The London Garden Book A-Z

Abigail Willis

some extracts from the book

1 London Garden Book A-Z Contents Introduction 1 F Food from the Sky 96 R redcross Garden 182 MEET THE GARDENERS: London Garden History 4 F Front Gardens 98 R rHS Horticultural Halls 184 A Garden Reborn 272 F Frugal Gardening Tips 100 R roof Garden on the Southbank 186 A Wildlife Garden 276 London Gardens A-Z: G The Garden Museum 102 R roots and Shoots 188 Adventures on a Rooftop 280 A Allotments 10 G Geffrye Museum Garden 104 S st Mary’s Secret Garden 192 An Architect’s Garden 282 Cable Street Community Garden 14 G Green Corners 108 S seeds of Italy 194 An Easy Maintenance Garden 286 B Barbican 16 G Guerrilla Gardener 110 S sheds 196 David’s Ecohouse 290 B Barge Gardens 20 H Hall Place and Gardens 114 S skip Garden 198 Lutfun’s Garden 294 B Bees 24 H Ham House 116 S spring Fever in Kew 200 Molly’s Urban Oasis 296 B Beekeeping on RFH 26 H Hampton Court Flower Show 118 S south London Botanical Institute 204 The Exotic Garden 298 B Bonnington Square 28 A gold-medal winning garden 122 S summer in Kew 208 The Shady Garden 300 C Cannizaro Park 32 H Hampton Court Palace Gardens 124 T Thames Barrier Park 210 The Magic Roundabout 304 C Capel Manor Gardens 34 H The Hill Garden & Pergola 128 T Thrive in Battersea 212 The Pie & Mash Garden 306 C Capital Growth 38 H Horniman Museum & Gardens 132 T Topiary 214 The Plantsman 308 Winterton House 40 I Inner Temple Garden 134 U Underground in Bloom 216 The Water Garden 312 Rocky Park Growers 42 J Japanese Kyoto Garden 138 V Vertical Garden – Athenaeum 218 Sue’s Roof Garden 316 Golden Lane 44 K Kensington Roof Gardens 140 V Vertical Veg 220 C Carlyle’s House 46 K Kew Garden in Autumn 144 Mark's Vertical Veg Tips 222 Gardener’s Directory: C Centre for Wildlife Gardening 48 L Livery Company Gardens 146 V Volunteers 224 London Horticultural Societies 320 C Chelsea Flower Show 50 L London Plants 150 W Walled Gardens 226 Allotments 321 C Chelsea Fringe 54 L Lost Gardens of London 154 W Westminster College Garden 230 Gardenblogs & Web Resources 322 C Chelsea Physic Garden 56 M Market Gardens 156 W What will the Harvest be? 232 Organisations 323 C Chiswick House Gardens 60 M Medicinal Garden (RCP) 158 W Wildflower Meadows 234 Garden Events 325 C City Gardens (map) 64 M Myddelton House Garden 160 W Wildlife Garden, NHM 236 Garden Centres 326 C Clifton Nurseries 74 N national Plant Collections 164 W Wildlife Gardening 240 Community Gardens, City Farms & C Cloister Herb Garden 76 O ockendon Road Tree Gardens 166 W Winter at Kew 250 Nature Reserves 329 C Columbia Road Market 78 Ockendon Road's Tree-Pit Tips 168 W Wisley (RHS Garden) 254 Community Orchards 333 C Container Gardening 82 O open Garden Squares Weekend 170 W World’s End Nurseries 258 C Coriander Club 84 O osterley Park 172 W Worshipful Company INDEX 336 C Culpeper Community Garden 86 P Petersham Nurseries 174 of Gardeners 260 D dye Garden at Vauxhall City Farm 88 P Phoenix Garden 176 X X-Factor 262 E eltham Palace 90 P Putting Down Roots 178 Y The Yellow Book 264 F Fenton House 94 Q Queen’s Wood Organic Garden 180 Z Zen Garden 266 B Barge Gardens

Garden designers often talk about getting Connected by ingeniously designed bridges, the ‘movement’ into their creations, but on the garden barges are not just a decorative after-thought: floating gardens at Downings Roads Moorings they act as walkways to the individual houseboats as the movement is for real, generated by the well as accommodating studio apartments. twice-daily ebb and flow of the Thames and the swell of passing river traffic. For those used Architect Nick Lacey is the man behind the to terrestrial gardens the gentle sway can be Moorings’ evolution into a floating garden square disconcerting and visitors are advised to wear (and indeed the gardens do take part in the Open suitable footwear, and to exercise care when Garden Squares Weekend as well as opening for the aboard. NGS). The owner of the moorings, Nick was inspired back in the 80s by seeing a profusion of self-seeded The oldest surviving commercial river moorings plants growing in a silt-filled lighter and the idea of in London (dating from at least the first half of the the barge garden was born. Construction is simple: 19th century), the Downings Roads Moorings are the lighters are decked over with a steel deck which home today to some 30 river vessels converted to produces a planting ‘tray’ about a spit (roughly residential or mixed use. Some berth holders tend 25cms) deep; the studio quarters are housed on the small gardens on their own boats but the barge lower deck. gardens themselves are the main attraction, and are constructed on seven Thames lighters (flat- Off-shore gardening presents unique challenges and bottomed vessels used for unloading larger vessels). simply getting the soil (a rich 50/50 mix of top-soil and farmyard manure) onto the barges was a major 5DowningsLondon Roads Garden Moorings Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 6 Nick was inspired back in the 80s by seeing a profusion of self-seeded plants growing in a silt-filled lighter and the idea of the barge garden was born.

