The Brief:
This week we want you to identify a theme or issue related to your locality and present your findings on the Ideas Wall before the design phase.
- Research and discover issues related to your locality and post them on the Ideas Wall. Direct engagement and potential collaboration are encouraged to engage with relevant local communities to identify issues.
- Distil your research to identify one issue you want to resolve and reveal through a visual outcome.
- Write a short 200-word project brief that reports on the issue to be solved.
- Design and produce a visual summary to contextualise your issue and project brief. Your summary can be a digital, print or moving image. It must be succinct to enable third-party viewers to understand the requirements, needs and challenges quickly.
My Findings:
It’s not a secret that we are all experiencing a rising cost of living. Everything from food to energy bills is increasing; evidence can be seen everywhere. When exploring my locality, there were so many issues that needed resolving. For example, knife crime generally in London is extremely high. Parents are now taking to the streets to suggest that their kids are searched for knives before leaving the house. There is also an ongoing social housing issue where numerous people are on the waiting list for a council house. Many single mothers live in temporary housing, usually a hotel, for years which is unsafe and unsettling.
Although these are significant issues worth exploring, I don’t think I could create an idea that would do them justice in our short time frame. Instead, I wanted to focus on a concept I’ve had in mind for some time.
The idea is to design a scheme where people could rent out their gardens, or a portion of their garden, to those who would like to grow fresh produce. It would work on a free-membership basis where the gardens are rented out, and then the kindness is paid forward. The garden owner would determine the amount of space available. So long as the gardener uses it for growing vegetables, what they produce is entirely up to them. They would also be able to agree with the garden owner on what they would get in return or how they will pay it forward. This could be by either spending time with them to help them feel less isolated or helping with a task they cannot physically carry out. I’ve called this scheme Grow Together s. I think this encompasses the idea of growing a happy and healthy community but involving everyone and doing it together.
Over the last few months of living and exploring this area, it’s struck me how underutilised much of the green space is around London. Although there is a lot of green space, which is good, some green spaces are left to go a little bit wild and not in an ideal way. Most of these areas are grass, and although the grass is super beneficial to the planet, it needs to be maintained to encourage biodiversity. Unfortunately, many green spaces are over-manicured or wholly abandoned, neither encouraging nor promoting mini-ecosystem development.
If managed properly, these green spaces could be created and designed into thriving mini-ecosystems that benefit the environment and the human population. Not only could this be done in public green spaces, but it could also be extended to private gardens. In my vicinity, a significant portion of the demographic here is elderly. Many are single people living in ground-floor council properties with gardens they cannot maintain.
Another side of the demographic would like to plant some vegetables but don’t have access to the space. They are usually confined to their balconies or allotments when they become available. Throughout my research, I found that in some areas of London, you can wait up to 18 years for an allotment, although the average waiting time is 11 years. This extensive wait is primarily due to the unavailability of plots and increased demand since the pandemic (Sheridan, 2023).
Although using allotments is value for money, costing in most cases less than £100 a year, this scheme would make access to green space even more affordable. We would offer it as a free membership scheme, similar to GoodGym’s operation. This garden scheme would combine gardening and growing food with helping out the community. According to GoodGym, over 1 million people aged 65 and over admit to feeling lonely, and 17% see family and friends less than once a week. GoodGym connects people who’d like to exercise and connect them with older people or community groups who need help.
The founders of GoodGym realised that gyms are a waste of energy, as many people work away peddling, pushing, lifting and running but don’t achieve any external benefits. They saw that many neglected tasks and people in the community could benefit from this energy and wanted to bring these two things together. They aim to harness this energy by making it easier for people to channel it towards social good. And it’s been so successful that they now operate in 59 areas around the UK.
Although signing up is free, many of their members spend an average of £7 as a donation each month – significantly cheaper than any gym membership. This money then goes towards maintaining and expanding their operation. To ensure the safety of GoodGym members and people in the community, each new member is DBS checked. The elderly communities can only be referred to the scheme through their GP or adult social workers (GoodGym, 2020).
Although GoodGym also offers gardening services, the difference is that we would be more like an allotment scheme. I think this scheme would be successful because it’s clear from the research that many people would like to grow their food but can’t because of limited access to green space. Although other similar schemes exist, like allotments, and balcony gardening, what makes this different is that it focuses on growing food and connecting communities through fresh produce.
To make this scheme successful, it must go beyond being a rent-a-patch scheme to being more of a community. Initially, it would begin as a website where you can sign up and complete your DBS checks. This could also be developed into an App to include a messaging service where members can share tips and tricks. This could also develop into monthly socials for the garden owners to connect and enjoy an evening together. This evening could be a meal from the crops grown or something more exciting like a game of bingo or dancing.
As many older adults don’t have access to technology, they would need to be referred to the scheme by a social prescriber, GP, mental health practitioner, or adult social worker. This would also ensure the project was benefitting those who need it most. A member of the Growing Together team would then pay a visit to the garden owner to help with the registration, take pictures of the space, and discuss the agreement terms. Once their garden had been matched with a grower, both parties would be introduced. It would then be up to them to maintain the relationship and agreement.
