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Wirral Flower and Vegetable Show

The Wirral Flower and Vegetable Show (http://www.wfavs.co.uk)  is an annual event hosted by a community group with resources primarily from within their own community.

To date, the show has been successful, with an increase in attendance each year and it is now very much a part of the Wirral calendar.

The show has included sales of plants drawn mainly from the group members’ own gardens.  This has been a successful initiative, but the plants are generally ornamental varieties. There is a growing demand for eatable vegetable varieties which customers could then plant in their own gardens or other suitable growing areas – including window boxes and allotment sites.

There are two issues:

a. The group does not currently have the capacity to meet the demand for eatable vegetable plants

b. The demand for plants may express a wider interest in growing vegetables at a local level which the group would also be unable to satisfy.

A small grant to increase capacity would help resolve the first issue. This could come from the National Lottery ‘Awards For All’ scheme, which offers small awards to community projects.

But such a solution would not address the second issue. This would require a longer term and more intensive set of measures which would bring long term benefits to the community as a whole.

What would these extra measures involve?

First, if the demand for plants is greater than could be met using the available growing areas, new sites would be have to be found. Traditionally, this might mean increasing the availability of allotments. But this is not the only option by any means, since other areas of the urban environment could be given over to cultivation.

Secondly, does the community have the horticultural skills necessary to meet the demand for greater growing capacity?  If there are people with the required skills, there is scope for the ‘upskilling’ others within the community. New training courses could be a useful resource and may, in some cases, lead to employment.

Thirdly, and less obviously, the economic consequences of increased growing are likely to impact the long term success or failure of any project. Many people will continue to grow vegetables as a leisure activity regardless of any economic considerations.  Others may wish to grow vegetables for the economic benefits the activity might bring – savings on the cost of buying food through traditional retail outlets or even income from selling excess produce.

If economic motives turn out to be absent, or the economic benefits are too low to justify the labour involved, then people who don’t find satisfaction in the growing process itself will in all likelihood cease the activity. This could undermine any extension of production.

Urbanag sees its role in such a situation as helping to ensure a satisfactory financial return on the investment in resources and effort involved. This is especially important with communities that are economically stressed or disadvantaged. Even if the activity of growing itself is satisfying, too small a number of growers would not achieve economies of scale. The costs of production could well be greater than the retail price of the products.

Urbanag in partnership with the WFVS wishes to explore the nature of the increased demand in edible vegetable plants. If there is an economic aspect we would seek to work with WFVS to ensure measures could be put in place to satisfy these needs to the benefit of the community.

This may entail working in a broader partnership, bringing a strategic perspective to the activities and raising the resources to meet the requirements of an expansion of locally grown foods.

In the light of the experience Urbanag has of other projects, a major concern of the partnership would be to ensure sustainability so that benefits to the community can continue to be delivered, even while acknowledging that needs and aspirations will change over time.

John Smith & Gary Herman February 2010.