[Community_garden] Communities and Elders

Tue Jun 19 04:00:46 EDT 2007

I have an allotment in Hackney in inner London, and from my own experience
(and this seems to be confirmed by research) more and more allotment holders
are now young, female and middle class. They have become incredibly
fashionable, and in some London boroughs the waiting lists have become so
long that they had to close them! (I was quite lucky -- I only had to wait
for three years but that was a while ago...). I think the way in which the
allotment elders were leading the way is definitely changing, certainly in
inner London. But on the other hand, reading articles in Kitchen Garden
Magazine, http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/
gives one the impression that maybe in the countryside and in small towns
things are still a bit different.

You could contact WEN (the Women's Environmental Network)
http://www.wen.org.uk/
I don't know details but there are a number of community gardens with women
from different ethnic groups. A person who's done research about allotments
is Susan Buckingham
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/ife/staff/SusanBuckingham
who has also worked with WEN.

Maybe one of the members of the Federation of City Farms and Community
Gardens could help.
http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&It
emid=83

Or try Growing Communities
http://www.btinternet.com/~grow.communities/

or the community gardeners at Cable Street
http://www.cablestreetcommunitygardens.co.uk/
jannesill at aol.com

or Black Environment Network
http://www.ben-network.org.uk/

Or have a look at Growing Together
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/growingtogether/

or Thrive http://www.thrive.org.uk/

I don't know from the top of my head which ones would be appropriate for you
but I'm sure somebody could point you in the right direction. By when do you
need this?

-----Original Message-----
From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
yarrow at sfo.com
Sent: 19 June 2007 05:55
To: jay sokolovsky 2
Cc: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Communities and Elders

Maybe look into allotment gardens in England? What I know of them comes from
watching dvds of British tv programs -- Rosemary & Thyme, and Hetty
Wainthropp Investigates, each had an episode set in an allotment garden
where the most dedicated gardeners were elders. The latter also had a
regular character who was occasionally shown in his allotment garden.

At 2:28 PM -0400 6/18/07, jay sokolovsky 2 wrote:
>Dear Community Garden:Community,
>
>I am writing a short article about the role of elders in community 
>gardens and their role in creating community in such spaces. I am most 
>familiar with gardens in New York City having done a documentary and 
>research on the history and current functioning of gardens there.  Does 
>anyone know of research/examples of the role of elders in sustaining 
>and building community within community gardens elsewhere in the US or 
>in other nations. I am particularly interested in programs which 
>successfully connect seniors and youth in a meaningful way.  In many of 
>the gardens I worked in the your were dragged there by their 
>grandparents who had leadership roles, but lacked a real committment to 
>the garden as a community. I have visited in a number of cities gardens 
>associated with senior centers or nursing homes, but found them to be 
>poorly used.
>
>Thank you for your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
>
>Jay Sokolovsky
>Professor of Anthropology, U of S. Florida St. Petersburg
>
>>>
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