British Homegardens

Understanding the levels of agrobiodiversity found in allotments in Kent.

This project aimed to better understand the levels of agrobiodiversity found in homegardens. By focusing on particular plant species rather than homegardens as a whole we have been able to understand how exchanges of plants, their products, and associated knowledge are structured, and the extent and economic importance of these exchange networks.

There are many kinds of gardens, including show gardens and small holdings, as well as the more familiar ‘back’ garden. We are increasingly referring to those kinds of gardens that are more intimately linked to individual households as ‘homegardens’. There is a growing body of knowledge and research surrounding homegardens globally as scientists begin to recognise their importance, in terms of not only biological but also cultural diversity, as people invest gardens with their own knowledge and identities which in turn has a selective impact on plants and encourages diversity.

The maintenance of homegarden diversity is associated with different kinds of exchange – exchange of seeds or plants, exchange of knowledge, exchange of plant products. These exchanges occur along social networks such as those between friends, family and neighbours, but also within formal and informal markets. The successful functioning of these networks makes an important contribution to the ‘household economy’ in its widest sense.

Agriculture in the UK has grown in scale commercially and technologically, and this has gone hand in hand with the simplification of its biodiversity. This means that a great deal of plant diversity, particularly non-commercial diversity, has become more dependant upon gardens, both productive and ornamental, for its continued existence. At the same time, the homegarden as a means of production is currently undergoing a revival. However, no one has convincingly looked at what such a shift might entail empirically for households, local land-use, plant diversity and social networks. This project addresses these issues by drawing on methods from two particular fields: ethnobotany and economic anthropology.

Objectives

We wanted to know where seed and other plant material came from, whether it was purchased or obtained informally, who gave and received it; who received vegetable produce, and the economic scale of such exchanges. We wished to learn how people learn to become good homegardeners. Whilst biological diversity in itself is important, so are the skills and knowledge that maintain it.

Fieldwork

We began by exploring allotments in Canterbury and Whitstable, Kent. Allotments constitute a special kind of homegarden and by virtue of their regulated structure and formalised membership, provide the perfect test bed in which to develop research methods pertinent and appropriate to the analysis of UK homegardens and their socio-economic and biological importance. In the latter part of the project we looked at domestic gardens attached to houses, and at the plants that people kept in their houses.

1. an inventory of biological resources and their use from different kinds of homegardens (including allotments) in Kent,
2. an account of the social networks through which plants and knowledge are exchanged, and
3. a description of the level of economic significance to the household of homegardening activities.

The project also developed a framework that has enabled the wider study of UK homegardens, as well as further cross-cultural comparisons.

1. the extent to which gardens are sites of important biodiversity,
2. the recognition of gardens and gardening activities as places and practices for learning about plants and their cultivation, and
3. the level to which gardening and gardening produce can make significant economic contributions to the household.

In essence this research is making a useful contribution to current community building programmes, particularly in the area of developing food security and resilience at the local level.

Although the focus of this project is largely ethnobotanical and ethnographic it is also of relevance to conservation. If we can better understand the factors that encourage or enable exchanges within the domain of homegardens we can better understand how to foster and maintain our diversity of knowledge and resources.

Methods

We have used two complementary and overlapping methodological approaches. Using ethnobotanical methods focussed upon garden mapping activities we have catalogued the plants found in homegardens and how people are using them, where and how gardeners acquired these plants and the knowledge surrounding them. Drawing on models (exchange, informal economy) and research methods (particularly structured interviewing and participant observation) from economic anthropology, we have measured the diversity and flow of plants and plant products within and between gardening sites: within the household, between other gardens and households, through friendship ties and relations bound by voluntary association, through produce shows, farm shops, boot fairs and other interfaces with the wider economy.

Publications

Ellen, RF and SJ Platten 2011. The social life of seeds: the role of networks of relationships in the dispersal and cultural selection of plant germplasm. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 17, 563-584.

Gilbert, PR 2012. Deskilling, agrodiversity, and the seed trade: a view from contemporary British allotments. Agriculture and Human Values. 30(1), 101-114.

Ellen, RF and R Komaromi 2013. Social exchange and vegetative propagation: an untold story of British potted plants.Anthropology Today 29 (1), 3-7.

Platten, S 2013. Plant exchange and social performance: implications for knowledge transfer in British allotments. In Understanding cultural transmission in anthropology: a critical synthesis, edited by Roy Ellen, Stephen J. Lycett and Sarah E. Johns. [Methodology and History in Anthropology, 26] New York, Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 300-19.

Wildhaber, C. 2010. A Comparative Study of Rural and urban Allotments in Gravesham, Kent. In Ethnobotany in the New Europe, edited by M Pardo, A. Pieroni and R. Puri. Chapter 16. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.