Nick Lacey

operation involving a crane and a lot of spadework. Attracting a bohemian community of human Although the river enjoys a mild microclimate, residents, the barges also appeal to London’s its desiccating winds make watering a constant wildlife, with ducks, coots, moorhens and geese concern; drought-friendly plants are helpful but also making their homes here. Nick is keen to nonetheless in dry weather the gardens need get some bee hives on to the moorings but in the watering every other day. During hosepipe bans meantime wildlife friendly plants such as nepeta the gardens are sustained with water pumped and buddleia keep visiting bees and butterflies from the river which, being silty and full of in nectar. For their creator, the appeal of the nutrients, the plants relish. barge gardens lies in their fundamental difference from buildings – for architect Nick, ‘what is so The barges are planted for year-round interest, wonderful about a garden is that it’s organic, with an eclectic mix of trees and shrubs, softened it develops, it grows, it changes in a way that by informal groupings of perennials and self- buildings find more difficult!’ seeded annuals such as poppies. Trees such as the golden leaved Robinia frisia do surprisingly Downings Roads Moorings well here, obligingly miniaturising themselves to 31 Mill Street, SE1 2AX adapt to the shallow planting depth, and fruit trees www.towerbridgemoorings.org www.ngs.org.uk such as medlar, apple and plum also thrive. Soil www.opensquares.org fertility is kept high by regular compost mulches and the odd seaweed dressing.

28 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 8 B Bonnington Square

Bonnington Square Pleasure Garden

Named with a nod to the Vauxhall Pleasure Garden of old, this resident-run garden square may not have all the diversions offered by its famous forebear but what it lacks in orchestral performances, balloon flights, acrobats and masked balls it makes up in community spirit and charm. The site was developed in its current form in the mid 1990s, when residents successfully lobbied the council to save and redevelop the garden (at that point a derelict children’s playground) for local people. Designed by ‘committee’, Bonnington Square’s enclave of artistically inclined residents fortunately included garden designers Dan Pearson and James Frazer, who between them devised a luxuriant planting scheme, combining semi-tropical and Mediterranean plants with English natives.

The semi-tropical feel of the garden remains today, with lofty palms, Zealand flax, bananas, bamboos and mahonia providing the garden with its architecture and foliage. A small lawned area basks in the garden’s sunlit centre, with benches for relaxing on, a picnic table and a children’s play area among the amenities. Roped border edges and the odd anchor lying around add a faintly nautical feel to proceedings, while a giant iron slip wheel salvaged from a local marble works makes a dramatic sculptural contribution against the far wall. Such is the garden’s exuberance that it has spilled out onto the Square’s surrounding pavements, which have been planted with trees, shrubs and climbers as part of the Bonnington Square Garden Association’s ongoing Paradise Project. www.bonningtonsquaregarden.org.uk www.bonningtoncafe.co.uk

9 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 3510 Harleyford Road Community Garden Begun in the 1980s, this community garden developed more organically than its neighbour, with no overriding design. As a result it is more jungle-like, with a relaxed feel compared to the orderly Bonnington Square. Here, winding mosaic pathways lead to several distinct areas, including a recently installed A ‘secret’ passage pond, children’s play area, herb and vegetable beds, and a wildlife area (those nettles are there for a reason). Its 1.5 acres connects Bonnington are gardened organically by regular volunteers, with the more experienced helping the less so, and its plants include well- Square with... Harleyford established roses as well as more exotic specimens. Both gardens take part in the Open Garden Squares weekend (see Road Community Garden p.170), with live music and a variety of stalls. 11 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 12 London’s historic gardens don’t come more C Chelsea Physic Garden venerable than this, the Chelsea Physic Garden. Occupying a 3.8 acre site of prime Chelsea riverside, the CPG has been cultivating plants here since its foundation in 1673, when the Society of Apothecaries needed somewhere handy to park their state barge and a place where they could grow and study medicinal plants.

Today, this jewel of a botanic garden remains a centre for horticultural research and conservation as well as a living showcase for the amazing medicinal resource that is the plant world. It’s a great place to unwind too – a gentle stroll around its tranquil paths and themed planted areas makes the perfect counterpoint to a hectic shopping spree on the King’s Road.

