Gardening is the healthiest of all recreations, as it calls into healthy activity every faculty of body and mind, and is therefore of especial importance to artisans, persons employed in sedentary occupations, and those who live in thickly populated districts, and their families.
You would be forgiven if you believed that this statement was made recently. It was in fact part of a letter from the Nottingham Garden Holders Association (NGHA) to the Town Council in January 1884 and in which the Association was campaigning for recognition of the health value of the gardens on the Hungerhills and other gardens owned by the Council.
The Hungerhills were regarded as “lungs for the town, as the vast amount of vegetation grown there absorbs and feeds upon carbon which we throw off, and gives back life in the shape of oxygen.” 139 years later the Environment Secretary, Therese Coffey, has recently launched the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan by saying: “Nature is vital for our survival, crucial to our food security, clean air, and clean water as well as health and wellbeing benefits.”
The NGHA knew this but also recognised “that this vegetation is not only ornamental, but productive, furnishing annually thousands of pounds worth of fruit, vegetables, and flowers thus providing fresh, wholesome food to thousands of the working classes, besides encouraging love of beauty through the cultivation of flowers.” This balance of food cultivation and the enhancement of biodiversity is still a principle aim on the St. Ann’s Allotments, mirroring the old acceptance that they were the “lungs for the town.”
The Environmental Improvement plan includes an aim to ensure that “everyone in England lives within a 15-minute walk of woodlands, wetlands, parks and rivers.” We can’t offer a river, but by joining one of our tours this year you can enjoy 90 minutes of improved health and wellbeing within the 75 acres of St Ann’s Allotments.
By Paul Freeborough, volunteer
Our tours run on the last Wednesday of each month until October. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.
