Dave – the editor

As you can see from the above graphic, today (May 1^st) was a scheduled gardening and clean up session. The location was a trading estate in Laindon, around the unit where one of the Alternative Estuary crew runs his business.

The business owner thought there’s no point just having a bit of grass out at the front of the unit doing nothing. So he decided to put in some raised beds (utilising some old pallets) and start to raise some vegetables. Regular readers of this blog will be aware of our fondness for guerilla gardening and re-purposing otherwise neglected plots of land for the purposes of growing food. This is one of a number of instances where we’re putting our money where our mouths are.

Coming into the latter part of what has been a bit of a chilly spring, a substantial part of today’s exercise was getting these beds dug over and ready for sowing and planting. The hope is that this will yield enough vegetables to give the workers at the business the opportunity to obtain some freshly grown food.

As well as preparing the raised beds, we also gave this end of the trading estate a thorough litter pick and clean up. I work here part time and the last thing I want to see coming down the steps from the road into the yard is the litter that has been allowed to accumulate there. It doesn’t exactly put you in the right frame of mind before a day’s graft, does it?

In what is hopefully, more than a burst of optimism, a few packets of wildflower seeds were scattered on prepared ground at the foot of the slope by the yard:)

Yes, we know the landlords should take responsibility for clearing the litter. Well, they’re not, so if not us, then whom? Also, a bit of pressure in the form of us giving up a Saturday to clean the place up may just shame them into actually undertaking their responsibilities.

Ultimately, today’s action was about taking a little bit of control back over our environment and utilising it to meet our needs. Also, it sends out a signal to the wider public in the area that some of us do care about our surroundings – hopefully they’ll take note of that, respect what we’re trying to achieve and play their part as well.

Lastly, as activists, sometimes we need the therapy and satisfaction of a day’s action where at the end of it, there’s a tangible result. Trust me that as a propagandist, I very rarely get that kind of satisfaction!