It’s National Gardening week and Metro Mayor Dan Norris met Bath-based Roots to find out just how they’re helping Bathonians to live “the good life”.
The Metro Mayor, who is running an ‘Eat Local’ campaign celebrating local produce, met friends and founders Ed Morrison, brothers Will and Josh Gay and Christian Samuels to hear how they are getting green-fingered Bathonians planting in their own kitchen gardens.
The four set up Roots, an organisation that sets up and runs allotments. They serve over 200 happy Bath gardeners and are actively looking for sites in Bristol, with hopes to establish a garden there in the summer.
The Mayor also learnt how the four are turning their backs on traditional techniques of digging, turning and forking to keep microscopic allies in the soil alive and so give the environment a much-needed lift. The founders said the allotment is “the first organic no-dig site of its kind in the world”.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris said: “Allotments are so important. Fresh air, exercise and good local food. This is a really important initiative which will help Bathonians cut down their impact on our planet. And with the cost of living soaring, I know more and more families are struggling right now, and so initiatives like these getting people growing and eating as seasonally as possible and giving everyone access to fresh, sustainable and tasty West of England produce are so important”.