Landshare

More Landshare matches from other parts of the UK were featured in episode 4 of River Cottage Summer's Here - read full post to see the video clips and to read about them and many others.

North Yorkshire

Graham was close to having to sell his house due to no longer being able to look after his garden. But not long after posting his yard on Landshare, two families have come to his rescue.

“We all feel that today's consumer environment doesn't really teach children about food and loved the idea of growing our own. Organic produce is still expensive in the major supermarkets, and as a child I used to raid my Granddad's organic garden/allotment on every visit so had fantastic memories of fruit and vegetable gardening and wanted our children to experience the same.”
Liz, one of Graham’s Growers

“I think this is one of the most important events in this country for a long time - it truly is land liberation and in these hard times people are able to grow great organic food that will do them good.”
Graham

Stirling

Pippa runs a bed and breakfast in a magnificent Georgian mansion that has an old walled kitchen garden and orchard that had fallen into disrepair. Two couples have started growing on the site.

“After 2 years of campaigning to get allotments started in Falkirk I'm getting weary of talking to our council. Within 2 weeks of Landshare going "live" not only did I get a match but an agreement was signed and spades were in the ground! Wow!”
Kevin, grower

“I also felt that the price we pay for veg in the supermarkets was too expensive for what you get and most of the produce comes from other countries such as Spain and Portugal.”
Kirsty, grower

Flintshire

George had previously given over his growing space to his young son to have room to play in. When he grew older, he found it difficult to convince his wife to let him dig it up. Since joining Landshare, George has been offered two plots.

“I looked around my area for an allotment but could not find one. As I have been made redundant last year, and been a big fan of Hugh and his program River Cottage, Landshare was a god send.”
George

Lancashire

Aiden is undertaking his first attempt at growing fruit and veg outside of pots. He happily is to provide fresh produce to his landowners, Pete and Lynn, who are unable to garden themselves whilst Pete fights cancer.

“The landshare has added something special to both our lives, and the thought of having fresh produce for Pete is an added bonus. Cancer can leave both the sufferer and the family very isolated - but landsharing with Aiden and Jo has given us a sense of community spirit.”
Lynn

“When we first went to see the land, Pete the land owner was talking passionately about some Ulster Prince Potatoes, so that had to be one type we would plant. After the Ulster Prince Potatoes, went in our own favourite Maris Pipers. Now I've been told that they are hard to grow, sounded like a challenge to me! So we went for it.”
Aiden

Dorset

Liz runs a pub that has a huge field at the back of it. Motivated by seeing Landshare on the River Cottage programme, she has turned the field into allotments for five locals plus herself. All surplus produce goes into the pub’s kitchen.

“Everyone involved are all new to allotments and so we are learning from each other and trying out different ideas.”
Liz

Devon

Dana had been on an allotment waiting list for years. She and her friend, Trudi are now turning wasteland into fruitful growing space at Bridget and Keith’s smallholding. Not only have Bridget and Keith given them space to grow, they are now making plans together to take things further…

“We intend to set up a market garden run by Dana in the car park selling the produce direct to the public so that they can see what they want and it's picked for them there and then! This will provide a great opportunity for Dana who recently had to finish a work contract to fit in around her daughter starting school and lack of childcare.”
Bridget

For Dana and Trudi, this also enables them to provide their families with fresh food grown using organic farming techniques and the opportunity to promote local produce.

Derbyshire

This scout group had been looking for land to grow on for 6 months. It wasn't until Hugh launched Landshare that the council made some derelict land available to them to use. They are currently waiting for permission to add chickens to the site.

"We have all ways grown thing with the children. We thought this was a good next step, show them how to grow their own food and how to produce better tasting food, and later in the year how to cook, save and preserve their own food."
Ian

Shropshire

Nik has kindly let Jemima and her family landshare in his backyard. Apart from a space to grow produce, Jemima was looking for somewhere she could take her children where they could have a bit of independence – learn to play and explore in a safe environment - rather than being cooped up inside.

