We are doing a lecture about our work on our project about community gardens and participatory design on 11th June at 1530 hours. Please come if you can!
Tag Archives: re-use
canny planting
An important part of being a canny gardener is thinking about how to do the most with least (thereby save money). Some could be about buying perennials, some could be about plants that re-seed/re-grow by themselves every year and some about plants that do two or three things. Here are some easy plants that have worked for me because they are easy, need little watering and resistant to common pests while attracting bees and good insects.
- Eating and looking/smelling good– Edible Chrysanthemums, Chopsuey greens (extreme right), pansies and lavender. Shown below (left) is the edible chrysanthemums and my thai rice noodle made with it. I am going to use the flowers and the pansies, along with the nasturtiums to make a ‘flower salad’ later.
- Buy one and get many for free– Calla lilies, Hosta, Alpine sedum, mint (both mint and sedum work well as ground cover, saving time on weeding. Shown below is my Hosta plant which has had many babies and survived slug onslaughts (slugs love Hosta). When the leaves are young, you can eat them as greens.
- Reseeding by themselves- Mexican Daisy, poppies and Marigold. White flowers spring through fall. All needs medium to low water. With the daisies, you can also divide and get many from one small pot that you buy.
- Perennials– Clematis, Agapanthus, Lobellia Fan Scarlet, Canna (many of the South African flowering plants will also grow in the UK and Europe, needing only little watering and care and producing gorgeously vivid blooms) . Shown from left to right are the Californian poppy (that occasionally becomes perennial!, calla lily and agapanthus, Erysimum (Bowles Mauve) and Clematis.
- Useful weeds– Herb Robert, Dandelion, common geranium, nettles- I have got these free from the heavens- they are medicinal herbs, good for bees and grow with no problems! Shown below are nettles which I use for food, fertiliser and tea and also wild geraniums.
A community garden takes shape
For the last year I have been involved in the designing of a community garden in East London. I have set up a charity which undertakes this kind of work- part architectural, part landscape design- using community engagement as a tool to do this work. We have worked in a number of different countries- India, Venezuela and Palestine and now, in the UK. To see more of our work, do have a look at Charushila. This project is a community allotment and seating area in a green space attached to a housing block in Hoxton.
The first part of this project was the community consultation on what was needed and who could help us. This part was called ‘Everyday on the Canalside’. This part of the project was funded by Metropolitan Housing who own this site. Owing to the diverse nature of the community, we worked with Counterpoints Arts (a migration charity), Shoreditch Trust (a youth charity) and Marcia Chandra, a local photographer. Our work involved consultation with the residents, local community and businesses; and meetings with Metropolitan Housing. In June 2014, we organised a community fun day with pottery and gardening workshops run by local organisations. Finally in November 2014, we put up sketches of the proposed design for a final consultation with residents and businesses.
The second part of the project, which started in parallel with the first phase, runs until March 2015 when we will be constructing the seating and allotment garden. For this part we are working with Groundworks Trust, St Mary’s secret garden (a local charity), Turning Earth Ceramics and Gareth Shiels, a stone sculptor. We are using reclaimed stones and paving bricks to create the seating, discarded broken pottery in the allotment beds and animal manure. We received a grant from the Mayor of London’s Pocket Park programme. Groundwork London is administering the Community Strand on behalf of the Mayor. We are going to have a planting day on 28th March, so if you are in the area, please come along.
Starting out
This is the photo of the patio which I hope to transform the next few months before I go on holiday. As you can see, it has rather ugly concrete paving which have become pretty from the weeds growing in between. My neighbour religiously pulls these out but I think they give a character to the space. You can also see the pallets which I found outside in my street- which are now transformed into fences and will become supports for the plants. I also found the concrete blocks in a skip and the builder was very happy for me to take them. These act to prevent the fence from toppling in the high winds and also support the pots.
The Canny Gardener 