Eating & Drinking

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall checks out Totnes Gardenshare (news)

27th October 2008

Celebrity chef, TV presenter and ‘real food’ campaigner Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has been digging around in ‘sharing’ Totnes.

The cook of River Cottage fame popped into the town to see how the Totnes Gardenshare scheme, which involves green fingered enthusiasts growing their veg in other peoples’ gardens, was working.

Now the town has been told it will feature in Hugh’s new River Cottage series which goes out on Channel 4.

So far there are 19 gardeners involved in the Totnes scheme which is part of the Transition Town Totnes movement.

But there are many more who would like to get involved, if there were enough volunteer gardens to go around.

The aim of the gardenshare project is for people keen to garden but have no land to help out owners struggling to look after their gardens.

The Transition Town Totnes scheme involves matching the people together.

Garden owners then get a share of whatever produce the gardeners can coax up.

One of them is gardener Sue Holmes, pictured with Hugh, who lives in Totnes and grows veg in someone else’s garden in Argyle Terrace, Totnes.

She met up with Hugh during his day-long visit to Totnes and he helped her dig up some of her ‘share’ produce.

Lou Brown, who runs the project from Transition Town Totnes, said: “Not only does growing our own food in Totnes mean less food miles, more local food, better food security, less packaging, cheaper organic produce, and better use of space to create thriving eco-systems, but it also creates an opportunity for making links in our community.

“Rather than waiting for allotments to be forthcoming, Gardenshare is a great way of unlocking land for growers, especially when it is accompanied by the gardening training we are currently running.”

Garden Share is run by Transition Town Totnes with support from South Devon Community Supported Farming.

Lou explained that everyone joining the scheme is interviewed and talked through what is involved in the project, and in this way expectations and boundaries are clear from the beginning for both parties.

She also pointed out that this year alone the dedicated growers had transformed some local gardens from near wilderness to productive vegetable and flower gardens.

Anyone who wants to volunteer their garden or wants to be the gardeners can call Lou on 01803 867358 or email transitiontown totnes@gmail.com

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