Open Garden Squares Weekend 2011 took place after the driest spring for a
hundred years, and I set out on
Saturday to see how some of London's gardens were coping with the drought.
(Click on a garden name for further information. Click on a photo to
enlarge.)
 |
At Caledonian Park it was good to see the development of a
community orchard taking place, as part
of the regeneration of the large Metropolitan Cattle Market site. A dozen
fruit trees - apples, pears and plums -
have been planted in a wildflower area, and as there was no water supply,
all the water to keep the trees going
had to be brought in by dedicated local people from the park's users
group.
|
 |
From here I cycled to the
Alara Garden, a creative stretch of
planting alongside a railway line on the
edge of an industrial estate on Camley Street. There are apricot and
pomegranate trees, with more unusual
bushes of feijoa and ugni, and tiny plots of rocket and asparagus. This
small site even has a hive and a pond. |
 |
It was a short cycle to the
Skip Garden, at the side of St
Pancras station. These gardens in skips are
great fun – and at just after noon their genial gardener, Paul Richens, had
already reported 60 visitors coming as
part of OGSW. The skips are used to show young people how to grow broad
beans, sweet peas, herbs and
flowers, and one has even been covered to use as a greenhouse, with sweet
potatoes growing inside. The
skips have been on site for two years and will be relocated in the autumn
when the site is needed for development.
These three gardens were signed up to the Mayor of
London's initiative to support 2012 new food growing areas in time for
next year's Olympics, which has now
reached halfway towards its target. In London, even very small gardens
contribute towards the quality of urban life.
|
|
I parked the bike at King's Cross and took the Northern line to see
the Growing Garden Project at Deen City Farm.
Walking along the Wandle River, I saw a young couple with
their small child taking two ferrets
for a walk to the farm. Deen City Farm has been encouraging animal
husbandry and growing of produce in urban
areas for decades now, and their garden is a wonderful educational
resource, with a grass maze, pond,
vegetable and herb beds and a Hänsel and Gretel-style house made of
squashed plastic bottles. Children
absolutely loved it. |
 |
Back to the Northern Line and I walked from Kennington station to
Walworth Allotments, a small
unofficial site, started by local people in the 1970s, which is a
creative collection of small plots with fruit trees,
runner beans, flowers and herbs, in a pocket of land underneath railway
arches. Tea and cakes were on offer,
and a quick survey of the garden revealed a sleeping fox cub under the
runner beans. |
|
A short walk away was
Walworth Garden Farm, which is not a farm
but an educational project
which runs training programmes in gardening skills, and works with people
with learning disabilities. There is a
wonderful demonstration beehive tucked away in a corner, and interesting
plants everywhere you look. A cherry
tree laden with fruit showed that the hard winter
and dry spring did not seem to have prevented a good harvest here at any
rate.
|
 |
Finally I called in at
Gardening Leave, a therapeutic project working with former soldiers
in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. The garden is enormous
and very peaceful, with a
relaxing sense of space and of being in the country. Giant plane trees
shade one side of the site,
and there is a small corner of fruit, flowers and vegetables grown as
part of the project. You could
imagine it would be a restorative place in which to work. |
 |
On Sunday I took a look at two garden squares normally closed to the
public. Lloyd Square
reported a surprising number of OGSW visitors despite the rainy
weather. Normally we
Londoners all grumble about the rain but this year rain has been so rare
that we were almost dancing in it.
I was told by the knowledgeable friendly people on the entrance stand
that the square is late
Georgian with Palladian houses built around a formal square, marking the
development of housing for
a new class which could afford servants. The garden features big limes
which scent the air, and
restful herbaceous planting that is tended with
care. It's a very pleasant tranquil space. A large building to the east
was formerly a convent and is
now sheltered housing, for which the garden helps to create a restful
environment. This garden
area is completely different from nearby Upper Street and shows the
infinite variety in character of London's local green spaces.
|
 |
It was a short walk to Bloomsbury's
Mecklenburgh Square, which
is a large open
space with four towering plane trees in the centre. They reported 25
visitors early on a rainy
Sunday afternoon. Its location next to two other open spaces (Brunswick
Square and Coram's
Fields) makes it a haven for wildlife, especially birds, as the three
gardens together make up a huge
open space, remarkable given the central London location. The central bed
is planted with nandina
and honey spurge. A giant lime tree fills the air with perfume and there
are big myrtles and olearia to
one side. One special feature of this garden is the collection of New
Zealand shrubs tucked away
here and there, with plant list available for the keen student of
antipodean flora. There are
welcoming and friendly people on hand to explain the history and planting
in the square. |
 |
I walked to Kings Cross and took a train to Peckham from London Bridge to
the Centre for
Wildlife Gardening, where a welcoming entrance mural leads you into a
small garden
demonstrating a variety of different habitats, including meadows and
ponds. It's in a residential area
and a bit off the beaten track. The Centre is run by the London Wildlife
Trust, which has just
launched a report London - Garden City, highlighting the value of urban
gardens. |
As ever with the Open Garden Squares Weekend, it is a joy to get out and
to see so many different
London gardens thriving after this difficult year (and let's hope for a
bit more rain...)