With over 300 years of experience behind them, the CPG effortlessly combines beauty with educational purpose. The Garden of World Medicine is an Statue of Sir Hans Soane ethnobotanic display of medicinal plants used by different cultures, from the Cordyline australis of the Maoris and the Ocimum tenuiflorum of the Ayurvedic The presence of systematic order beds reminds us tradition to the Gingko biloba of traditional Chinese that the CPG is a proper botanic garden; divided medicine. In contrast to these beds (where not all between monocotyledons and dicotyledons, these the plants here have been scientifically proven), the beds are designed to show the botanical relationship nearby Pharmaceutical Beds are filled with plants of between plants. It is fascinating to find out where proven value in current medicinal practice. Arranged plants originate – Alchemilla speciosa from the by branch of medicine, they reveal how reliant we Caucasus, Camassia quamash from western North are on seemingly everyday plants such as yew America. To the south of the garden Fortune’s and barley in disciplines as diverse as oncology Tank Pond is a focus for the CPG’s teeming wildlife and anaesthesia. If only there were a remedy for – water boatmen, damselflies, newts and leeches. mankind’s tendency to exploit to extinction – the CPG During the summer it is surrounded by a mini conserves medicinal plants such as blue cohosh wildflower meadow of British native species such as and bloodroot that are now endangered thanks to Centaurea cyanus (cornflower) – and a popular port over-enthusiastic harvesting. The latest development of call with the Garden’s bee population. Their hives at the garden, the new Garden of Edible and Useful can be seen in the Mediterranean woodland area Plants, gloriously shows the extent to which we rely and the honey can be purchased in the shop. on plants for every aspect of our lives: from foods to building materials, clothing and cleaning to arts Over on the western side of the garden, the and ritual. It includes an intriguing and beautiful Historical Walk tells the story of the CPG through the amphitheatre of plants used in perfumery and plants introduced by some of its key players. This aromatherapy, including the gorgeously scented amounts to a roll call of some of the biggest names Pelargonium odoratissimum (Geranium), and Rosa in gardening history, including explorer and naturalist centifolia, the source of attar of roses. Sir Joseph Banks, William Forsyth (who gave his

Order Beds, Chelsea Physic Garden London Garden Book A-Z 57 C City Gardens

There’s more to the City than fat cat bankers dry conditions, while the City’s tall buildings and shiny office blocks. Built up as it is, the create destructive wind tunnels and vortexes. The Square Mile is also home to a quirky collection relentless redevelopment of the City (one third in of gardens, planted highways, churchyards the past 30 years) causes its own problems too, and burial grounds. particularly for trees, which need time to mature and which are susceptible to damage or removal Although most of the gardens themselves are post by reckless contractors. WWII creations, history is unavoidable in London’s most ancient quarter, with sites incorporating But its not all doom and gloom; over the past everything from Roman remains to plague pits 30 years the number of green spaces in the alongside the latest in contemporary architecture. City has increased tenfold as all new building developments have to show an environmental Most of the City’s 200 open spaces are managed by gain. It also helps that the City’s open spaces are the Corporation of London, with biodiversity high on protected by their own Acts of Parliament and that the agenda. Wildlife friendly initiatives include insect over £1.5 million a year is lavished on their upkeep hotels, bird and bat boxes, green roofs, nectar rich (although much of this goes on staff wages for planting, and the use of pheromone traps instead of the team of 35 gardeners who look after the City chemical pesticides. The Corporation’s Department gardens, and this amount is likely to decrease in of Open Spaces uses peat-free bedding medium the future due to budget cuts). A walk around the in its planters, as well as raising some 250,000 City quickly confirms that its well-used and much bedding plants in its own nursery in West Ham loved gardens are as much a part of its identity as Park – thus reducing plant miles. It’s a strategy that chalk stripe suits, and telephone number salaries. seems to be working because in recent years the City has become a habitat for rare species such as the Peregrine Falcon and is a stronghold for the country's Black Redstart population. The Barbican Estate is home to a healthy population of the once common but now endangered house sparrow while strategically placed log piles have been created in gardens such as Finsbury Circus, in the hope of enticing stag beetles into the City.

City gardens flourish in the face of considerable adversity. The air is polluted and the soil is poor, compacted and of limited depth – beneath its scanty surface runs a Swiss cheese labyrinth of communications cables, power lines, sewers, railway lines, cellars and basements, not to mention burial sites and archaeological remains. Although there’s a toasty microclimate that favours exotic species, some native plants resent the generally

15 London Garden Book A-Z This page: LakesideLondon Terrace, Garden Barbican Book A-Z 16 16 Brewers’ Hall Garden Just off Aldermanbury Square, this street-side garden consists of three brick built raised beds, planted with resilient perennials like ladies’ mantle, bergenia and periwinkle and evergreen shrubs such as sarcococca. A statue by Karin Jonzen depicting a gardener at work illustrates why bad backs and knees are a common complaint among horticulturalists.

St Mary Aldermanbury A peaceful garden with three distinct areas, standing on the former site of the church and churchyard of the same name. The Wren church, which replaced a 15th-century predecessor, was damaged in the Blitz and subsequently relocated to Fulton, Missouri as a memorial to Winston Churchill (he made his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton). In return for the church, Fulton gave the garden the swamp cypress at the far end of the garden.

