Friday June 19th ... Pam Smith

Friday June 19th, was finally a sunny beautiful day. We had a week of rain, and were glad to see the sun again. so started a very busy day.

Pam Smith

The first visitor was Pam Smith, all the way from the United Kingdom.

She is a horticulturalist working in Birmingham, UK with over 20 years experience of amenity and botanical horticulture including parks management and spent 8 years as Director of University of Birmingham Botanic Garden. She now works part time for English Heritage and Lantra (promoting horticultural skills, careers, research etc) and does freelance work as well.

She has been awarded a CABE Space Scholarship, (CABE is the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. They advise on well-designed buildings, places and spaces) to study Community Gardens. Her tours are to Canada, USA and France to look at community gardens, plant heritage and urban food. She was in Toronto June 19th and 20th and wanted to come and see the garden and have a chat with some of us.

So, with all the famous Allotment Gardens in England, why would they want to find out about our humble community gardens? By the way, in England each allotment plot is about 30 feet wide and 100 feet long. they are big enough to to have your own garden shed and green house on the plot.

Well, in the British news paper article THE GREAT BRITISH PLOT It explains that there are now 100,000 people on waiting lists in England and Wales for an allotment garden. “There are parts of the country where it’s easier to get a burial plot than an allotment,” says the NSALG society’s Bryn Pugh.

So, Pam got a chance to speak with Molly, Edward, and Andrea, and they were very happy to be able to speak with her. I was glad to find out about the allotments there, and to explain the workings behind our community gardens.

Pam stayed for a while to continue to speak with the other gardeners while I welcomed our next set of visitors.