Growing Communities' Urban Market Gardens

Growing food in the city

Growing Communities is committed to growing food in the city.  As part of our aim of increasing the amount of organic produce grown right here in Hackney, we grow fruit and vegetables on 0.5 acres of Soil Association certified land on our urban market gardens. You are welcome to visit the sites - click here for more details.

These urban market gardens – like our box scheme and farmers’ market – are intended to be real, practical alternatives to the damaging food system that currently exists. By trading the food grown on the sites we are aiming to make the food system more sustainable.

We also want our urban market gardens to become a viable long-term project that other communities in urban areas could learn from or indeed copy.  As fuel prices continue to rise, the economic impetus to grow more food in this country is likely to increase.  We want to be ready with an approach that is truly sustainable - environmentally, socially and economically.

For the inside story on how and what we grow on our market gardens, check out the blog of Sara, one of our apprentice growers here.

Click here for the history and development of the sites.

What we grow

The food we grow is sold through our Box Scheme.  We specialise in mixed salad bags and are aiming to supply all the salad needs of our Box Scheme members from our own sites.  At the moment, there are not enough salad bags to go to all our members so we  rotate them to make sure that they are distributed as fairly as possible – a kind of  salad bag lottery!  Why salad? Click here for more information.

We have spent the last few years, establishing the gardens, experimenting with different crops and developing our volunteer work team. We are now ready to expand our food production and see if we can make the project work on all levels.

Working towards financial sustainability

Our first major target is to increase production to a level that enables us to generate enough income to cover the direct costs of running the gardens.  We are hoping to achieve this in 2008/9 at which stage we should be producing 300 salad bags a week at the height of the season!

In the longer-term, we are aiming to provide for all the green salad needs of our Box Scheme members – each member receiving regular salad bags throughout the summer and beyond.

We hold regular workdays at our Allens Gardens and Springfield sites. Why not join our volunteer work team - check out our volunteering page.

Salad Days  

Why specialise in mixed salad? There are a number of reasons why we think this makes sense for Growing Communities and indeed for others who may decide to venture into small-scale commercial food production in urban areas: 

We believe our approach is a sensible, sustainable approach to small scale commercial growing on inner city land. 

Seasonal mixed salad leaves are highly perishable. They therefore benefit most in terms of quality and nutritional value in being grown as close as possible to where they will be eaten so they can get there as quickly and easily as possible.  Conversely, if salad leaves are grown further away from where they are consumed, they are more likely than other produce to be moved quickly (i.e. flown), refrigerated to maintain freshness and treated with chemicals to prevent deterioration.  These are all are things that we want to reduce. Our salad leaves are cycled up the road from where they have been picked so you can’t get more local than that - they have zero food miles!

The growing and harvesting of salad leaves is more labour intensive than, say, the production of potatoes and does not lend itself to mechanised systems and large machinery.  It makes more sense to grow potatoes, carrots etc on larger areas of land to which you can get large machinery which can do a good job for this type of produce and to use the smaller pockets of land which may be available in urban area for something which naturally requires a more labour intensive approach.

·We can supply our members with a steady supply of something fresh throughout the year, while growing a variety of food groups to help maintain ecological diversity and interest.

Salad leaves are a high value crop, so that gives us a greater chance of making the whole thing work on a financial basis.

Our salad bags are delicious! 

We hold a plant and seed sale/swap once a year; usually the first Sunday in May. Unfortunately, we do not have seeds or plants for sale at other times. Try the Organic Gardening Catalogue or Tamar Organics.

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History of the Gardens

Growing Communities started off with a demonstration growing plot in Clissold Park in 1996.  This site is still there and as well as providing a good example of what our organic gardens are all about, it manages to generate small amounts of produce for Growing Communities' box scheme.

Our two main growing sites are at  Springfield Park, in Upper Clapton and  Allens Gardens on Bethune Road, Stoke Newington.  Springfield is the more established of these sites and now boasts a poly tunnel which grows a variety of different salad crops e.g. mizuna, basil and oakleaf and cos lettuces.  We've also put in a pond and wildlife area which has increased the diversity of insects and wildlife on our site.

In 2003 we acquired a greenhouse from the Park's department which has allowed us to extend our growing season and to try our hand at growing figs and other fruit.

Our most recent growing site is in Allens Gardens on Bethune Road, Stoke Newington. Growing Communities had another site further up Bethune Road, called Oaktree. Oaktree was transformed from a completely derelict site when we took it on in 1997 to a wonderful oasis of organic vegetables.  Sadly despite all the work that had been put into the site, we lost the lease in February 2004 when the land was leased to developers to build housing on.  We were determined not to lose seven years of hard work and in so we moved most of the raised beds, the fruit trees, the herbs and over seven tonnes of  lovingly cultivated organic topsoil down the road to Allens Gardens. On 1st February, we closed the gates to our old site for the last time, taking with us our much loved hazel tree.  A troupe of local children carried decorated willow branch flags for transplanting and a wheelbarrow full of  tools was taken to the new site. The hazel tree and willow cuttings from Oaktree were re-planted as part of an opening ceremony and Growing Communities' Allens Gardens site was born.

Two years on now and the transformation is almost complete. Where previously our corner of Allens Gardens was home to burnt-out litter bins and a derelict container it is now a thriving garden with organic fruit trees lining one wall, several raised beds full of vegetables, a pond, wildlife area, a greenhouse, a shed and  our site building.  The building features a fully operational compost toilet and a living Sedum roof.  The building provides the volunteer team and visitors with an inside work space as well as shelter from the rain!  The building is available for hire. Click here for more details.

There is always more to be done but we are now ready to move into the next stage of our development and produce increasing amounts of luscious organic vegetables for members of our box scheme.

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More about our Allens Garden site

Everyone who comes to the site has enjoyed its secluded atmosphere, the birdlife and the impressive buildings which surround the site. These buildings on the Manor Road side of the site, Allens Buildings, were designed by the architect, Matthew Allen, in 1868 – and Allens Gardens were laid out at the same time. Matthew Allen had a pioneering vision that flat dwelling was desirable but that the flat-owners should have direct access to gardens and communal facilities. The buildings were designed with roof gardens, back gardens and balconies with ornate ironwork. The communal facilities included a croquet lawn, greenhouses, washhouses, vineries, and a garden room with a billiard room and a piano!

After the second world war, Allens Gardens fell into decline – and over the next thirty years the communal buildings crumbled and the Gardens themselves became overgrown and choked with debris. Most local residents had no idea the Gardens existed. In the early seventies, the Gardens were targeted for development by property developers and local residents fought several long campaigns to secure Allens Gardens for public use. These battles only ended in 1981 when the Allens Garden Action Group, (which later became the Allens Garden Trust) and Hackney Council finally bought the land. Work started in 1984 to restore the Gardens and to create areas for children and recreation. Although lots of imaginative projects were started and much restoration work was done, in 1989, the cash-strapped Council removed funding from Allens Gardens.

The SRB Woodbury Down project funded the restoration of the main areas of Allens Garden which was completed in 2002. Growing Communities has received funding from the SRB  and Surestart to part-fund our transformation of our site into a fruitful organic garden and to fund the site building.  We believe that our plans for Allens Gardens will carry through the original vision of the Allens Garden Trust, whose plans included vegetable and fruit gardens.

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growcomm@growingcommunities.org