Remnants of the medieval church remain within the St Mary Aldermanbury garden, and the lawn is studded with the footings of the columns that once defined the nave. The church has no shortage of historical associations Girdlers’ Hall Space – infamous Judge Jefferies was buried here, and Although the Girdler’s Company is in possession it was in this parish that John Hemynge and Henry of an award winning walled private garden behind Condell, Shakespeare’s first publishers, worshipped. their classically styled livery hall, it’s the recently A memorial, topped by a bronze bust of the Bard, revamped open space in front of it that will reminds us of the debt we owe these ‘heroes of perhaps be more appreciated by workers in search the First Folio’. This stands as the centerpiece of of somewhere to enjoy their lunchtime sandwich. a raised paved seating area, with drought tolerant Owned by the Corporation of London, the site, at planting, in what was once the churchyard. A pretty the intersection of Basinghall Avenue and Coleman knot garden completes the trio of gardens. Street, is a lovely example of their ‘green corners’ policy with its crisp arrangement of parallel lines of box hedging, interplanted with soft, billowy St Lawrence Jewry grasses, ferns and acanthus, multi-stemmed An awkward corner site outside the Corporation trees, and possibly the lushest stretch of lawn in of London’s official church – a Wren creation EC2. Seating for weary City folk takes the form of extensively rebuilt following war damage. It has granite blocks or more forgiving wooden benches been ingeniously transformed into a water garden. and chairs. From here the doll’s house like The pond is planted with water lilies, irises and proportions of the Girdlers’ Hall can be admired, bulrushes and is home to a large resident carp. against the backdrop of City Tower, which looms in Blocks of evergreen hedging tactfully indicate the the distance. garden’s street boundary.

17 London Garden Book A-Z St Lawrence Jewry London Garden Book A-Z 18 F Front Gardens

They may be small but London’s estimated 1.8 million front gardens cover some 9,400 hectares and have a big contribution to make to the capital’s environmental and aesthetic well-being, providing important habitat for urban wildlife and a valuable focus for neighbourly interaction. Conversely, impermeable surfaces bring with them the increased risk of flooding, the creation of localized heat islands (which intensify the effects of heat waves), and contribute to a decline in biodiversity. Perhaps most importantly, paved Naomi Schillinger gardens are just plain ugly.

Do Londoners love their cars more than their In Islington one community gardening scheme has front gardens? In some boroughs it appears harnessed the positive potential of front gardens. that they do – according to an influential The Blackstock Triangle Gardens Project was report carried out by Ealing’s Local Agenda started in 2009 by neighbours Naomi Schillinger 21, nearly a quarter of the borough’s 74,300 and Nicolette Jones and initially focused on front gardens are completely hard surfaced treepits in the local roads. The following year, Caroline Davison Maureen and David Herbert with no vegetation at all. And the problem is thanks to Capital Growth funding, they added a exacerbated by a ‘domino effect’ whereby the food growing dimension, with grow bags and free more front gardens are converted into parking seeds being issued to 50 participants enabling spaces the less on-street parking is available, them to raise sweetcorn, squash and beans in their leading to more gardens being paved over. front gardens. In 2011 the number of participants The trend looks set to continue, despite the doubled to 100 and in an exciting development, 2008 planning regulation requiring planning funding was found for 10 front gardens to have permission for impermeable surfacing of more their concrete removed and be reinstated as than 5 square metres. productive spaces. The project has also boosted community spirit with people getting to know their However, with a bit of thoughtful design and the neighbours for the first time through their gardens, use of impermeable materials such as gravel, and friendships cemented over tea and cakes at reinforced lawns and carefully chosen plants, it popular ‘Cake Sunday’ events. is perfectly possible for cars and front-gardens to cohabit. The 2011 RHS publication Gardening www.outofmyshed.co.uk/btg/ Matters, Urban Series: Front Gardens has some great ideas for car friendly gardens. Ealing Front Gardens Project hope to reinstate 3 front gardens Garden greenspace in in 2012, working with home-owners who want the capital’s gardens has to restore their hard-surfaced gardens back to been lost at a rate of two and something softer. a half Hyde Parks per year driven by recent trends in garden design

Annie Monaghan 19 LondonLondon Garden Garden Book Book A-Z A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 20 G The Garden Museum

