Norfolk and Landshare

I didn’t make it to France. An accident on the M11 and an airline with a customer service policy leaving much to be desired put paid to any roamings in the streets of Poitiers. Instead, the coastline of Norfolk beckoned. This area has to be one of the nicest places in the UK for soothing the soul. The villages on that coast remain unspoilt by the lure of the fast food establishments, widened roads and horrendous pub singers provided ‘solely’ for your entertainment. If you want to hear nothing and see some amazing scenery, it’s the place for you. (There is also some great mackerel to be caught in the summer months, contact me and I may tell you where,…. ).

Back to the working week of promoting Spareground, I have emailed a number of UK allotment and vegetable growing forums who have given a lot of positive feedback on the Spareground project. What has been interesting from this is realising that the Landshare project has yet to officially be launched, so as we move quickly into March, there are people signed to this scheme who have no idea if they will be ‘matched’ with a landowner or not. March is the time when windowsills should be heaving with chitting potatoes and plant seedlings.
One wonders if the scheme which promises so much will be able to deliver in equal measure and within time scales reflective of the course of nature.

Spareground has signed up to the Landshare project as a group having similar aims and philosophy so I don’t mean to sound critical of what is ideally a great scheme. I just feel that a lot of people may have missed the growing opportunity for 2009. With the high volume of media coverage it has received, perhaps in hindsight its initial autumn 2008 campaign was a little too late.

At Spareground, our way of working is to leave people list their land or find their land requirements and sort themselves out. There are simple ‘guidance notes’ under the FAQ section on the website which should help people establish their arrangements with each other and essentially, keep it simple. We don’t want to over complicate the Spareground website or the way it is used; simplicity is indeed the key.

http://www.spareground.com/


Until next time……