Lend & Tend is a smashing idea, where people who have skills or ambitions to grow their own organic food, sign up to use the garden of someone who owns land, but is unable to grow food themselves, perhaps due to age or disability. It has the ambition to connect 100,000 growers and lenders.
Use garden shears over strimmers (to protect frogs and hedgehogs). Store shared tools safely (use RCD plugs to cut off power if needed).
Use no-dig gardening and fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create pet-safe gardens (use humane slug/snail deterrents). Avoid facing indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
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!)