Research suggests that growing your food can lead to long-term savings. It’s just about choosing suitable crops to grow and utilising the space available to its full potential. Growing your own food minimises waste, but you can double the amount of food in your garden without planting more plants. This is because you can harvest and use the entire vegetable from top to tail. In commercial farming practices, many crops are thrown away because they don’t meet size or shape regulations. Also, edible parts such as leaves and flowers are thrown away. By using all the edible parts of the crops, you’re already getting more for your money without needing to add more plants and use more space physically.
As you control what you grow, you can also guarantee that your crops are more nutritional and pesticide free. Aside from these nutritional benefits, gardening is also good for mental and physical health. Getting outside and doing light physical activity like mulching, moving or raking can reduce cardiovascular mortality by 19%. Research has shown many times that gardening has positive effects on your body by contributing to longevity, reducing heart disease and stroke, reducing the risk of death from respiratory illnesses thanks to improved air quality, warding off dementia, reducing obesity, improving your sleep and boosting vitamin D levels all without stepping foot in the gym and by getting your hands a little bit dirty (Ly, 2022).
For it to be successful, it would need to be headed by a team of people who could dedicate their time to growing and developing the scheme. I was hoping to speak to someone at GoodGym to gain their insight, but unfortunately, no one has got back to me. But following their business model would be ideal, as these two projects share numerous similarities.
Similarly to how Hefin Jones established his project, I would need to spend time with local communities. By doing this, I could better understand how they could benefit from having access to space to plant vegetables and a connection to the community. Hefin spent a lot of time in pubs getting to know the local people and hearing their stories. While I may not situate myself in a pub, gaining this insight would be invaluable to understanding how best to implement this idea (Jones, 2023).
I would also phase out my involvement similarly to Hefin Jones. In that, I would facilitate the meetings of groups and people and allow them to implement changes and take on certain aspects of the project. Over time, more people would take on the roles I have little experience with, like the legal and organisation sides, and my part would fall into the background.
The emphasis would need to remain on the community as this benefits the community, so I hope community members would be willing to take it on. There would be a core team to do the computer work and reply to referrals, but on the ground, I hope that members will take charge and develop their teams of volunteers. This is similar to how allotments are run and maintained. As we are dealing with multiple landowners across a big space, there would need to be small teams in each area.
This is risky as it relies solely on volunteers. But with more research and data, we would find enough people interested in this idea. I believe this to be the case because my area already has well-established community gardens. However, these are usually closed groups of people who are associated with one organisation. I wanted the scheme to be available to a broader group, like an allotment, but without the need to wait 11+ years to get a space.
There are also allotment laws that we would possibly need to adhere to. Therefore, it would be imperative to understand these laws and perhaps build a relationship with local allotments in the area. The National Allotment Society has numerous resources with much information about the legalities of allotments and best practices and management, which would be invaluable to this scheme. Spending some time with them and understanding how allotments work would be crucial for the success of this project (Anon, n.d.).
(Anon, n.d.)
In the news recently, there was a story about Carly Burd, who started her own kitchen garden and would provide families with fresh produce grown in her garden. It was an extremely successful idea, but unfortunately, vandals broke into her garden and destroyed it entirely by pouring kilos of salt over everything. I imagine vandalism isn’t uncommon in allotments and community gardens. Therefore, we would need to put things in place to prevent this. The National Allotment Society also has some resources, but speaking to others who have experienced this would be beneficial.
(Parry, 2023)
Some finer details still need to be ironed out at this stage, but this is essentially what the scheme would entail. This idea has so much potential to succeed because there is a lack of space for people to grow their fresh produce. The benefits of this scheme are also endless, both environmentally, physically and mentally. If we found that there was still a limited amount of green space available, this project could be rolled out to the public community spaces such as playgrounds and parks etc. This way, the community would still benefit, and space would remain available. It could also include other private gardens if enough people from different demographics wanted to offer their outdoor space.
By getting involved in this scheme, you could not only grow your food but also become a healthier, happier adult whilst also limiting your impact on the planet. But more importantly, you can grow together as a community, bridge the gaps, and help the elderly member of society feel less isolated and alone.
Final Outcome
References
Anon, (n.d.). The National Allotment Society – National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Ltd. [online] Available at: https://www.nsalg.org.uk/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2023].
GoodGym. (2020). GoodGym. [online] Available at: https://www.goodgym.org/.
Jones, H. (2023). Week Ten: Society and Purpose | Research and Reveal, lecture podcast, History and Futures GDE 720 22/23, Flamouth University, delivered 31 Mar. 2023.
Ly, L. (2022). Why You Should Grow Your Own Food: 8 Research-Backed Reasons. [online] Garden Betty. Available at: https://www.gardenbetty.com/grow-food/.
Parry, G. (2023). Mother whose allotment fed 1,600 people welcomes police investigation after vandals destroyed it. [online] Daily Mail. Available at: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/mother-whose-allotment-fed-1600-people-welcomes-police-investigation-after-vandals-destroyed-it/ar-AA19VGAi [Accessed 17 Apr. 2023].
Sheridan, B. (2023). London Allotment Associations. [online] All About Allotments. Available at: https://www.allaboutallotments.co.uk/associations-london/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2023].
Ollie Goldson-Truman | MA Graphic Design | Falmouth University 