A redundant church on a congested with a few exceptions including a banana tree, intersection in Lambeth, is a surprising which shows its appreciation of the garden’s mild venue for this museum celebrating the joys microclimate by overwintering and occasionally of gardening, past and present. In some producing juvenile fruit. Although its walls and plants ways however the location is perfectly fitting, can’t quite keep out the traffic noise, the knot garden for its churchyard cum garden contains the is a nevertheless an enchanting place to while away tomb of the Tradescants, 17th-century plant some time with a book, a friend or a coffee. hunters and Royal gardeners. Their collection of curiosities and specimens became the Inside the problems of putting a modern museum basis of Britain’s first university museum, the inside a historic church have been partially solved by Ashmolean (whose eponymous founder, Elias a new interior, made from pale wood, by architects Bligh tomb Ashmole, is also buried here). Dow Jones. This has created a mezzanine floor where a compact selection of the permanent Developed into two distinct garden areas – a blowsy collection is displayed – an eclectic and entertaining wild garden to the front and a beautifully recreated mix of tools and gardenalia. People often liken 17th-century knot garden to the rear – the churchyard gardening to warfare and the vintage tools on show remains a sanctuary from the relentless city beyond. are good evidence of this, with lethal implements The wild bit is a relatively new creation, first planted ranging from heavy duty weeding and turfing kit used in 2007, and is a model of biodiversity, attracting not by professional gardeners, to elegant horticultural only city workers on their lunch-break but a plethora weaponry designed for the ‘gentleman gardener’. of insect and bird life. Nectar rich plants are the Other exhibits include paintings and photographs, order of the day – an informal meadow style planting books and ephemera such as seed packets. scheme features a riot of opium poppies, red and white valerian, harebells, cow parsley, knapweed The ground floor hosts temporary exhibitions, whose and snakeshead fritillary. The garden is ‘mown’ by themes reflect the museum’s aim of capturing ‘the hand once a year in August or September, and the garden zeitgeist’ and which have included ‘The seed heads allowed to fall to the ground before being Good Life’ and a retrospective of dry gardening guru raked up a couple of weeks later. Beth Chatto. This level is also home to a shop well stocked with gardening goodies and an excellent The knot garden is a much more ordered affair and vegetarian café. Despite the museum’s recent has been in place since 1981. Designed by the redevelopment, the latter retains its rather rustic Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, the knot is an air and is a great place for a light lunch or home intricate geometric design planted with historically baked cake, or indeed both. The much sought after authentic 17th-century plants. Within its formal box outdoor seating in the knot garden is reached via a hedges grow damask and gallica roses, peonies and ‘potting shed’ – a hub of seasonal advise and tasks cotton lavender as well as cottage garden favourites guaranteed to send you scurrying back to your own like foxgloves, honesty and love-in-a-mist. Among garden, trowel in hand. the perennials can be found Tradescantia virginiana, named in honour of the Tradescants, while at the The Garden Museum knot’s centre a magnificent spiral holly topiary, the Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7LB suitably regal Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’, 020 7401 8865 [email protected] holds court. The surrounding borders have been www.gardenmuseum.co.uk planted with similar attention to period authenticity, Daily 10.30-17.00, Saturday 10.30-16.00 Admission charge The Knot Garden 21 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 22 the Battle of Waterloo. Even Vauxhall’s exorbitant around the world. A trailblazing commercial outfit L Lost Gardens of London refreshments – its wafer thin ham became the stuff with exacting horticultural standards, Loddiges of legend – couldn’t dent its appeal. Rival gardens was responsible for popularizing the Wardian Gardening’s ephemeral nature is nowhere for his garden staff, a document brimming with such as Ranelagh and Marylebone came and went, case, the revolutionary glass box used to transport more evident than in London, where even the practical tips on frost protection, manuring and but Vauxhall out lived them all. The end finally came live plant specimens at sea, and for introducing most acclaimed of gardens are not immune to pruning. It also listed the numerous fruit varieties he in 1859, when rising land prices and competition many new species, including the thuggish mauve the city’s insatiable appetite for development. grew and gardening tools he owned. Further advice from seaside resorts newly accessible by rail, made Rhododendron ponticum. The roll call of London’s lost gardens includes was dispensed in Evelyn’s Kalendarium Hortense, residential redevelopment inevitable. By 1870 the historically significant ones such as John Evelyn’s published in 1664, the world’s first month-by-month site had been completely built over, and stayed thus The Loddiges weren’t afraid to think big and their garden at Sayes Court, the Vauxhall Pleasure gardening guide, whose ‘to do’ lists included pest until a century later when a park was created on the pioneering collection of centrally heated glass Gardens and Loddiges Nursery in Hackney. control and cider making. site. The palest of shadows of its namesake, Spring houses included the Grand Palm House – the largest Street names mark their once vibrant presence: Gardens has recently received a £200,000 architect of its kind in the world. These were populated with Evelyn Street in SE8, Jonathan and Tyers In 1661 Evelyn, ever the keen garden visitor, went led makeover, with the aim of reviving its fortunes. exotic palms, ferns and orchids, while their on- Streets in SE11 (which commemorate the canny to the recently opened New Spring Gardens in site arboretum gave Kew a run for its money with proprietor of the Vauxhall gardens), while in E9, Vauxhall, beating Pepys to it by a year. Post- Upwardly mobile land values and London’s ever- over 2,500 species. The neatly labelled trees were Loddiges Road remembers the nursery that was Restoration, Vauxhall’s 12 acres of tree-lined expanding girth also sounded the death knell for arranged on one side of a spiral path, in alphabetical once home to the world’s largest hothouse. gravel walks were a place to enjoy simple, alfresco Loddiges Nursery Garden, which too closed in order from Acer to Quercus; on the other side of pastimes such as fruit-picking, picnicking and the 1850s. From small 18th-century beginnings the path unfurled Lodigges’ enormous collection of Deptford’s surprising horticultural hinterland includes promenading. In the following century they in rural Hackney, Loddiges became one of roses which were admired by Charles Darwin when not just its eponymous Pink (see p.152) but also developed into full-blown pleasure gardens Europe’s most notable nurseries. It was also one he visited in 1838. Nothing of these achievements the garden created by the 17th-century diarist John under the proprietorship of Jonathan Tyers. The of the best-connected, cultivating new species remain on the site, the arboretum at nearby Abney Evelyn. Along with his friend Samuel Pepys, Evelyn entrepreneurial Tyers took over the lease in 1728, delivered by the top plant hunters and supplying Park Cemetary is the last surviving testament to the was one of the foremost chroniclers of his age, but relaunching the Spring Gardens as the place to see royal gardens, stately homes and botanic gardens genius of George Loddiges. he was also an ardent horticulturalist. As a young and be seen, frequented by all strata of society from man, sitting out the Civil War on the Continent, he the Prince of Wales downwards and even enticing was a keen garden goer, visiting Villa d’Este and Casanova over from Venice. Monte Cavallo in Italy, the Tuileries and Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. On return to England in 1652 Under Tyers ownership Vauxhall became a cultural he lost no time putting his enthusiasm for modern destination, showcasing contemporary artworks gardening into practice at Sayes Court, his wife’s by Hayman, Hogarth and Roubiliac, music by 100 acre estate near in Deptford. Handel and Arne, and specially commissioned ‘Vauxhall songs’ performed by popular artistes. For over 40 years Evelyn painstakingly created a Roubiliac’s informal life size sculpture of Handel garden out of what had been farmland, introducing greeted visitors as they entered, ushering them into elegant features such as a long terrace, a parterre Vauxhall’s enchanted, somewhat racy, nocturnal and a ‘fountain garden’ as well as working areas world, illuminated by thousands of lights attached including a physic garden, a kitchen garden, to the trees. Here the normal codes of behaviour orchards and beehives. Although Sayes Court were suspended, and the sexes could mingle freely is long gone (and the site about to be further amongst its shady groves and ‘dark walks’. submerged beneath a new development), Evelyn’s 1653 plan gives us a good idea of its scope, from Vauxhall captured the collective imagination, and its its epicurean moated island (planted with asparagus attractions were recorded for posterity in literature, and raspberries), to Evelyn’s own Private Garden, as well as in paintings and engravings. An ever- planted with ‘choice flowers and simples’. We even changing menu of attractions kept the punters know how it was managed, thanks to the Directions coming through the reigns of 10 monarchs, from South Walk Vauxhall Gardens by J S Muller c1751 for the Gardiner at Says-Court that Evelyn wrote fireworks and balloon ascents to a recreation of

