Guerrilla Gardening Movement
With an expanding growth in the urban population, most countries (such as the United Kingdom) are embracing the practice of urban gardening. The practice continues to receive substantial acceptance and attention across UK cities. The ever-developing cities are accompanied by an increasing population, which needs a constant supply of food. Urban gardening has become a principal activity in meeting these needs through encouraging indoor production of food crops, for self-sustenance or for commercial purposes. On a large scale, urban gardening entails complicated systems such as inside factories and artificial light that are able to control the micro-climate in order to grow consumable plants. This in-house agriculture focuses mainly on horticulture, aquaculture, and animal husbandry which employs organic farming techniques.
Various urban centers in the UK have integrated the practice. For instance, Todmorden (A town in Yorkshire) has a successful integrated urban gardening model. The town has over forty locations set aside for growing food crops. The town has food plots in various locations, such as: a police station, a cemetery, municipal schools, car parks and just generally along the streets. The gardening work is done by visitors, passers-by and volunteers. The garden produce is free and the project aims at promoting: local food growth, seasonal eating, enjoying fresh farm products and food derivation.
Guerrilla Gardening UK
In England, Devon is being fed by Paignton Zoo, an urban gardening organisation. Paignton Zoo grows leafy vegetables such as herbs, lettuce and spinach in an irrigation controlled hydroponic garden. The greenhouse is supported by mobile racks that are raised up to nine feet high, this is to ensure that the pants get sufficient air and sunlight.
South London Guerrilla Gardening
In South London, Balham is experiencing the combined effort of Food Up Front, they grow vegetables across: balconies, window sills and roofs of houses. Food Up Front utilises the available spaces, and encourages locals to share expertise and pool resources, to grow food crops along urban spaces and in front of houses. Apart from feeding the locals from farm produces, Food Up Front conserves the urban environment through permaculture. Food Up Front grows a variety of crops such as: potatoes, tomatoes, chillies and carrots.
Growing Underground London
Middlesbrough is also supporting large scale inner-city food growing. This is achieved through sustainable community programs such as Meal for Middlesbrough that utilises: city skips, window boxes, roundabouts and balconies to grow food crops. Moreover, Growing Underground is an urban gardening enterprise in South London. Growing Underground uses tunnels, which were being used for public shelter, to grow micro-greens such as salad leaves.
Urban food growing programs in the UK aims at regenerating public spaces that are unused while providing the community with fresh farm food in the form of vegetables and fruits. With increasing health awareness of healthy consumption, urban gardening in the UK offers the population with a variety of fresh food options. Urban gardening also beautifies the cities with the green coverage of different food plants. Urban gardening has become an empowering, innovative, and education program that is significantly revolutionising agriculture in cities. Cities across the UK are being offered with sustainable, fresh, and local food across the year from urban gardening enterprises and organisations.
Feed Bristol – Guerrilla Gardening in Bristol
Bristol has a thriving agricultural scene, thanks to various urban gardening projects. First, the Severn Project supplies delicious salad leaves across different cafes and restaurants in Bristol from their urban farms. The project was started by Steve Glover and aims at empowering people with mental disorders and those recovering from alcohol and drug abuse. The Severn Project is an urban growing scheme, that cultivates different idle plots of land in this city, to offer fresh farm supplies and create employment to the vulnerable people.
Second, Feed Bristol, a society food growing organisation that cultivates food crops in the surrounding wildlife areas. They cultivate fresh foods such as: pumpkins, tomatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables. They also offer training in food production, wildflower identification and wildlife protection.
Grow Bristol Guerrilla Gardening
Thirdly, “Grow Bristol” is an upcoming farming enterprise that is utilising inner spaces in the city to grow crops. Currently, they have transformed the dilapidated industrial plot into an urban farm that produces sustainable food, such as: wheatgrass, fish and pea shoots. In addition, they have partnered with restaurants such as: The Food Assembly, The Cauldron and River Cottage to enable residents of Bristol to engage in back yard production of fresh and sustainable food. They are working on a greenhouse project under the urban farm and grow box schemes. The urban farm includes an indoor aquaponics chamber that grows tilapia. Fourthly, Incredible Edible (which started in Todmodern) has spread urban gardening practices to Bristol. The movement has converted curb sides and urban parks into food growing sites to feed the local residents. Lastly, GroFun is also an urban gardening enterprise in Bristol, which uses urban spaces (such as dumping grounds and urban jungles) to grow a variety of food crops.
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