1725-31 JULY 2011 · THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH

ANDREA SMITH

It’s hard to imagine that gardening – the nation’sfavourite pastime epitomised by the Middle Englandcharm of Alan Titchmarsh and Gardener’s World –could be seen as an act of resistance and anti-establishment activity. Yet over centuries it has beenexactly that. From the Diggers of 1649 who squattedand cultivated common land during the EnglishRevolution to food activists growing self-sufficientcommunities and modern-day guerrilla gardeners,there really is a radical side to gardening.

“I want people to reconsider the garden not as aplace of poise and privilege but as places of enduringpolitical practice, argument and debate,” explainsGeorge Mckay, a lecturer at Salford University whohas recently published Radical Gardening: Politics,Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden. “Suffragettes,gay and lesbian identity, alternative culture, 1960sflower power – all these movements made the most ofgreen open spaces and we have continued thattradition by having peace gardens against nuclearweapons and using public parks for politicalexpression.”

Indeed guerrilla gardening, where activists plant onland without permission, has become a regular act ofprotest. On May Day 2000, the anti-car environmentalcampaigners Reclaim the Streets organised a massguerrilla gardening action in Parliament Square inLondon during which the statue of Winston Churchillwas famously given a green turf mohican.

Levenshulme in Manchester now has its ownSecret Underground Gardeners group and land atAshton Moss, Tameside was recently squatted by

Gardening is more than a pastime, says Arwa Aburawa. It’s a way ofmaking a political statement – as well, of course, as growing your own food

gardeners after hundreds of existing allotment plotswere wiped out by road construction.

Even the humble allotment, whose popularity hasskyrocketed in the last couple of years, is imbuedwith an anti-capitalist ethos, states Mckay. Not onlydo people pay a peppercorn rate for their plotsdespite the high commercial value of the land, “butby and large you are not allowed to sell the producethat you grow. So, if you have a glut of beans ormarrows, you have to give it away and that act ofgiving becomes part of the gift economy, which isanother rejection of commerce and capitalism.”

The growing environmental movement, whichencourages communities to grow their own food andbecome more self-sufficient, has also placed thegarden firmly back on the political agenda.Campaigns to ban DDT inspired by Rachel Carson’sinfluential 1962 book Silent Spring, which exposedthe ecological damage wreaked by pesticides, openedthe door to organic gardening and an appreciation oflocally grown food. In Todmorden, West Yorkshire,the impending threat of climate change inspiredresident Pam Warhurst to establish Incredible EdibleTodmorden, an organisation with the aim ofproducing more local food.

I meet up with Warhurst at the Bear Co-operativeCafe in Todmorden, one of the organisation’s hubs,which uses local produce in its soups andsandwiches. A sprightly 60-year old, she tells me thatalthough she was once the leader of the local counciland still chairs the Forest Commission of GreatBritain, her work with Incredible Edible Todmorden

Incredible EdibleTodmorden has pioneeredfood growing in the town

Can you dig it?

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