Edible Open Gardens in Hastings and St Leonards opening gates to the public

The first weekend of July will see the inaugural Edible Open Gardens event, designed to encourage and celebrate local food growing projects of all sizes. A diverse range of spaces including home gardens, “guerilla” plots and commercial small holdings will be welcoming visitors for free tours and a chance to meet local food champions.

The event is coordinated by Town Grown, a Transition Town Hastings project launched in early 2022 amid growing concerns about food sovereignty, spiralling food prices and the biodiversity crisis. Since its launch, Town Grown has been hosting free talks, workshops and guides aiming to encourage more people to grow more of their own fresh produce, regardless of space, experience and resources.

The best way to learn is to see it done.

Edible Open Gardens was inspired by the popularity of tours coordinated by Town Grown to local farms and orchards that gave visitors a chance to meet and learn from experienced growers with expansive plots. This new event will cover a greater variety in scale; large local enterprises along with smaller domestic gardens, container planting and permaculture projects in pockets of underused green spaces around the town.

A total of eighteen different venues are taking part with a chance to meet the growers, talk about their project and learn from their experience.

Permaculture author and a founding member of Town Grown said: “There is a huge amount of talent and passion for food growing in our town that we want to celebrate with this event, and create an opportunity for growers to share their knowledge and experience with those either currently or interested in growing their own food.”

It is hoped that Edible Open Gardens, supported this year by Sussex Community Foundation, will become an annual event to promote access to affordable local fresh fruit and vegetables.

Times and locations can be found on the Town Grown website: towngrown.co.uk