Radio Walks – The Urban Gardener, Kate Poland.  “Everyone has a right to access nature and green spaces. It should not be a privilege. Growing stuff is political and empowering: putting a seed in the ground and creating something is a rebellious act”.  

In the winter of 2010 Kate Poland set up a community garden on some disused land near her home in Hackney, east London. The garden thrived but the landowners evicted them in 2019 to develop the land. Kate wasn’t able to save that garden, but she set up the Union of Hackney Gardens, Orchards and Wild Spaces as a support network to train, share resources, and campaign for green spaces. There are now 71 gardens in the union. 

 Join Kate as she guides Jonathan Kempster through the terrifying urban landscape to find sanctuary in the ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’.  (Photograph by Zainab Hazel for the Hackney Citizen).  

https://www.cordwainersgrow.org.uk/

If you know someone who can walk and talk at the same time, or if you'd like to be a guest on the programme, please get in touch via: [email protected]   

Produced by: Jonathan Kempster for Oral History Sound Recording, October 2021.