Page 46 - ALG Issue 1 2025

LONDON
ACTON GARDENING ASSOCIATION PICNIC
Acton Gardening Association (AGA) was delighted to welcome the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Yvonne Johnson, on September 1st to their annual allotment family
picnic for plotholders.Also present was Councillor Kate Crawford, the East Acton ward Councillor in which the AGA is situated as well as Councillor Hitesh Tailor, the previous Mayor of Ealing.The AGA annual picnic is a chance for plotholders, family and friends, to come together as a gardening community and share food.
AGA consists of four allotment sites on the eastern side of Acton in Ealing,West London: Chestnuts, Perryn, Bromyard and Vale.The land, now privately owned, was previously owned by a city livery company of Goldsmiths who were left the land in the mid-1600s by a blacksmith named Perryn, born in Bromyard (Herefordshire). Perryn rose to become a Sherriff of the City of London and left the land now cultivated by AGA ‘for the good people of Acton’.
President of AGA, Michael Wale, presented the Mayor of Ealing with a colourful bouquet of seasonal blooms grown by plotholder Debra Gynn (see photo below). Ms Gynn grows cutting flowers that she then turns into hand-tied bouquets that are donated to NHS
staff at Chelsea & Westminster hospital. Entertainment at the picnic was provided
by the band,‘A Wing and a Prayer’, some members of whom are plotholders (see photo below).There was a ‘seed swap
& share’ table as well as a sustainable silk screen printing workshop hosted by a plotholder who grows ingredients for dyes on her plot.
Mr Wale spoke about the increasing awareness of the need for cities to counter issues of food insecurity and climate change through allotments and highlighted the social and environmental benefits of the four sites as a biodiverse space in the city. As a member of the National Allotment
Society (NAS), whose patron, His Majesty King Charles, is a noted advocate for gardening and the environment, AGA
is a part of the valuable heritage of the UK.Their vision, that people should have an opportunity in cities to access fresh and nourishing food and that food can connect people was shown in a collection of produce donated by plotholders for local charity City Harvest London (Acton branch): ‘PattyPans’, marrows, pumpkins, courgettes, apples, plums, rainbow
chard (see photo below). City Harvest, established in 2014 to form London’s first food redistribution charity, redistributes food to some of Ealing’s most vulnerable residents, those facing good poverty. Some plotholders are also warehouse volunteers at the charity. By sharing nourishing food together at their annual picnic, and in giving to City Harvest,AGA partook in a simple yet powerful way to show care.
Dr Julie Greenhough
Acton Gardening Association
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46 | Issue 1 2025 | Allotment and Leisure Gardener