154 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 155 project as sustainable as possible, the ‘tree-pitters’ O Ockendon Road Tree Gardens preferred planting medium is a home-produced soil- compost mix, with plants being funded by Ockie Road residents (and subsidised by the gardens’ prize winnings).

The four prime movers behind the tree gardens are Aida Trabucco and Julie Davies, and Tessa and Tony Campbell, with ad hoc assistance from others in the road. Each garden they create is different – by design and by necessity, as the road’s east-west orientation produces one sunny and one shady side. Amazingly in this era of health and safety gone mad, the gardeners have the support of Islington Council, who have even allowed them to extend some of the smaller tree-pits. The council retains responsibility for the street’s trees, the majority of which are elderly crab apples, although these are gradually being replaced with a more diverse selection, including gingko, liquidamber, maple, cut leaf alder, and a tulip tree. Aida Trabucco, Julie Davies, The tree gardeners’ year starts in May with a buying Tessa & Tony Campbell spree and intensive planting activity; July is the focus of their endeavours as this is when Islington in Bloom is judged and in October the gardens are and Mimulus cardinalis. Easy to pinch annuals are tidied and bulbs put in for the spring. With the street too tempting for thieves and other problems have trees acting as giant umbrellas deflecting rainfall from included vandalism, dogs, litter and basal growth the gardens below, watering keeps the four main from the trees. gardeners busy – an intensive job involving buckets and external taps made available by residents along By Tony and Tessa’s own admission between May the street. and August their own garden might take a back seat while they concentrate on the tree gardens. But Tony, Tessa, Aida and Julie are always striving for despite the work involved, the rewards are great, variety and colour, and their tree gardens can feature the tree gardens have injected real personality to the Lovingly created and tended by residents, the Inspired by similar gardens in Holland, the first anything from rambling nasturtiums and Californian street while also creating an informal focal point for Ockendon Road tree gardens have become Ockendon Road tree garden was planted in 1993; poppies to hebes, dwarf gorse and rustic hollyhocks the community. Keen to promote the concept, Tony something of an Islington landmark. As a certain by 2004 nearly all 35 tree-pits had been similarly and one bed is devoted to herbs. Aconite, vinca and and Julie happily offer advice for would-be tree- guidebook might put it, they are ‘worth the detour’ transformed, thanks to the hard work of newly cyclamen have proved successful in the shady beds, pitters, from plant choices to hard-won practical tips and taxi drivers and local walkers do exactly that retired Ockie Road residents, Tony Campbell and while the tree gardeners – ever keen to inject a bit on materials, planting techniques and aftercare. to admire these charming mini gardens, flourishing Julie Davies who decided to extend the concept of height into their creations – also deploy an array in the ‘pits’ of the trees that line the road. The to the whole street. Salvaged Victorian edging of climbers such as passion flower, honeysuckle, Ockendon Road, Islington, N1 gardens’ modest proportions belie their clout, as tiles were used to define the new beds and create trumpet vine and clematis, as well as an irrepressible www.orra.org.uk they are regular ‘Islington in Bloom’ prize winners a better planting depth, with a wooden alternative perennial sweet pea which fills the main trunk of and their kerb appeal has even been known to devised by Tony’s wife, Tessa, being used where one tree. Shrubs and perennials are favoured, and sway prospective house buyers. traditional edging wasn’t possible. Keeping the feature some unusual choices such as Oenothera