“The site we have now is so perfect I can hardly believe my luck. Its huge, has magnificent views and is only a mile and a half from where we live... and the owners can’t do enough to help us. The girls can’t wait to go down this weekend and watch the lambs while they plant their strawberry patch.“
Jemima

Redcar and Cleveland

Ruth and her husband lost their big garden when they moved house. After a fruitless wait on a council allotment waiting list, they are now growing in someone’s backyard, just 10 minutes away.

“Our children enjoy helping and love to know they can eat what we grow. They have competitions to see who can find shoots first.”
Ruth

Highland

Tom not only has been given access to land to grow, but next to his plants are 7 goats which provide enough milk for his landowner to also share with Tom.

“I am fed up of supermarket vegetables in plastic bags. All nicely clean and uniform, but without any flavour. And I want to grow vegetables from my background. I am of Polish/Italian parentage....so things like globe artichokes, cabbage for sauerkraut, beetroot, plum tomatoes, scorzanera, cannellino beans, borlotti, etc. which aren't always available in the 3 x Tescos we have here in Inverness.”

Devon

Selene is a teacher with a huge garden that she couldn’t manager on her own. She has already got 3 landshare growers involved.

“My ex-husband was a tree surgeon and landscape gardener and after watching 17 years of 'Gardeners' World' I still have no clue about gardening!! Landshare is fantastic!!!!!! Thank you for having such a brilliant idea!”
Selene

Aberdeenshire

Louise and her family live in a 1740's Georgian country house which has a walled garden and paddock. They run a self-contained holiday apartment in their basement and Louise was keen for some fresh produce to share with their visitors.

“My family had a nursery and market garden so it is in my blood from an early age, I went into Forestry and Land Management but found myself doing grounds maintenance for supermarkets and later Head gardener for 16th C garden in Yorkshire. With the demand for allotments at a peak and my rural location limiting, Landshare was a good alternative. I now work for Aberdeenshire Council as a Horticultural Officer, ironically one of my duties is involvement with allotments.”
Callum, grower

Reading

Nicky and her husband both work, plus have kids and 2 pets to take care of. When they moved into their house 3 years ago, they struggled to get an overgrown veg patch back into use. They now have 2 growers and they all pitch in together.

“I can’t tell you how good this has been for us. Our garden is becoming somewhere we can be proud of and our family can really enjoy. And to see how happy it is making our new friends, gives me great pleasure.”
Nicky

Northumberland

Jan lives in the grounds of a gothic country house. Her garden is part of what used to be a kitchen garden and includes the original Victorian greenhouse. She soon realized that the challenge of her big plot was too much for her to manage on her own.

“I couldn't be more pleased with how this is working out. Alan and his family are lovely and having them doing stuff has encouraged me to keep going and the garden no longer feels daunting. I'm pleased to be giving them the opportunity to grow and learn. I think that the landshare project is a terrific idea and deserves to be more widely publicised and promoted.”
Jan

West Midlands

Rich and Liam were looking for some extra space to have the opportunity to experiment with their permaculture ideals.

“We looked into it as we've had a couple of short lived allotment experiences in the past and it just seemed like a more convenient, local and community-minded way to do a similar thing. We're also taking a permacultural approach to the design of the space, treating Peter partly as a client so that we can be sure that he is consistently happy with the ways in which we are utilising his land.”
Rich

Nottingham

Julian joined landshare as he felt that felt that his land should be more productive than what he was able to do on his own.

“I wanted to promote community spirit, nice to meet new people, they can water my veg while I'm away!”
Julian

Bracknell Forest

Robert and his partner are both busy professionals who don’t have time to make use of their garden.

“I originally joined landshare as we live in a flat and have no means of growing our own fruit and vegetables. We have planted peppers, tomatoes, raddish', beans, peas ad corn on the cobs.”
Christopher, grower

If you would like to see your match added here, email the details to landshare@channel4.com