass verges, canal paths, and unloved corners have become shared gardens. Volunteers plant herbs, berries, fruit trees, and veg in spots you’d never expect. People can pick fruit and nuts off trees, or pick some herbs for dinner, at the local train station!
Gardening sessions and workshops run throughout the year. People swap tips, learn about food, and meet neighbours they might never have spoken to before.
The movement has helped many pick up skills they can use at home or in their job. It’s also helped fight loneliness, and built stronger bonds in the town.
On Gardening Sundays, a tasty meal is provided for anyone who visits. Even if you’re ‘a bit wobbly’ and unable to garden, you are free to visit. This is about building community, in a place that has no paid staff, no buildings and no public funding. It’s held in the ‘greenest police station in England!’
Children can attend with adults, though ‘leave beautiful pets’ at home. Also let them know in advance, if you don’t want your photo taken. And bring sensible shoes!
The project’s ‘Little Library’ is also situated in the police station, full of crime novels, which amuses the local force! This global movement now has 100,000 little libraries.
And rather than locals watching divisive news programs, here locals cook pancakes or pakoras (in the mosque), to raise money for the local markets annual fundraiser.
The Incredible Medical Garden is a weekly session at the local health centre. There are themed growing beds, from herbs for cooking, health and beauty – to ones for women’s health and even mental health.
Lend & Tend (garden-sharing nationwide)
Garden sharing schemes bring people together by matching those who have spare garden space with those keen to grow their own fresh food. Lend & Tend is one of the most popular garden sharing platforms, helping hundreds of growers and garden owners connect.
Thousands of gardens sit unused or overgrown, simply because their owners don’t have the time, energy, or interest to keep up with them. Lend and Tend matches these untended spaces with people ready to make the most of them.
Working together, they bring neglected spaces to life, turning weedy plots into neatly kept, productive gardens.
Allotment waiting lists in many towns can run for years. Garden sharing is a shortcut to starting your own patch without delay. Tenders (gardeners) can get growing almost instantly, using someone’s backyard or unused land.
Any project like this is ‘peaceful politics in action’, as it gives people the opportunity to grow and share local organic food, rather than be dominated by supermarkets (which many people these days hardly have a choice in shopping anywhere else).
This organisation also works with community food groups and social housing providers, to deliver free access to gardens, and also place fresh food into local food banks. Anyone in the world is free to sign up, though it mostly focuses on the UK.
How Does Garden Sharing Work?
Simply put, you just search for a local landowner who has a garden that looks good for you! It may be a piece of land with raised beds, or a seriously overgrown patch of land that you can’t wait to get going on!
You can use land to grow organic food or flowers (always organic, to protect wildlife and the people and pets that live nearby). The yearly membership is very affordable, and you can also participate in local events like community picnics and tool-sharing.
Most ‘tenders’ buy their own organic seeds, and of course the end result is that the harvest is shared with the landowner, who kindly lent you their garden to grow. Decide in advance (from a basket of fresh vegetables to equal share of apples on a tree).
An example lender on the site is someone who can’t manage the large garden alone. It’s in the grounds of a listed building – a former market garden and allotment. It already has mature trees including hazelnut (leave some for the dormice!)
A food desert is the kind of place, where the only shops for local communities are a small grocery shop selling frozen pizza and chips, and not much else. For people without cars or Internet Access, community gardens are a boon for local organic free food.
