Staff members from the LSE Library are currently taking part in the Capital Growth Campaign which is being run across London with the aim of helping Londoners transform the capital by creating 2,012 new food growing spaces by the end of 2012.
In recent years there has been a tremendous upsurge of interest in personal food growing, largely in response to concerns about food prices, food miles, the environment and also because people just want better access to good, healthy and affordable food. There is also a much personal enjoyment in cultivating beautiful green spaces. Just under a third of London's total area is either green space or water, however there is a large amount of roof space which the Capital Growth Campaign is hoping to help utilise to better effect by supporting people to create rooftop gardens. The campaign is hoping to transform London into a green and productive city, with thriving communities and delicious fresh food! Further details on the campaign can be found at http://www.capitalgrowth.org|
Library staff members Ty Curtis, Jo Wilson, Helen-Louisa Jordan and Jane Appleton along with members from Centre for Learning Technology, Jacqueline Crane,Sarah Leach, Sonja Grussendorf and Steve Bond are currently working on a rooftop garden on the Shaw Library Terrace. They are taking responsibility for choosing the vegetables/seeds, planting, watering and generally looking after the garden. Jane Appleton said 'We actually started to plant vegetables last month in May and are planning to keep it going all year and beyond. The idea is to see how it all goes and at the end of the summer, maybe get catering to cook us a meal using the stuff we've grown. Another idea is to have a harvest festival type event and give the produce away (dependant on how much of it we have). I have to say that the garden is really coming along and growing well, especially the salad and the potatoes.'
Further to the Shaw Library Terrace, other growing spaces can be found around campus at East Building (2 sites), St Clements west side and St Clements east side. The LSE rooftop gardens team can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LSEgardenswhere| they will be keeping people up to date with how the project is coming along.
Image: Members of the Shaw Library Garden Team, Helena, Ty and Jo alongside a part of their garden