25 London Garden Book A-Z 26 U Underground in Bloom

For an activity whose therapeutic benefits are The gardens are tended by staff in their spare time widely acclaimed, gardening can be a surprisingly but some have more difficult terrain to nurture than adversarial pastime. London’s gardeners are no others. Hampstead, for example, is the capital’s exception, with a long tradition of competitive deepest tube station and therefore not the obvious horticulture – from the ‘best bombsite garden’ location for a vegetable patch. But – as part of competitions of the 1940s to the annual inter- the Capital Growth programme – it developed a borough floral combat of London in Bloom. well-stocked ‘behind the scenes’ veg garden that won first prize in that category in 2011 (pipping In recent years London Underground has got in on Brent Cross and Warwick Avenue to the post). the act, with stations across the capital vying every Hampstead’s street level garden picked up extra summer to see which one has the best hanging ‘green points’ for its wormery and eco-friendly baskets, tubs or cultivated garden. The outer approach. Judges also assess the positive impact stations, which tend to have more available growing of the gardens on customers and staff. In the same space, have been active competitors from the off, year Bromley-by-Bow was deemed the station but every year more stations take part. These with the best hanging baskets, while North Acton’s days even some of the spatially challenged central colourful bedding displays picked up the prize for stations take part in the event which had more than the best cultivated garden. Prizes are awarded in 70 entrants in 2011. September at City Hall.

216 Gardening for climate change W Wildlife Gardening Flash floods, rising temperatures and drier summers are some of the expected outcomes of climate change in London. Whatever your stance The concrete jungle might seem a hostile environment for wildlife but, given on the climate change debate, there’s no denying a helping hand, wild plants and creatures of all kinds can thrive in the urban that this country has experienced some extreme landscape. Public wildlife gardens like that at the Natural History Museum weather events in recent years. Gardeners need to adapt to the changing reality and have an (see p.236) and at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening in Peckham (see p.48) are important role to play in reducing London’s carbon inspirational templates showing how wildlife can be encouraged into the city and footprint. Here are a few ideas: the benefits of doing so. On a domestic scale there are plenty of ways to make • Plant drought resistant plants. our own gardens more wildlife friendly, in the process helping to boost local • Mulch in the spring to conserve moisture levels biodiversity and combat the effects of climate change. And with over 3 million in the soil. • Minimize water use – don’t mow the lawn so gardens in the capital, London’s gardeners are well placed to make a significant often, water in the evening or early morning and contribution. Wildlife friendly gardens help to absorb carbon in the atmosphere, only where needed. offer food and habitat to wildlife and create green wildlife corridors across the city. • Harvest rain water & reuse grey water from your bath or shower. • Extend the green area of your garden by adding Organic Sustainable a green roof to your shed. Whatever the size of your plot, be it capacious An approach to gardening and life in general which • Don’t pave over your front garden – it increases back garden, standard 10 rod allotment or aims to have a positive impact on the environment, the risk of flooding and displaces wildlife. tiny balcony, going organic is probably the minimising the unsustainable use of resources. • If you have room, plant a broad-leaved native best starting point for the fledgling wildlife Gardeners can do their bit too: tree or mixed hedge. gardener. Natural, non-chemical gardening • avoid buying peat based composts (peat is a is beneficial for wildlife and humans alike – non-renewable resource & peat bogs are now for example, hand weeding may seem like one of the UK’s most threatened habitats). a chore but it’s usually more effective than • Make your own compost. Resources chemical weed-killers and is great exercise too. • Avoid buying garden furniture made from Londoners may not have easy access to the unsustainably managed tropical hardwoods. www.britishbee.org.uk horticultural ‘black gold’ that is horse manure, • Harvest your own rain water. www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk but it’s easy and economical to make your own • Recycle and re-use wherever possible – for fertilizers – comfrey or nettle leaves left to rot example return plastic plant pots to point of www.lbka.org.uk down in water transform into a foul smelling sale so they can be re-used; broken terracotta www.wildlondon.org.uk but effective liquid manure or can be used to pots can be used to improve drainage in other activate a compost heap. Organic gardening containers. www.rhs.org.uk encourages natural predators, obviating the www.naturalengland.org.uk need for chemical pesticides; frogs and toads help to reduce slug and snail populations, www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/wildlifegarden ladybird and lacewing larvae tuck into aphids and garden birds also helpful in controlling www.gardenersworld.com insect pests. For really persistent slug www.butterfly-conservation.org problems, microscopic nematodes can be used (available from green gardening suppliers).

