Description

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Start and nurture your own thriving community garden with this seasoned guide to cultivating your local outdoor space.

Community gardening is a growing movement that is taking root in towns and cities all over the world. Groups of likeminded people are transforming neglected plots of land into green, flourishing spaces for everyone to enjoy.

In Let’s Plant & Grow Together, conservationist and community gardener Ben Raskin shares his keen expertise in his introduction to collective self-sufficiency, encouraging a community audience to grow food and garden together. With a thoughtful foreword by Hélèna Dove, Head of Kitchen at the admired Kew Gardens, London, UK, this guide is uniquely placed to teach you how to make urban spaces bloom.

A look into the background of community gardening and its benefits is followed by a practical guide: planning advice is laid out, alongside essential etiquette tips for running a successful site. Learn about these and other practical considerations, including:
 

• Soil fertility
• Fundraising
• Business plans
• Guerrilla gardening
• Access rights
• Marketing
• Leases

Add a community-minded directory of the top vegetables, flowers, fruit, and herbs to plant, with key tips on growing in containers to maximize your space, and you can get ready to dig for a community garden that will blossom and thrive for everyone.
With clear instructions for all ages and backgrounds, your collective will learn to grow and harvest:
 

• Kale
• Pears
• Beetroot
• Asparagus
• Gooseberries
• Oregano
• Currants
• Melons
• Figs

This book contains everything you need to start gardening in a group. Whether that’s with family, neighbors, or allotment co-owners, you’ll find practical steps to promote harmony, grow more successfully, and make space for everybody. Written by an expert in the field, this insightful and comprehensive guide leaves no stone unturned when it comes to building and maintaining your dream co-gardening space.
If you like this book, you may also like Plant a Tree and Retree the World, by the same author.

About the Author

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Ben Raskin is the Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association in the UK, and author of Zero-Waste Gardening (2021). He runs courses and training on organic growing including community orchards, and launched the Soil Association’s flagship Organic Apprenticeship Scheme in 2007. Ben got the gardening bug working on an organic vineyard in northern Italy, and has worked in horticulture for over 20 years, including a stint as Assistant Head Gardener at the UK charity Garden Organic. He also wrote Plant a Tree and Retree the World, The Community Gardening Handbook; Compost; Grow; and Bees, Bugs & Butterflies, all published by Leaping Hare Press.

Praise For…

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“Ben Raskin has created an accessible and galvanising handbook for creating community gardens. Let’s Plant Grow Together is a timely resource for anyone looking to support their local community and ecology through hands-on, feel-good action.”
 
Ellen Miles – author of Nature is A Human Right and Get Guerrilla Gardening