Shared ownership

Land should be shared, not owned; land is a resource, not just an asset. Land Ownership can lead to economic inequality, exploitation and greed.

It is important therefore that the land we grow our gardens on is owned by the whole of the community and individual gardens cannot be sold.

The Ringing Cedar books on the other hand, advocate the ownership of our own little piece of Motherland, in the form of our Garden of Love, so that it is our homeland, that passes to our children and theirs and so on, creating an ancestral home.

The Russian writer and readers of these books therefore ask the Russian government to grant land to people for free, so they may create their space of Love. The intention is that this land cannot be sold, only passed on, and any produce from it will be free of taxes.

In Russia, as well as some former Soviet states governments laws have been passed to make this possible. But this is only possible because they have a lot of land that is owned by the state and unproductive.

In the UK, and other more densely populated countries, most of the land is owned by farmers and wealthy landowners, rather than by the government. This means we can't expect to just be given land: where would it come from?

There are three possible ways to get access to land:

1. We could buy the land. This requires quite a lot of money, but is the preferred method, at least for our first project.
2. We could work together with farmers or land owners, making them participants and fellow Gardians. Together we can 'free' the land, by paying off the cost of the land over a set amount of years. I think this is possible, but only once we can show farmers a working, successful Gardens of Love community.
3. We could rent it from farmers or landowners. This would mean we had little control over the future of our Gardens, and we would have to make sure not to offend the landowner. This method seems the least ideal of the three options.

The next thing to look at is what happens after we have bought the land together. The question is: Do we then each own our own Garden or do we own the whole farm collectively? And what about the shared land and assets?

The book 'Permaculture: A Designers manual' provided an answer:

We can create a trust that will hold the land and shared assets for us. Any land in the trust cannot be sold, only used for growing Gardens of Love. The trust gives out the land to members, who are responsible for caring for their Garden. 

We will not be able to sell our land, but we can pass it on to children or loved ones, and all produce is for us, and we are free to run it as we see fit (within the rules of the law obviously, and with respect to our neighbours).

Shared ownership in this way insures continuity of care:

When a Gardian passes away or decides to leave, the land is passed on to the person they have nominated in their will. (Naturally, if the garden is in the care of a family, the other family members will be the Gardians, and the land will not be passed on to someone else.)

• The new Gardian doesn’t need to pay inheritance tax, and doesn’t gain assets for tax purposes, because the land is owned by the trust and the community behind it. That makes the transfer relatively simple.
• It is possible that this person doesn’t want to, or can’t take on the garden, because to become a Gardian we must agree with the ideal and image of the Gardens of Love, and agree to the rules we have set out. One of those rules is to live in the garden and care for it. Not everyone may be free to leave where they are, or feel that this is the live they choose for themselves. In this case, the trustees will find a suitable Gardian, thus ensuring the garden is taken care of.