240 London Garden Book A-Z 241 W Winter at Kew

Kew’s historic glasshouses are the obvious planting scheme leads the visitor across continents destination on a cold, wet winter’s day, a low to encounter plants such as Dicksonia antarctica carbon way to experience exotic flora without (Australia), the multi-talented date palm (Europe), cashing in your Oyster card for a plane ticket. Tetrapanax papyfer, the plant used to make edible rice paper (Asia) and life-saving plants such as anti- Rising up out of the earth like an enormous glass malarial quinine (America). If the medicines don’t submarine, the Palm House is probably Kew’s most work, there’s always Taiwania cryptomerioides – the iconic building. It was built in the mid 1840s to a coffin tree (Taiwan). This is also the place to discover design by Decimus Burton, to house the palms the disconcerting fact that, like money, bananas don’t collected by Victorian plant hunters. Today it’s home grow on trees – bananas being herbaceous plants. to Encephalartos altensteinii, a venerable palm which Following a top-to-toe refurb in the 1980s, growing has lived through Kew’s entire history, having been conditions in the Temperate House are now so collected in Africa by Kew’s first plant hunter Francis optimum that many residents have flowered, some, Masson in the early 1770s. Shy and retiring these like the Protea cynaroides (king protea), for the first plants ain’t – some of them, like the fishtail palm from time since the 19th century. Indonesia, soar metres high up to the roof. Carefully placed signs remind visitors to ‘look up’ to admire It’s one thing to admire exotic plants in the climate the taller specimens. Many plants are reminders of controlled comfort of a glasshouse, quite another to our indebtedness to the plant world – where would study them in their, often unforgiving, native habitats. we be without the tamarind tree to provide one of Marianne North, an indefatigable Victorian traveller the ingredients in Worcester Sauce? More seriously, was one such pioneer. At the age of 41 – and leukaemia sufferers benefit from the alkaloids found without any formal artistic training – she embarked in the sap of the Madagascar periwinkle. on a 13-year painting odyssey, travelling the world with the aim of painting plants in their habitats. An With a cosy minimum year round temperature of accomplished and prolific artist, by the end of her 18°C, the Temperate House is a perfect winter travels, Marianne had depicted over 900 plant destination for non-hardy human visitors. This mighty species in 833 paintings. She created a unique glass cathedral measures 4,880 metres square, record of the plant world which she donated to Kew making it the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse together with a purpose built gallery – a curious red- in the world – twice the size of its older sibling, brick amalgam of Greek temple and Indian colonial the Palm House. Behind its glass walls lies a lush bungalow (complete with verandah). Memorably world of tender plants from the world’s mountains, described by Wilfred Blunt as a ‘botanical stamp oceanic islands and savannahs. The geographical album’, the collection is arranged geographically

The Pagoda,London Kew Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z MEET THE GARDENERS

302 London Garden Book A-Z 303 The Pie and “No space is too small – Mash Garden you can do something really nice even with a Good fences may make good neighbours but boundaries are an equally important tiny space.” consideration in the small garden. Nina Pope’s courtyard garden is blessed with a set of characterful old walls. They are a feature which Nina – an artist and co-designer of What will the Harvest Be? (see p.232) – seeks to accentuate with upwardly mobile wall-trained fruit trees, climbing roses, and passionflower all shown off against the mellow brick.

The garden is unusual, having been created in what was once the fridge-filled backyard of a pie and mash shop in Hackney. With time and space at a premium for Nina, Andrew Dumbleton re-designed the courtyard with low maintenance in mind and with outdoor seating and dining a priority.

Even within a small area growing conditions vary, so containerised plants are moved around the courtyard until they find their ‘place’. An advocate of growing from seed, Nina has even successfully raised the notoriously tricky Meconopsis (Himalayan blue poppy) and notes that if you grow from seed and the plant dies you get a sense of what’s gone wrong, which is not so easy with bought plants. The courtyard’s sheltered climate makes it an ideal nursery, although plants tend to get leggy as they reach for the sky. Nina’s penchant for dark and silver leaved foliage is not always compatible with a garden that is shaded for most of the day but ferns (‘they always look so fresh’), box topiary, black elder, brunnera and heuchera all fit the bill nicely and are thriving. www.somewhere.org.uk www.andrewsgardendesign.com www.chilternseeds.co.uk

306 Meet the Gardeners Meet the Gardeners 307 GARDENER'S DIRECTORY

37 London Garden Book A-Z London Garden Book A-Z 38 Garden Events in London Garden Centres Mill Lane Garden Centre The Open Space, 160 Mill Lane, NW6 1TF Jan North www.thecamdensociety.co.uk London’s Charity Potato Fair & Seed Exchange July Tel: 020 7431 1160 www.potatofair.og RHS Hampton Court Flower Show Highgate Garden Centre Highgate High Street, North One Garden Centre Feb Aug 1 Townsend Yard, N6 5JF The Old Button Factory, RHS Orchid Show & RHS Botanical Art Show Kew Summer Show www.capitalgardens.co.uk 25 Englefield Road, N1 4EU Tel: 020 8340 1041 www.n1gc.co.uk March Sept Tel: 020 7923 3553 RHS London Greener Gardening Show The Spitalfields Show & Green Fair Camden Garden Centre Spitalfields City Farm 2 Barker Drive, Sunshine Garden Centre April St Pancras Way, NW1 0JW Durnsford Road, Bounds Green, N11 2EL Spring Gardening Show, Capel Manor City Harvest Festival www.camdengardencentre.co.uk www.sunshinegardencentre.co.uk Capel Manor Tel: 020 7387 7080 Tel: 020 8889 4224 May RHS Chelsea Flower Show Oct Boma Garden Centre Alexandra Palace Garden Centre RHS London Autumn Harvest Show 52-53 Islip Street, NW5 2DL Alexandra Palace Way, N22 4BB June www.bomagradencentre.co.uk www.capitalgardens.co.uk London Open Garden Squares Weekend Tel: 020 7284 4999 Tel: 020 8444 2555 www.opensquares.org www.londongardenstrust.org

Open Garden Squares Weekend is a celebration of London's open spaces. One weekend ticket provides access to numerous gardens and squares in London not usually open to the public. Parks and gardens put on special events, such as jazz bands, all contributing to that festive atmosphere. One ticket allows entry to all gardens over the entire weekend! See our wesbite for more information:

Chelsea Flower Show www.opensquares.org 39 London Garden Book A-Z