IF you listen very carefully there is a faint hum of traffic from somewhere beyond the treeline.

But otherwise there's no clue that this green growing oasis sits in a city.

The Urban Croft has been thriving at the edge of Queen's Park Recreation Ground since 2014 when local charity South Seeds decided that offering raised beds to tenement dwellers would be an effective way to give locals a taste of growing their own vegetables.

Tennis courts next to Queen's Park Bowling Club were cleared to make way and, in 2015, the first would-be gardeners moved in to take over 28 small plots.

Those chosen to take part - there are routinely more than 60 applications - would normally arrive on site in March but this year big decisions had to be made about how to manage the Urban Croft as news of the coronavirus pandemic broke and life as we knew it altered.

"The first thing was to decide to keep it ticking over," says Eric Gardner, community Gardener Trainer with South Seeds. ("You could say I've always been a gardener," he adds when we're introduced).

"Way back in February you could see there was a risk of lockdown or something like it but you didn't know when.

"I held fire until the first three week review and then, when it became obvious that it wasn't just going to be a quick fix, we had to make the decision do we plant things up that might have a chance of growing or do we leave it?

"If you left it, it would be hopeless in my opinion, as lots of plants have to be in the ground fairly early, so I decided I would just do it."

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Tending to the croft became Eric's lockdown routine. Living around half an hour's walk away, he would come down each day to weed out the beds and then plant them with rows of beans, carrots, spinach while lettuce, kale and courgette plants came on in the site's mini greenhouses.

Tendrils of beans wind their way up bamboo poles, putting out their distinct pink flowers, while beetroot and onions swell from the soil all thanks to Eric's dedication during lockdown.

He also prepared bags of potatoes for his plot holders' arrival - despite not knowing exact when that would be.

Of the first 100 days of lockdown, Eric was on site 98 of those to make sure the croft didn't become overgrown or unmanageable.

But the former orthopaedic surgeon had company at the site. He points out a filthy old jacket hanging over the edge of a wooden pergola.

"In the hood of the jacket was a wren's nest with baby wrens. They were tiny and there were four of them scooting about there," he said.

"They were going into the mini greenhouses and eating any bugs that were there so they were having a great time.

"That jacket, although it's absolutely scabby, is staying there in case the wren comes back next year."

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There were also, he said, "slugs and snails who had a field day" because there is a no-chemical policy at the Urban Croft.

Normally plot holders would be chosen from application forms, a process Eric says is difficult, but he knows what he's looking for in his trainee gardeners.

He said: "We do this because we're providing a space for people who live in tenement flats who don't have a garden, don't have an allotment, don't have the opportunity to grow anything other than the odd pot plant on a window sill.

"It's amazing how many people say they remember helping in their grandmother's garden.

"There was one girl who was from the islands and she used to help her grandmother on the croft and she was amazing.

"I put a question in the application form which simply asks what would people like to grow and if people put down a selection of vegetables that will grow very successfully in this area then that ticks the box.

"If anybody puts down something they would like to grow but that is impossible, that's them talking themselves out of a plot basically."

Once the successful applications are chosen they would normally come on site around March with Eric giving sessions on planting, pests, weeding, composting - everything a novice plot holder needs to know.

This year the sessions had to be done one-to-one, making the process time consuming.

By the time lockdown was eased enough to allow the new gardeners on site, growing season was well underway.

"They were just here in time to harvest the vegetables after me doing all the hard work," Eric added.

Given the need for social distancing, technology has helped with an Urban Croft WhatsApp group providing a space for sharing tips and advice.

Eric said: "People can send in photos of dodgy looking plant problems while I keep sending messages saying "Pick your beans!"

Husband and wife Charlie and Vicki Fraser-Hopewell have taken on a raised bed for a third year, having helped with the clearing of the tennis courts right back at the beginning of the Urban Croft.

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Their young daughter loves coming with them to the allotment, which has been a haven during the lockdown.

Vicki said: "Being in a tenement we don't have the room at the back to have a raised bed the size of this one and there are eight people in the tenement so it's not the friendliest thing to take over the garden."

Charlie added: "Having Eric and South Seeds doing the maintenance while we couldn't get in has made it more worthwhile. If we had just got in now then we would have had nothing but a few sad patches of lettuce, which grows quickly but is not that interesting.

"So because of Eric's work, when we came in it was quite well established."

Virginnie Chabral and James Wright are both first time plot holders who were keen to expand their gardening skills after successfully growing courgettes in their tenement back garden.

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Virginnie said: "But our garden is really small so we can't really grow more things but we were in contact with South Seeds for other projects and that's how we learned about this."

James said the diversity of the plots is normally a good way to learn new skills from other people but this year the raised beds were uniformly planted by Eric.

He and Virginnie have branched out by adding some radishes and are making the most of Eric's wealth of knowledge to find out as much as they can.

James said: "As well as giving some meaning to spending time outside it makes you look at things differently. You start noticing more plants, you're looking at the growth of the blackberries and wondering when they are going to be ripe, the apple trees that are just hiding away."

Virginnie added: "We tend to make jokes about children now, they don't really know where a carrot comes from.

"But when arrived we don't know when to harvest the beetroot or when to harvest the carrots.

"We think we know a lot of this stuff but then we realise we are quite disconnected actually from where our food comes from.

"Being able to ask someone who has a lifetime of hands-on experience like Eric does is brilliant.

"Being here is wonderful."