Back

Pam Warhurst, the community gardener growing for good

With a group of like-minded friends, Pam founded the Incredible Edible grassroots gardening movement in 2008, with a vision to create kind, confident and connected communities through the power of locally grown food

Today, with groups across the country, Pam and her team continue to transform disused public spaces into thriving gardens run by and for their local communities. Here‚ she speaks to Dan Masoliver to explain what they do and why.

What is Incredible Edible?

It’s an idea. A way of reconnecting with our planet, each other, and other species through food. It’s based on people being part of a solution to the problems we’ve got around our environment, and it is realised through their relationship to the growing of, use of, and support for, local food.

Pam Warhurst
Why did you set it up?

We waited a long time for people in positions of influence to pick up the story around the state of the planet and the issues that impact significantly on the poorest people. But they didn’t, so we did. Instead of demonstrating negatively with a placard, we decided to demonstrate positively, growing food on unused public land to show those spaces differently.

What was your first project?

We grew sweetcorn in front of the police station in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. We wanted to attract people’s attention, and sweetcorn was fast-growing and tall. People didn’t know the right time to pick it so we created signs in red, amber and green – not ready, nearly ready, and help yourself. Once they understood, people really embraced it.

Why is this movement important?

The world’s problems can seem so big. Incredible Edible demonstrates the power of small actions. All we do is grow food in public places but, in the process, we start to redefine the nature of our own locality and build community connections. In our project areas we see an increase in support for local businesses, more interest in knowing where food has come from and in how it has been produced.

How wide is your reach?

There are projects all around the country. Our big vision is an edible corridor running coast to coast across the north of England. It is a big idea, but this is the time to do it. And the benefits – for mental health, loneliness, physical activity, local supply chains – would be amazing.
 

Save to My scrapbook

You might also like

Gardening for the environment

Gardening for the environment

NHS wellbeing gardens

NHS wellbeing gardens

Get involved

The RHS is the UK’s gardening charity, helping people and plants to grow - nurturing a healthier, happier world, one person and one plant at a time.