Green Momentum

August 14th, 2009

Green Celebrity and The Allotment Storage …

British Film Director and green celebrity Guy Ritchie who resides in Ashcombe House, near Salisbury, has submitted plans to Wiltshire Council to make his 18th Century property ‘more self-sufficient’.

It is his intention to install greenhouses, vegetable plots and fruiteries at the £9 million estate, which was given to him following his divorce from Madonna.

The part-walled gardens leading from the back door to the staff building will be turned over to vegetables and given a row of greenhouses to produce vines, fruit, early vegetables and seedlings.  The low-level soil heating will be provided by green energy, via the woodchip boiler situated within the staff block.

The application went onto to state that the ‘produce from the greenhouses will be used on the estate, all part of a very admirable effort to make the estate more self-sufficient and sustainable.

Meanwhile on the other side of life….

The growing popularity of allotments has meant that local Councils, Poole Council included are seeking ways of providing more allotments.

The Poole model provides a good example of the national allotment shortage. Currently there are eight allotment sites in the borough containing 409 plots. However, there are 715 people on the waiting list who could have to wait 18 years before being able to plant their own fruit and veg – or may never get one at all.

“Waiting lists in Poole are considerable and if the current turnover of plots is maintained some applicants may never be allocated a plot in their lifetime,” said a report that went before councillors.

It seems that a simple patch of land to grow your own fruit and veg is yet another shining example of the great divide in the UK today.

Tags: Allotments, Green celebrity, grow your own, Guy Ritchie, Local Council | Posted in Local Councils, Sustainability