Market Garden Landmatch

What if we connected landowners with growers to increase vegetable production in Herts?

What’s the idea?

We could match people who have land they're not using with people who want to grow vegetables but don't have anywhere to do it. A simple brokering process — registering interest on both sides and helping make introductions — could turn spare fields, paddocks or corners of farms into new market gardens, creating a route into growing for people who don't currently have land of their own.

Why is it needed?

Land access is one of the biggest barriers to starting a market garden, and England has no government-funded land-matching service (unlike Scotland and Wales), so growers and landowners have few ways to find each other. Matching schemes like this help unlock idle land, support local food production, and give new growers a way in.

Where is this already being done?

• Landmatch England — a national service matching agroecological growers with landowners, with around 300 registered and 12 confirmed matches so far.

• Grow and Graze (Burnley Food Link) — matches livestock farmers with spare land to horticultural growers in Lancashire.

• Our Food 1200 (Monmouthshire) — a Welsh land-matching scheme that has placed growers on rented farmland.

• Future Farms Partnership (Powys) — a council-led pilot putting 36 acres of public land into horticultural use.

• OxFarmToFork (Good Food Oxfordshire) — a county food-partnership project pushing for more local market gardens and connecting growers with buyers.

Want to help make this happen?

Please get in touch if you have land, are looking for land, or are in a position to help make this happen.