Incredible Edible (grow free food for communities)
The Incredible Edible movement, which began Todmorden (Yorkshire), is now a worldwide movement. It’s a wonderful idea, where volunteers plant herb gardens at railway stations, fruit and nut trees in community orchards or food gardens in health centres and schools. And local people then simply help themselves to free food!
With rising food costs, this keeps food free, local and organic and empowers communities against big supermarkets, and there is no plastic packaging! Local people can simply eat herbs, salads and tomatoes, at no cost.
As these are public spaces, learn about pet-friendly gardens (many plants and mulches are unsafe near animal friends). And use nontoxic humane slug and snail deterrents.
Avoid netting and read tips for wildlife-friendly gardens. Also how to create safe havens for garden birds and stop birds flying into windows.
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.
Choose easy organic crops
The best crops to grow are those that are easy for beginners, and easy to harvest, and give a lot of produce with little work. From salad leaves to pot herbs, tomatoes also do well in containers, and potatoes are also good in grow bags for urban areas.
Raised beds are useful for chard, beans, courgettes, and mixed salad crops. If you only have a narrow border, runner beans can climb up rather than out. That saves space and gives a heavy crop over weeks, not days.
Match growing plants to what people want
Obviously it helps to know what people like! If you are growing in school land, try produce that will be good for school dinners or in sandwiches (herbs for pasta, tomatoes for sandwiches).
If you live in an area with a large ethnic population, perhaps go for spicier herbs that are good for curries or Caribbean dishes. Fresh coriander is likely to be popular in Indian communities, whereas bay leaves perhaps more so in a small English village.
The idea of these gardens is to ‘give the people what they want’, so that the fruits, vegetables and herbs get picked and used, to help reduce people’s food bills.
Themed growing beds for health
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.
Gardening Sundays
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.