Kindness that keeps on growing
Hailed by a former NHS chief, making every unloved patch of soil a garden is now a global phenomenon
THE SEEDS were sown as a simple gesture in citizenship and flourished to spark a global movement in urban gardens.
Friends in the Yorkshire mill town of Todmorden took on unloved spaces, planting fruit and vegetables on grass verges and forgotten plots for everybody to enjoy.
Incredible Edible took root. More than a decade on, and having spread around the world, the concept that health begins at home has been heralded in a new book as essential to wellbeing. While its launch was a “calling card” for togetherness on the eve of the last recession, said founder Mary Clear, its purpose was never more needed than today.
“It’s about demonstrating kindness,” she said. “There is another way, an easy way, to use less resources. It is joyful work.
“We cut grass, pick up litter. We’ve started building free libraries, dotted around town.
“There’s not an endless pot of money to be spent in the public realm,” she added. “There is a responsibility of citizens.”
Since those first days in Todmorden in 2008, Incredible
Edible has grown to more than 500 groups sharing its philosophies worldwide. It is particularly fashionable in France.
The urban gardens, from window boxes to roundabouts, are so popular they are fuelling a trade in “veg tourism”, with visitors paying £6 a time for a tour of the mill town’s sites.
Outside the health centre there are apple and pear trees, cherries, strawberries and nuts.
There is a flourishing apothecary garden, while on the grasses surrounding the car park there are flowering rhubarb, cauliflower and sweetcorn.
There are 300 volunteers, with the youngest at the last session aged just two and the oldest 76.
One lady brought a jar of jam she made from berries collected on the towpath.
“It’s the Pennines, you see – all this water and the rain,” said Ms Clear, 65. “We are known for our berries. You can walk around town and pick them by the pound.”
While the concept began with connecting communities, Ms Clear believes it now reaches much further.
“By growing things in public spaces it demonstrates we are all in this together,” she said. “It’s right across the world.
“We never thought it would be but it doesn’t matter. It’s not about an empire but about doing good things in our small town. I would say this town is probably the kindest in Yorkshire. I really think it is.” The abandoned spaces that are transformed into little havens are often owned by developers or the council and some have been lost. But nobody has ever minded when the community stepped in to take them over.
“We’re a positive group, not a protest group,” said Ms Clear, a grandmother to 13. “It takes nothing to make a garden. We just find another space.”
And when it comes to communities, she believes firmly in taking a collective responsibility.
“It’s sometimes better to ask forgiveness than permission,” she said. “Oftentimes, we just crack on and grow.
“When people have meetings for too long they get into problem talk, usually about money. We only focus on what is achievable.
“If we see a bench broken, we fix it. The idea that there’s this invisible army caring for us is a fantasy. As citizens, we should look out for each other.”
It’s not about an empire but doing good things in our small town.
Mary Clear, founder of the Incredible Edible project, launched in 2008