Whether or not you have your own garden, you should still have access to growing space. Where councils are not providing allotments, or space for food growing, communities are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. If you do not already have a community food growing project in your area, perhaps you should be the one to get one off the ground? Whether you are already involved in a community project, or are thinking about getting one started, there are many reasons why polytunnels for community projects make a whole lot of sense. Here are just some of the reasons why you should invest in a polytunnel for your community project:
A polytunnel can protect your growing crops from a variety of pests and reduce the likelihood of certain plant diseases taking hold. No matter the weather outside, crops inside your polytunnel can still thrive. This means that your community will be more secure in its food security – better able to feed itself come rain or shine.
In a polytunnel, the season will not begin after the last frost and more or less end after the first one. Your community will not be left without recourse when the growing season outside has come to an end, but rather will be able to enjoy the fruits of your labours all year round.
A secure and successful community is one that is as self-reliant as possible. A polytunnel helps in this not only by allowing food to be grown year round but also by increasing the crop yield in a given space. Land is often at a premium, so the more you can do to improve and increase the harvest from a given piece of land the better.
Since polytunnels are covered and keep off the weather, they also make wonderful meeting spaces. Meeting spaces are vitally important in any community, since they bring people together. What is more, whatever activities take place in a polytunnel, working on projects together can help remind people that they have more in common than that which divides them.
Placing a vital growing area at the heart of a community can also promote good health amongst the people of that group. Growing good, organic food will, or course, improve the local diet – but a community project of this type can also promote good health in a range of other ways. Community members working in a polytunnel on common goals can improve physical fitness and has also been proven to be beneficial to mental health and well-being.
