19th August, 2013

Contributor: Brussels

a free grow-your-own kit to help anyone interested set up an environmentally friendly kitchen garden in the heart of the city.

Context

Encouraging people to grow some of their vegetables is a cornerstone of the Brussels-Capital Region’s action program “sustainable food”. 85% of Brussels citizens have access to a garden or a terrace, 19% are already growing their own vegetables, fruit or herbs and 27% are keen to have a kitchen garden of their own.

Growing your own vegetables is a step towards greater autonomy in terms of food security in the city. To help Brussels residents set up their own urban kitchen garden (in open soil, on a balcony, terrace, or in pots), Brussels Environment developed the grow-your-own kit.

The objective of this kit is two-fold:

• to serve as a means (of communication), a starting point, to motivate and help as many Brussels residents as possible to start growing their own vegetables.
• to encourage the Brussels population to eat more fresh, local and seasonal produce by making them aware of the advantages of setting up their own kitchen garden (health, flavour, cost, knowing where their food comes from…).

The project targets all families/private citizens in Brussels who are keen to have a vegetable garden of their own (no experience required) and have access to a garden, balcony, terrace or a flat roof.

What is the result?

Since 2012, Brussels residents have been able to order the grow-your-own kit at the start of the growing season (April) free of charge (by telephone or via the website).

The kit comes with an information booklet, 4 types of easy-to-grow seeds (this year, the kit contained courgette, parsley, cut-and-come-again salad leaves and claytonia seeds) and is followed by a monthly electronic newsletter with an overview of what growers should be doing that month to ensure that the 4 different types of plants continue to thrive by giving them clever tips and advice, not to mention recipes. For that reason, anyone applying for a kit is also asked to provide an e-mail address.

The kits are also distributed at various events organised by Brussels Environment and its partners (non-profit associations), active in this particular field. Our partners even created a display kitchen garden so that passers-by could see the result there and then and ask questions if they wished.

The first grow-your-own kit distributed in 2012 was a success. Within 2 months, we distributed 4.950 kits and only 10% of the 150 survey respondents indicated they were not overly happy with their grow-your-own kit. 66% of survey respondents had never grown any vegetables before and were encouraged to do so thanks to the kit. In 2013, during the second edition of this campaign, we are distributing 7.500 grow-your-own kits.

The kits are complemented by other tools:

• Free helpdesk: where specialists answer and resolve all sorts of technical (kitchen garden) questions and problems by e-mail or phone.
• 20 thematic information factsheets: on crop rotation, soil care, shade gardens, growing vegetables in pots, irrigation techniques, storing produce… available online: www.leefmilieubrussel.be/moestuin.
• Free beginner courses:  covering a range of very concrete topics tailored to the Brussels context of tiny urban kitchen gardens on balconies, terraces or in small gardens. Participants have an “à la carte” choice and every course comprises a theoretical section followed by a visit to the kitchen garden.
• Network of Master Vegetable Growers: A Master Vegetable Grower is someone who, after having followed in-depth training, is happy to share his/her knowledge, experience and passion for vegetable gardening with Brussels citizens on a voluntary basis. They can give people the extra push they need during a face-to-face chat at one of their stands. The network currently includes 50 master vegetable growers whose contact details can be found on the website.

What are the benefits? 

Environmental

• Growing your own vegetables reduces our carbon footprint provided no chemicals are used. Home-grown vegetables do not need to be transported, contribute to the city’s biodiversity and are good for both fauna and flora.
• Grow-your-own gives people access to healthy, fresh vegetables while promoting the consumption of local and seasonal produce.
• A kitchen garden enhances a balcony, a terrace, garden or flat roof.

Social

• Gardening is a calming, relaxing activity that brings people closer to nature.

Economical

• Harvesting your own produce reduces the amount of money spent on vegetables.
• Home-grown vegetables are also cheaper than those you buy in the shops.

Discuss pro and contra…

The public at large seems to be taken by the idea of growing their own vegetables. The pleasure of eating your own produce, the flavour, the fairly easy start, knowing where the vegetables on your plate come from… all reasons that have captured the population’s imagination. We can safely say that the project has been a tremendous success, with both advantages and disadvantages though:

To get the grow-your-own kit, people had to subscribe to the monthly newsletter by means of an email address. Registering these details is quite time-consuming. However, a conscious decision had been taken to get some form of “commitment” and not to hand out the kits willy-nilly. The newsletter provided an added value of the project, but people who do not have access to an email address missed out on this opportunity.

Purchasing the seeds, the packaging and sending out the kits proved expensive. However, the fact that the kits are offered free of charge has certainly added to their success.

In 2013, several Brussels partners helped distribute the kits which allowed to reach a wider target audience. That having been said, recovering all the e-mail addresses from the various partners and managing the distribution and follow-up was not an easy matter.

What are the lessons learnt for other partner cities?

It is vital that grow-your-own kits come with all the relevant practical and concrete information (sowing and harvesting period, sowing distance and depth, position, height, specific growing tips… per type of seed), written in clearly intelligible language so that people can start growing without having to search for information. The kit must also be suited to an urban environment: often people do not have access to a large garden but to a terrace or balcony in the shade, where the available space is limited or polluted. So it is vital to include tips for people who are confined to growing vegetables in pots, boxes….

It is important that seed varieties are chosen that germinate readily, produce results fast, and do not easily succumb to pests and even thrive in the shade.

At that, the kits must also contain tips on how to deal with slugs and bugs because these tend to be the most common causes of crop failures and of people throwing in the towel.

Communication and distribution are also crucial. Collaboration with partners can help with the distribution, help spread the word, they have a wealth of experience and knowledge and can therefore come up with different tips and ideas. Children (schools) are also excellent messengers for such project because they can encourage their families to start a vegetable garden of their own.

Question to the network

This year we distributed an extra 2.500 grow-your-own kits (7.500 in all), yet, come the end of August, we still have 500 kits left. Distribution is no longer as straight forward in other words. Has it become harder to reach the target audience? Has, two years on, the initiative lost its relevance (the grow-you-own initiatives, boxes, books… are now readily available)? Would it be worth rerunning the scheme next year? How can we renew our formula?