- There is an urgent need to re-forge the connection between ourselves and our food, the earth and its natural cycles, and between each other as individuals. We have become extraordinarily alienated from our environment, our neighbours - even our own bodies. This is extremely damaging, to us individually - within our own minds and bodies - and to the rest of the planet and its inhabitants that are affected by our existence. I believe this alienation is a direct result of the western cultural system and the philosophies upon which it is based, and therefore can be reversed.
-Gardening is a positive and inclusive social activity. The community garden is a friendly space in which local people can meet and get to know each other. This project has the potential to form a community around it, forging links between diverse people through a shared interest.
-We MUST preserve biodiversity. In the UK 97% of the vegetable varieties available in 1903 were no longer available just eighty years later.* This genetic erosion is a mass extinction every bit as important as the loss of species from tropical rainforests. Human beings do not have the right to annihilate the other life forms that share the planet with us. We need to stop being so bloody arrogant and learn a little compassion, for the sake of other living things, and to ensure our own survival. We rely on the rich ecological web to provide for all our needs.
The human species can never be self sufficient.
* Taken from Schnews issue 300. HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Association) has a library of seeds that are no longer on the national seed list and therefore cannot legally be sold. For more information about the library, which carries out vitally important work preserving biodiversity, go to hdra.org.uk. (Both addresses also on the links page). For a quick (but I've been preparing it for years...) rant about our culture, and a suggested alternative way of thinking, go to the Community, Art and Gardening page.
-We wish to withdraw our support for exploitative, cruel and unsustainable food production methods. This we hope to achieve by growing our own produce in a sustainable, cooperative and responsible manner. The community garden will provide working example of a viable alternative to commercial food production methods. The attitudes that underpin communal organic (veganic) agriculture are fundamental to the creation of a ecological and socially sustainable society.
-Many people, especially those on low incomes and / or living in cities, have no opportunity to cultivate a piece of land. Community gardens exist to allow all of us the opportunity to enjoy the satisfying and relaxing activity of gardening, especially people without their own garden or allotment.
-There is a need for urban green space - our cities are choking us. There is especially a need for this land to be communally owned and managed. Living in Oxford we are particularly lucky; Oxford is relatively full of parks that are either council or university owned. These are beautiful, but they are private land. (Private land is a problematic concept. To treat the earth as a commodity is destructive and depressing.) We, the inhabitants of the city, play no role in their upkeep and claim no responsibility for them. We need to encourage participation in the creation and upkeep of our environment.
-To get people outside in the fresh air! Gardening promotes a more active lifestyle. If you eat what you have grown your diet will also improve. The activity acts as a catalyst in increasing awareness of dietary and health issues through the discussions people have on and off the site.
-Many people don't have the time, energy or expertise to manage an allotment or garden single handed. Working with a group makes it less daunting and more fun. This is a perfect environment for those (like me) who are new to gardening. We hope to encourage more people to get into gardening, especially allotment gardening, as allotments are often underused. This means that they get vandalised or built on. Gardening improves the urban environment. Also by using the land it is sometimes possible to save land from 'development'.
-There is a need to raise awareness about environmental and social issues. The community garden is a space for sharing ideas and knowledge, especially to do with alternative agricultural methods. By creating an organically and compassionately managed, non-hierarchical, non-corporate communal space we criticise the existing agricultural, social and economic systems. We offer in their place one of many alternative visions of how positively motivated people can operate.
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