London Vegetable Garden: The Next Chapter…

What with packing boxes for the move, re-arranging flights at the last minute for a wedding this weekend (thank you SO much British Airways), walking 17 miles for charity yesterday and generally being rushed off my feet at work, it’s been a busy few weeks!

In my previous blog post, I told you all how I was looking to try and find a small plot of land – be it an allotment or some garden space – to continue the London Vegetable Garden project and carry on the urban gardening bug!

Well, after weeks of appeals on Twitter, Facebook, gardening forums and blogs, as well as sticking up posters in local allotments (very guerrilla gardening style!), and after some promising leads, I have secured half of an allotment in the local vicinity!

First of all, it really has overwhelmed me how much opportunity is out there if you push hard enough. Although England’s bureaucratic local authorities seem determined to make it as hard as possible for people to grow their own produce in their local boroughs, the response of like-minded people has been truly touching indeed.

I’ve had two offers of people’s gardens and very nearly got somewhere with a plot on Channel 4’s ‘Landshare’ website. However, this week I received a phone call that I’d been longing to get and have been offered half of an allotment for the summer whilst the owners landscape their garden.

As you can imagine, I’m truly ecstatic to think about the opportunities this now brings – and also very aware at how genuinely lucky I am. Allotment waiting lists in some London boroughs top 40 years – making this more of a token statistic than a viable ‘waiting list’.

Anyway, the London Vegetable Garden blog has been a sparse place in recent months, but the securing of an allotment space means we’ll be getting stuck right back into amateur urban gardening issues next month! I’m thrilled to have the space to try growing things on a more serious scale now, and the blog will play a key role in this. The London Vegetable Garden (as it will remain – despite the move to Surrey!) will focus on:

i) Gardening progress – what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, tips and advice and learnings!
ii) Issues surrounding urban gardening, allotments, sharing land and local politics – I remain committed to getting more city dwellers out and gardening.

I hope to have an update, some more information (and possibly some photos!) after going to view the allotment on Monday. Until then, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to the local gardening community for their kind help, support and offers of garden space; your help and assistance has restored some of my faith in humanity and has allowed me to continue pursuing the organic odyssey that has captivated me so completely.

Watch this space!

The poster that secured my new allotment is featured at the top of the page!