Landshare

The average golf course is 50 hectares, an enormous spanse of land that is increasingly becoming harder to justify for golf alone. Whilst the Redditch borough council is one example of a council considering turning the Pitcheroak golf club into community parkland, one landsharer decided to be more pro-active...

Here's Chris' story:

I live in a flat without a garden, but with a tantalising view over a pitch and putt golf course. Over the winter I looked wistfully out of the window and occasionally suggested to my wife that “I’m sure I could grow some potatoes over there”. I think it was the regular response of “no you can’t, don’t be silly” that provided me with the motivation.

The corner of the course closest to the flat contains a huge patch of brambles. How could anyone argue with utilising a bit of that space? So… one Sunday morning in March I wandered over to the course manager and put my suggestion to him – I’d clear a patch in the centre of the brambles, where no one could see it, grow some veg and not interfere with anyone. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to convince him, throw in the suggestion of a bag of veg every now and again, a gentleman’s handshake and the deal was done.

It really was that easy. In fact, as it's turning out, that was the easy bit.

If you’ve ever tried to clear a patch of brambles before, you’ll know how resilient and tough they are. Luckily a friend has mean strimmer with a chain blade, rather than the usual nylon. We cleared a section roughly 3m by 5m. It only took about an hour to clear everything above ground, but a further month to dig out all the roots that were left behind.

One of my biggest worries has been the safety of the plot, and the risk of anyone vandalising it. The fact that it isn’t on my own land, makes me fairly powerless to do anything to protect it. Therefore, the stance that I’ve taken is to keep it as well camouflaged as possible. The plot sits in the middle of the brambles, as opposed to on the edge. I have a narrow corridor through them to reach the middle. Right now there are about 30 children and adults over on the golf course, and none of them will be any the wiser about my veg.

Camouflaging from humans is one thing; I wish the same could be done about the local wildlife. Rabbits were my greatest risk as it's like Watership Down outside my window. My way around this is to try and avoid planting anything that they’d be especially attracted to. This obviously meant avoiding salad items such as lettuce, rocket and spinach and believing the Bugs Bunny stereotype, I also left out carrots. I can only assume that they also have a taste for radish and beetroot as these have performed very poorly. The one pest I hadn’t banked on, but have been plagued with, is moles. Last night one burrowed its way up right beneath a broad bean plant – not clever.

Being so close to the flat, I’ve been able to start plants off inside on the windowsill and then simply carry them over to the plot and plant them. The proximity has also been key in being able to water the plants on a regular basis. I bought a watering can and two large buckets and this seems to be enough for a daily watering.