Gardening update

The AA’s lead volunteer gardener Paul Thompson adds yet more new shrubs to the west border of the square.

In recent months the AA’s gardening volunteers have been mostly focusing on weeding and watering the flowerbeds in Arlington Square. They have also been freshening up the rose beds and planting a section of the west side perimeter beds. Some roses have become diseased and the lavender is patchy so we are moving some lavender plants and trying a different border to the rose beds. We plan to plant some box pyramids in the corners of the rose beds.

On the west side we have opened up more sightlines by trimming the old and neglected shrubs. Experience shows that, as well as improving the look of the border, losing the dark, heavy shrubs helps to reduce anti-social behaviour. We plan to plant some box in the north of the square to limit the damage to plants caused by footballs.

In the four ‘pocket parks’ we created by the New North Road, the roses have done incredibly well this year and have been much admired. We have consolidated the box hedging at Arlington Avenue, Linton Street and St Paul Street, and planted more roses and bulbs at the Rydon Street parklet. All the pocket parks suffered from lack of water in the dry summer and autumn: we would love anyone who lives near these mini gardens to help share responsibility for watering next summer. All offers very gratefully received.

The loyal volunteers who generously clear the rubbish thrown into the pocket parks say that the best thing about this almost thankless task is the enthusiastic compliments they get from passers-by. It makes a change from people assuming we are carrying out sentences of community service.