The Greening Petersfield campaign has rented the water meadow from the retail giant for £1 a year over the next 10 years, and it intends to transform the area into a space for residents to grow their own produce and picnic in.

Solicitors are completing the formalities of the contract later this week, and once this is done Greening Petersfield will start work to organise what fruit and vegetables residents want to see grown there.

The main purpose of the garden is to reduce food miles.

It has not been decided whether produce grown by residents will be for personal consumption, or whether they will be donated or sold to the town's restaurants, poorer people in the community or charity groups.

However, Greening Petersfield is certain that it wants as many residents in the town as possible to become involved with the project and have their say.

Greening Petersfield chairwoman Terena Plowright, of Bramble Road, said: "If you want to take part and you live in Petersfield then it is your right to be involved.

"We want everyone who has a view to have the opportunity to say something.

"You can have your say, you can have your point of view, you can join a committee, you can do whatever you like. There is no restrictions on the people of Petersfield to be part of this."

Greening Petersfield does not want to restrict the meadow for growing alone.

"It is all up to them (the public), there will be areas for kids, areas for growing – anything can happen," Terena said.

"It could be used to grow a herb garden, cabbages, different types of trees that are now able to grow, such as walnut trees.

"With a space that big, we could have an area for shows or events like apple pressing days.

"Who knows what interesting ideas we could get from people?"

Greening Petersfield first looked into the idea of a community garden after an appetite for it was revealed at a public meeting eight months ago.

"We began to look at what options there were," Terena explained.

"One of our girls, Tracy Chandler, literally walked around the entire town and looked at all the different bits of land that were not being used for anything in particular, and listed them.

"East Hampshire District Council then helped us find out who owned what, and we found that the water meadow was owned by Tesco. So I literally walked into the Tesco store and asked to speak to the manager.

"I asked him if we could use the land, he said he would speak to head office, and head office said we could." Terena said one objective of the community garden was to catalogue and protect the existing wildlife which lived there.

She added the stream which runs through the meadow was included in the lease.

"We have spoken to the Environment Agency and we are aware that the meadow is prone to flooding," Terena said.

"But I cannot see that being much of a problem for growing lettuces.