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Video: A veggie garden right in the art of the city
Farmer's wife Justine Gaunt has brought a rural vegetable garden to the heart of a city. She explains why.
At some point last year I voiced the idea that it would be interesting to plant a vegetable garden in a gallery space in downtown Leeds.
When its directors suggested I put my money where my mouth was and go ahead, I began to wonder whether I should have kept my mouth shut.
I live on a working farm, but I'm probably not very outdoorsy. I have turned my hand to growing pumpkins or beetroot in the past. But growing a vegetable garden – a hortuseum or portable potager was something else.
It meant growing a full complement of varieties and then transferring the whole lot, at the height of summer, plant by fully-grown plant, into a pristine gallery space in central Leeds.
It was probably, on reflection, something of a tall order.
I didn't appreciate the scale of it to begin with. I bought seeds, planted them in root trainers, watered them, marvelled at how soon they became seedlings, re-potted them in a horse manure-rich compost I whipped up in the barn, fed them, and watered them some more.
My greenhouse filled up with foliage alarmingly quickly and was soon crammed full of beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkins, strawberries, salad, figs and peppers. And I grew a score of aubergine plants in the bathroom.
At this point I will admit that I had a secret weapon in reserve just in case.
Step forward Gardener of the Year and head gardener at Harewood House, Trevor Nicholson.
The portable potager idea has been part of a contemporary art project called Town and Country, a collaboration between Project Space Leeds and Harewood House, so it seemed a shame not to enlist the services and superior knowledge of Mr Nicholson.
We agreed that he'd grow brassicas, as all my past efforts have ended up as a sprawling mass of caterpillars.
I spent a day with a LandRover and horsebox transporting my precious cargo into town, defying traffic wardens and placing the rows and rows of pots into a 7m by 3m gravel bed. Trevor Nicholson's magnificent brassicas put my rather homespun vegetables to shame – local farmers have marvelled at the broccoli and cauliflower he has produced.
And his kale and red cabbage have introduced incredible texture and colour to the finished work.
The challenge remains to keep it all alive – and then, of course, to enjoy the harvest of our beautiful artwork.
www.projectspaceleeds.org.uk. PSL, Whitehall Waterfront, 2 Riverside Way, Leeds, LS1 4EH, 12-5pm Wed to Sat. Entry free. For more information, contact info@projectspaceleeds.org.uk or call 07930 236383.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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