Films spread ‘grow your own’ message to inner-city families

IRIS LEITE knows a thing or two about gardening and now she is encouraging people to grow their own vegetables.

She is a keen gardener and mentor for a project called Back to Front, which urges local people to plant vegetables in their front gardens in inner-city Leeds. She has helped make a series of three short gardening films which will be shown at an arts event on Saturday.

She said: “We try to grow as much as we can in our front garden, including lettuce, garlic, chives, herbs, beans, peas, kale and pak choi. Some of the neighbours are now beginning to grow things in pots as well.”

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An event, where the films will be shown, will be held at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, in Leeds, on Saturday at 7.15pm. Tickets are available from: www.wyp.org.uk

It will also showcase how the arts benefit health and will include salsa dancing, music and drama. The performance and the films have been organised by Leeds-based arts organisation Space2.

The films give instructions on how to grow a potato, how to make compost and the benefits of gardening and will be available on the Space2 website – www.space2.org.uk – and on Facebook later this summer. The aim is to get 125 inner-city families growing vegetables in their front gardens and yards by the end of the summer.

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