The PhD research subject is community food gardening on six London housing estates. The work is participatory, meaning that I spend time with food growers in their gardeners, working along side them to gain an understanding the practice they are involved in. The main research happened 2010.

In a series of interviews, estate residents explicitly expressed frustration at the “blank”, “bleak”, “disused”, “neglected”, “barren”, “grey” and “derelict” landscapes surrounding their homes, voicing instead a desire to re-use them “productively” through food-gardening. However, the PhD argues that while food is enunciated as the primary concept, it is a set of primary practices, such as the construction of the self-built, food-producing landscape, the creation of shared social narratives and the interaction with natural resources that dominate.

Below are several images taken during the research project.

Brookes Estate

St Johns estate, north London