Serious Search for Intelligent Gardening Life in London

Hi Garden Friends,

Are we alone in our quest for transforming our neighbourhood with community gardening projects? Surely we can't be the only Goldilocks 'plant-it' in the London universe trying to sustain carbon-based life forms by encouraging planting in public and private spaces.

So here's a space for all you amateur and professional Golden Starthistle gazers to report your sightings. Please share your information, websites, etc on similar programmes you have come across in the London landscape.

Just as one example, our next door neighbour, Islington Council, actively supports its residents to adopt ALL tree pits in Islington, provides free advice and seedlings, sponsors competitions and sharing of information, etc.

Click here for their website:
bit.ly/16Bh2GD

This photo taken from their website has the caption: 'For example, this picture of a tree pit in Rickthorne Road shows what a difference some plants can make.'

                                                              

So every time you sight something of interest along these lines, please add it into the 'Comments' on this blog thread. Maybe we're not alone after all, and falling off the edge of flat Camden might actually allow us to discover some very interesting new worlds out there!

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

So Garden Friends, we've got the mix of 'the good, the bad, and the ugly' on Fordwych Road.

But take heart. To paraphrase Edmund Burke (yet again), 'All that is necessary for the bad and the ugly to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing'. So do keep calm and carry on gardening!

Here's a mix of some of the good, the bad, and the ugly most currently visible on our road:

We're making a statement, one tree at a time, so do keep up the good work and encourage your neighbours to adopt a tree as well. Or if you or your children are members of a club or group, formal or informal, or at work or school, bring it up at a meeting to see if there can be group sponsorship of some of our trees most in need of adoption in our 'No Tree Left Behind' initiative :)

We've been tweeted!

And retweeted by @westhampstead
http://bit.ly/135tK3m
News of the guerrilla gardening  is spreading . . . As is the number of tree pits being greened

More Adoptions

We have been on the look out and we have some more 'Guerrilla gardeners' in the area.
The tree pits at no99-101 higher up fordwych road and at no41 there has been some planting of flowers and other plants. The improvement around the no41 pit has been artistically arranged into pattern.

  We thank all those who have adopted a tree pit and we hope more people do to, keep it up

Adopt a Tree on Fordwych Road

Hi everyone,

I'm the 'Guerrilla Gardener' who started planting around the four trees at the intersection of Fordwych Road and St Cuthbert's Road. It's been an interesting experience in terms of neighbourhood community-building. Similar to having a cute pet or child, 'strangers' who are really our neighbours, would stop and chat pleasantly about the planting when normally we'd just remain invisible to each other. It's nice to see people slowing down a little on our busy street to enjoy a bit of green space and get us back in touch with the earth and the seasons - something our addiction to our mobiles and i-pads as we trod the pavement has tended to crowd out of our lives. Many people said it's more enjoyable to see flowers and plants than it is to see the all-too-often collection of fly-tipping, household trash, and dog waste that tree pits seem to collect along Fordwych Road. So there may be an added benefit of clean up as well as green up.

Whilst it may be new to Fordwych Road, neighbourhoods all over London are busy reclaiming public spaces for a bit of gardening to sooth the soul and spruce up communities. As Pimp Your Pavement says on its website: (It's) "a campaign to plant life in your street. It’s about turning the public realm into a borderless community garden, getting people spilling out of their private space and being creative there. Growing beauty, growing produce, helping nature along the way, it’s all life and it all comes from gardening."

So, if you live in the area, or have a business or a school or place or worship, or whatever, why not join in with Garden Friends NW2 and adopt a tree along Fordwych Road and turn this:


             into this:      

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to the home for the Garden Friends NW2. We are group of local residents who like to garden together and are interested in greening Fordwych Road and developing the garden at St Cuthbert's Church for community members who wish to join Garden Friends NW2 as well. We'll post details of our meetings here and ideas and suggestions from the group as we go along.

You may have seen the lovely planting that has been done around some of the trees near the junction with St Cuthbert's Rd by a founding member of Garden Friends NW2 - we are planning to develop this further and are encouraging people to "adopt a tree" all along the road to "green up and clean up" our neighbourhood for everyone's benefit.