Landshare

Welcome to our updated blog where you can find much more information, including the latest on the National Trust’s pledge to make 1,000 plots available to the Landshare community by 2012.

So far, there has been one site offered by the National Trust on Landshare – at Minnowburn Community Garden near Belfast in Northern Ireland. They are now up and running with 25 plots (with the potential for more plots in the future).

With a 1,000 target, there will be much more coming to Landshare very soon and updates will be regularly posted here about what locations may be included and when the listings will go live, so that you have the chance to apply to be one of their Growers.

At the moment, there have been 5 more locations that are expected to have listings go live in early 2010, in plenty of time for Spring. Between them, they may have up to 130 plots available. Details of where those locations are, with photos of the sites as they are now, will hopefully be ready to post here in this blog by end of October.

There are also 15 more locations which already have plots up and running but have been identified as having the potential to expand to create even more plots. Plus, there are another 25 locations identified as being suitable to have some of their land allocated to plots. The National Trust is currently working out the feasibility and timelines of these 40 properties to also make further announcements about them soon.

So what can you expect from a National Trust plot?

The National Trust owns many different types of land. Plots are being made available not just on National Trust property sites but also on agricultural fields and other vacant land that the National Trust also owns.

The National Trust plots are offered by way of a tenancy agreement. Arrangements may vary from site to site but may involve a nominal rental fee, similar to the model that local authority allotments use.

An example of one of their existing sites is Wembury.

The Wembury Allotment Project on National Trust Land kicked off at the end of 2008 pre the launch of Landshare. A community group approached the National Trust staff and asked if there was any land that could be transformed into allotments for local people. About two hectares of land was identified and set aside to create 40 plots.

Wembury recently enjoyed their first harvest with a ‘Plot to Plate’ event which saw celebrity chef Richard McGewon use some of the freshly dug produce to run cooking demonstrations in an outdoor kitchen set up on site.

Their next plans include building a polytunnel and communal shed with guttering to feed a series of water butts. National Trust Veg Doctors will work with the growers to put into practice other water conservation methods, composting and, where possible, follow organic principals. Wildlife will be also be encouraged with plans for hedges, tree planting and a pond.

There is the potential that more plots will become available at the Wembury site for more growers to get involved. Updates on availability will be given here and in due course a listing will be posted.

Examples of other existing National Trust growing spaces can be seen at:

National Trust case studies

And remember, profiles of upcoming locations will be coming to this blog soon.

More information about the National Trust’s pledge to Landshare, can be found at:

Trust helps fuel grow your own revolution

Why is the National Trust involved in Landshare? There are many persuasive reasons and interesting stats and facts in their recent report, NT Space to grow