Pastures new
Cultivate London is a flourishing urban farm producing award-winning produce on a couple of brownfi eld sites in west London. On a damp and chilly morning, with the fi rst frosts forecast for the coming weekend, I visited the main site at Brentford Lock on the Grand Union Canal. An unprepossessing stretch of concrete awaiting redevelopment by ISIS Waterside Regeneration, a property company part-owned by British Waterways, the site houses four large polytunnels and a germination chamber, a home-made structure covered with plastic sheeting, containing a paraffin heater that got the temperature up to 40 degrees last February. Bales of straw are used for extra insulation.
The site was buzzing with activity. Adrienne Attorp, who has a background in sustainable agriculture and food policy, is the General Manager. She says there’s a surprising amount of land to be found in cities. ‘You need light and vehicle access. Ideally, you need soil, but most sites are on concrete’. Cultivate London was founded by Leah McPherson, who had been working for London Borough of Ealing on environmental and sustainable projects. Funding was secured from Pathways, a social housing provider looking for a sustainable project involving young people.
I was shown round by Adrienne and Cultivate London’s Business Manager, Denis Bowen. They explained that their objectives are to convert derelict land into productive food-growing spaces, to increase the amount of locally grown food consumed by Londoners and, most importantly, to have a long-term impact on the lives of young people by providing training opportunities and jobs in practical horticulture. Since it became operational in March 2011, Cultivate London has made an impressive start: 10 young people have graduated from the programme, four of them into jobs, two of which are on Cultivate London’s own payroll. They are funded as apprentices to study one day a week for a year at Capel Manor College to gain an NVQ Level 2.
Most of the produce is grown in polytunnels, which are five degrees warmer than outside, and make it possible to grow strong plants outside the regular growing season. Hard at work harvesting ‘Morouga Red’ chillies were Head Grower Ben Simpkins, who is a trained horticulturalist, and Sean Connor, who joined the project as a volunteer trainee and is now a full-time grower. The 8ft-tall plants in serried rows of grow-sacks produce quantities of chillies so ferocious they have to be briefly infused in a green tomato relish rather than chopped up and added to the mix.
Other tunnels were packed with seed trays – 576 cells to a tray, all sown by hand – housing robust sweet-pea seedlings, salad leaves and tiny herbaceous perennials for next year. In another, there were asters, primulas and the multi-coloured stems of Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’. Salads are mostly grown on their second site at Isleworth, on land leased from the National Trust. The current bestsellers are the slowgrowing peppery salads – Mustard ‘Red Giant’, the pak chois, oriental mustard spinach and rosettes of tatsoi – that bring colour and crunch to our winter diets. The crops and pots are sold to small garden centres, box schemes, farmers’ markets and some top retailers, including Andreas, the specialist fruit and veg seller in Chiswick and Chelsea. Customers at the farmers’ markets in Ealing and Queen’s Park are discerning shoppers. As Denis puts it: ‘They won’t buy any old rubbish because they like the back story.’ Their enthusiastic feedback is relayed to the specialist shops, which benefi t by stocking up accordingly.
Adrienne works hard to raise funding for kit and new initiatives, but day-to-day costs, she says, are now covered by what they sell. This says much about the commitment of all concerned. And to prove the point, Cultivate London has just won a Producer of the Year Award in the 2012 Observer Food Monthly Awards.
Cultivate London: www.cultivatelondon.org
For many visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and those who watched them, transfixed, on television or the internet, their most powerful memory is of the meadow planting that turned a derelict industrial site into the largest and most exciting new park in Europe in 150 years.
In total the Olympic Park covers 250 acres (100 hectares). The planting for the Olympics had to be robust enough to cope with five million visitors over six weeks, it had to be at the height of its flower power for the opening day of the Games, to keep performing thereafter, and meet ambitious biodiversity requirements as well. The meadows were designed by Nigel Dunnett, James Hitchmough and Sarah Price, using native and non-native plants in annual and perennial mixes. Nigel Dunnett has set up a company, Pictorial Meadows, selling the seed mixes in large and minute quantities for professionals and the amateur gardener. For the latter, 6g packets – enough for 2 to 3 square metres – are available from garden centres or the website.
The renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will re-open to the public in phases from 27 July next year, starting with the North Park, a country park with native habitats, wetlands and dramatic landforms.
www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk
Salvia uliginosa AGM, commonly known as bog sage, is a tall, airy herbaceous perennial with stems that bear intense blue flowers from late summer. In my garden it survives most winters, but hates waterlogged soil. For suppliers, visit RHS Plant Finder: www.rhs.org.uk/plants
The site was buzzing with activity. Adrienne Attorp, who has a background in sustainable agriculture and food policy, is the General Manager. She says there’s a surprising amount of land to be found in cities. ‘You need light and vehicle access. Ideally, you need soil, but most sites are on concrete’. Cultivate London was founded by Leah McPherson, who had been working for London Borough of Ealing on environmental and sustainable projects. Funding was secured from Pathways, a social housing provider looking for a sustainable project involving young people.
I was shown round by Adrienne and Cultivate London’s Business Manager, Denis Bowen. They explained that their objectives are to convert derelict land into productive food-growing spaces, to increase the amount of locally grown food consumed by Londoners and, most importantly, to have a long-term impact on the lives of young people by providing training opportunities and jobs in practical horticulture. Since it became operational in March 2011, Cultivate London has made an impressive start: 10 young people have graduated from the programme, four of them into jobs, two of which are on Cultivate London’s own payroll. They are funded as apprentices to study one day a week for a year at Capel Manor College to gain an NVQ Level 2.
Most of the produce is grown in polytunnels, which are five degrees warmer than outside, and make it possible to grow strong plants outside the regular growing season. Hard at work harvesting ‘Morouga Red’ chillies were Head Grower Ben Simpkins, who is a trained horticulturalist, and Sean Connor, who joined the project as a volunteer trainee and is now a full-time grower. The 8ft-tall plants in serried rows of grow-sacks produce quantities of chillies so ferocious they have to be briefly infused in a green tomato relish rather than chopped up and added to the mix.
Other tunnels were packed with seed trays – 576 cells to a tray, all sown by hand – housing robust sweet-pea seedlings, salad leaves and tiny herbaceous perennials for next year. In another, there were asters, primulas and the multi-coloured stems of Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’. Salads are mostly grown on their second site at Isleworth, on land leased from the National Trust. The current bestsellers are the slowgrowing peppery salads – Mustard ‘Red Giant’, the pak chois, oriental mustard spinach and rosettes of tatsoi – that bring colour and crunch to our winter diets. The crops and pots are sold to small garden centres, box schemes, farmers’ markets and some top retailers, including Andreas, the specialist fruit and veg seller in Chiswick and Chelsea. Customers at the farmers’ markets in Ealing and Queen’s Park are discerning shoppers. As Denis puts it: ‘They won’t buy any old rubbish because they like the back story.’ Their enthusiastic feedback is relayed to the specialist shops, which benefi t by stocking up accordingly.
Adrienne works hard to raise funding for kit and new initiatives, but day-to-day costs, she says, are now covered by what they sell. This says much about the commitment of all concerned. And to prove the point, Cultivate London has just won a Producer of the Year Award in the 2012 Observer Food Monthly Awards.
Cultivate London: www.cultivatelondon.org
Sow your own Olympic meadow
For many visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and those who watched them, transfixed, on television or the internet, their most powerful memory is of the meadow planting that turned a derelict industrial site into the largest and most exciting new park in Europe in 150 years.
In total the Olympic Park covers 250 acres (100 hectares). The planting for the Olympics had to be robust enough to cope with five million visitors over six weeks, it had to be at the height of its flower power for the opening day of the Games, to keep performing thereafter, and meet ambitious biodiversity requirements as well. The meadows were designed by Nigel Dunnett, James Hitchmough and Sarah Price, using native and non-native plants in annual and perennial mixes. Nigel Dunnett has set up a company, Pictorial Meadows, selling the seed mixes in large and minute quantities for professionals and the amateur gardener. For the latter, 6g packets – enough for 2 to 3 square metres – are available from garden centres or the website.
The renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will re-open to the public in phases from 27 July next year, starting with the North Park, a country park with native habitats, wetlands and dramatic landforms.
www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk
Plant of the week
Salvia uliginosa AGM, commonly known as bog sage, is a tall, airy herbaceous perennial with stems that bear intense blue flowers from late summer. In my garden it survives most winters, but hates waterlogged soil. For suppliers, visit RHS Plant Finder: www.rhs.org.uk/plants