Monday, September 24, 2007

Manor Gardens Allotments Update

Yesterday was the scheduled date for the demolition of the Manor Gardens Allotments. If you remember, the 100-year-old allotments are close to the site of the 2012 Olympics, and will be demolished to make way for a path which will be used for 4 weeks.

A rally was held to mark the occasion. Protesters brought wreaths and flowers to lay at the allotment gates, "for all that's being lost".

Allotmenteers were joined by local residents and other people displaced by the Olympics outside the town hall. They then marched to the Olympic Gates to demonstrate their "disquiet, and distrust of the promised benefits the Olympics are claimed to bring".

What upsets me is the profound lack of understanding about gardening and growing things displayed by the Olympic committee and the various courts and authorities who have failed to prevent this. It's not good enough to just give them a different site. It's not good enough to say they'll be allowed back to their old site after the games. When you garden a plot of land you improve it. You dig it and incorporate manure, lime, sand and so on to improve the drainage and fertility. You work to eradicate resident pests and perennial weeds. You plant perennial plants such as rhubarb, asparagus and soft fruit bushes which take time to establish but which will be productive for many years. You establish a crop rotation system in which your nitrogen-hungry brassicas follow your nitrogen-releasing legumes, which in turn follow your ground-breaking and weed-smothering potatoes, which have followed your root vegetables and so on.

You can't just turf people out and say "Look, we've got this other site for you. It's brand new, so it must be better. There are sheds and everything". And you can't just say "We'll build loads of concrete and paths over your old site, but we'll bulldoze them back up again in six years' time and you can have it back. It'll be just the same".

If there had at least been some recognition of what the allotmenteers are losing - if they had been offered significant compensation for example, or if the media who reported the case had shown that they understood what was at stake - perhaps they might have felt less aggrieved. But instead they have been portrayed as a bunch of stick-in-the-mud old fogeys, standing stubbornly in the way of progress.

It seems to me that this battle has been something very primal and basic. People who work an area of land to produce their own food are fighting against the invasion and loss of their land. It's a noble cause, and I am sad that they have lost. I am even sadder that they have been so profoundly misunderstood and misrepresented.

From BBC News and the Lifeisland website.

6 comments:

Gid said...

Most people don't understand.. this is the problem.. the world as a whole now has, or is approaching, more people living in urban areas than in rural ones.. milk comes from plastic containers, vegetables come from supermarkets, food has to be processed before you can eat it, beer has to be pasteurised..

What can be done about it, I have no idea.. what's needed is education, but those involved in education now are mostly ignorant too unfortunately..

Melanie Rimmer said...

You're right, Gid. At my kids' school they planted a few different things last year - potatoes in a plant pot about the same size as a bucket, and carrots in pots. It made me scratch my head in wonderment. I mean, I can fully understand if the teachers had never grown carrots before. But surely they've seen a carrot. They know roughly how long they are. How the hell did they think it was going to grow in a tiny little pot?

Gid said...

Carrots come sliced and frozen in a bag from the supermarket or tinned as "baby carrots".. peas come ready podded in bags or tins or possibly even mixed in with the carrots in the same bag..

I daresay if you showed someone a whole carrot or a ripe peapod they'd have absolutely no clue what it was..

Lesley said...

I am really saddened by what has happened to these gardeners. I agree with you that there is no way you can replace all the care that has gone into creating a place where you can not only produce, but also enjoy producing your own crops.

I really enjoyed the school hols this year, teaching my three 8 year old grandchildren to cook food produced in my little garden

Gordon Mason said...

Good and thoughtful post which deserves wider attention, if I might be so bold. Have you thought about contacting a newspaper for publication (Jane Perrone at The Guardian springs to mind)?

Nicole said...

Jane Perrone:
http://perrone.blogs.com/