Tag: local food

Crownpoint Community Gardens

“You get all sorts of characters in this place”

 

Crownpoint

Crownpoint is one of the smallest gardens I’ve visited so far, occupying a 672 m^2 (or 0.166 ac). That being said it was also the busiest I’ve visited. I arrived at 1.30pm and within 20 minutes 15 people had shown up to work in the garden. The garden is situated on a fairly busy road (Crownpoint Road) that runs through Bridgeton, just beside the entrances to St Mungo’s Academy and the Glasgow Club Crownpoint Sports Complex. While there is no residential housing in the immediate vicinity of the garden, its position between these busy places means it sees a lot of footfall. The school janitors home once stood on the site and after being raised some years ago the site stood as a derelict space. Like G3 and other gardens the ground has pollutants, hence the raised beds. A protective membrane lies under the site. The raised planting space that runs around the garden was excavated from the original ground space therefore the soil is still contaminated. This area is used for growing non-edible flora.

Crownpoint has 15 raised beds of varying sizes, a small green house, a shed (which is actually a 10ft metal shipping container) and wooden shelter. Other notable structures are the willow fencing that circles a small pond and two composting units. The site has two rainwater barrels catching run-off from guttering along the wooden shelter. More recently the site has had a water mains connection put in. It grows much of the same produce as other gardens I have visited although there are no fruit trees. Produce is not weighed, although the new sessional gardener told me there are plans to initiate regular weighing and documenting of produce.

The garden has 1 part-time sessional worker, who is an employee of Playbusters (a community charity that operates in the East End). It offers three workshops that take place mainly during harvesting times: composting, grow you’re own and cookery workshops. The land was owned by Glasgow City Council although it, along with many other properties and lands, is now under the control of ‘City Property (Glasgow) LLP. As a community garden with some form of connection with GCC, the council’s sole Greenspace Officer regularly visits Crownpoint (I was told while on-site that due to council cut backs all other (no exact number) Green Space Officers lost there jobs). The garden has a committee but the main administrative and day-to-day organizing seems to be shared between Playbusters and the GCC, through the Greenspace Officer. There seems to be a fair bit of ambiguity surrounding the terms of lease on this space. From what I could gather the committee get it free on a rolling lease from ‘City Property, although I was told on the day that ‘City Property does not have a lease model for community gardens (worth looking into further).

As mentioned above, Crownpoint is a busy little garden, at least on the main volunteer days. As well as the part-time sessional worker there are two regular volunteers and 4 individual plot holders. In addition the garden has growing plots used by Lodging House Mission (local homeless charity), the local nursery, a local project for the deaf and hard of hearing and St Mungo’s academy. I spoke with both the teacher supervising the group of pupils and some of the pupils. The garden is used as part of 6th year studies option that allows pupils the opportunity to pick up ‘life skills’ by working out with the school itself. The teacher told me that the school is looking into collaborating with the garden on providing more specific horticultural related educational awards.

In the 2.5 years since the garden began it has received approximately £26,000: £15,000 Climate Challenge Fund, £10,000 Glasgow City Council and £900 from the Stalled Spaces Fund (another GCC fund). Related to the matter of finances the GCC Green Space Officer has concerns for the garden’s future. In his experience community gardens work best when there are full-time gardeners on-site. The Playbuster’s Community Gardener voiced concern about the ambiguity of the lease for Crownpoint.

My overall experience of the garden was highly enjoyable. This is a garden that seems to have a lot of potential in terms of community cohesion in that it has, as one volunteer told me, “allsorts of characters” enjoying it: teenagers, people with disabilities, professionals and children from the local nursery. According to the Greenspace Officer it has good growing potential and provided a good yield last season. The St Mungo’s academy staff and pupils supported this position, telling me last seasons yield was regularly used by the school’s catering service. The lease situation and issue around whose actually managing the space remains a conce

John Crossan

The Caring City: Sustainable Communities of Care in Glasgow

Drawing on new approaches to thinking about care as complex, other and self-regarding behaviours, which is partially socially constructed, this research project explores the interrelationships between sustainability, health and quality of life. Care about and for ourselves as individuals, and for our wider communities embodies issues of sustainability, health and quality of life. The research investigates these issues by actively engaging with groups involved in promoting local food production and consumption in Glasgow. The project is funded by the University of Glasgow’s Knowledge Exchange Fund and is concerned with developing new resources about local food projects in partnership with existing local groups.

The term ‘urban agriculture’ (UA) is one we might not associate with an old industrial city like Glasgow but like other old industrial cities in the UK, a discourse of UA is finding its way into local government policy initiatives. For example, during the first week of our research we attended a conference organised by Glasgow City Council (GCC) in partnership with the Soil Association Scotland entitled ‘Glasgow, Sustainable Food City’. This involved a series of talks and discussions geared towards implementing a sustainable food strategy for Glasgow. The event elicited a range of ideas: “more school gardens”, “a much better map of available and potential growing land”, “a vibrant street food culture” and much more.

While the event noted above marks an important juncture in the City Council’s approach to UA, of crucial concern to our research is an already existing network of grassroots community food initiatives in the city. In the same week as the GCC event, we attended a meeting held by the Glasgow Local Food Network (GLFN). The GLFN is an informal network of community organisations and individuals from across the city “that are passionate about local food and strive to produce more of what we eat and eat more of what we produce” (http://glasgowlocalfood.blogspot.co.uk/). The passion and commitment of local growers across much of Europe, like the GLFN, has helped push UA up the policy agenda. Similarly, for a sustainable food strategy policy to be effective, it must value and utilize the wealth of knowledge being cultivated at the ground level.

Community gardens: an alternative to global food production and consumption
Community gardens: an alternative to global food production and consumption

The value of grassroots community food initiatives and UA more generally is quantifiable. For example, we can measure: a decrease in food miles that comes with local food production and consumption; the acreage of unproductive urban space revitalized through a variety urban agricultural practices, and the volume of materials recycled in such practices (e.g. timber for raised beds; food waste for compost; water capture and storage). Other potential values of UA are less easily quantified but no less important for people committed to creating sustainable communities of care in our city. These relate to, amongst other things, awareness of environmental and human health, community cohesion and resilience and the co-production and sharing of knowledge and skills. It should also be noted that modern urban agricultural practices are, for some, deeply embedded in issues of political struggle. Many UA practitioners understand their work as part of an ongoing struggle to de-commodify urban spaces and secure an urban commons for future generations.

Our project began in earnest three weeks ago and in that short time we have encountered all of the issues raised above and more. With a clear methodology beginning to develop, the next five months should be an exciting time for all involved.

John Crossan

John is a researcher at the University of Glasgow in the Adam Smith Business School working with Professors Deirdre Shaw, Andy Cumbers and Robert McMaster on the Caring City project.

To find more about local food communities in Glasgow, visit: