Transforming the square with plants
About 18 months ago, Arlington Square was looking rather neglected and run-down. Keen gardener Gordon McArthur and his partner Paul Thompson decided to do something about it.
They started by tackling the two circular beds full of overgrown shrubs. With help from an evergrowing band of local volunteers, they planted 250 perennials (plants that flower every year) and 250 lilies that they were given for nothing.
Gordon then applied for and was given funding from the Big Lottery to renovate the four rectangular rose beds. They had been planted in the 1950s and many of the rose bushes had died or were dying. Gordon and the volunteers improved the soil with much compost and planted 80 roses and 3,000 daffodils and alliums. The new roses are the red Carris and the amber, myrrh-scented Henrietta Barnett.
The soil under the trees in the borders edging the square was dry, dusty and in very poor shape. To improve it, the council delivered and the volunteers distributed many tonnes of compost, made from the garden cuttings collected by the recycling team.
Community corner
The unused south-west corner of the square was a concreted area with a compost heap that had become a general rubbish dumping ground. The Borough of Islington’s Greenspace Rangers wanted to improve the space, but the council had no budget. So they asked the Arlington Association for help.
Gordon McArthur applied for a grant from the Big Lottery Groundworks initiative to transform the corner into a community garden. After much paperwork and some long meetings, his request was successful.
The local landscape gardening company Modular Gardens produced a design for no fee, which we distributed for comment.
Volunteers helped clear the rubbish patch (we lost count of the bottles and cans we found in the ‘compost’ heap – along with two deer legs!) and on 21 January this year neighbours turned out to help clear away 7 tonnes of rubbish.
We then installed six raised beds, new railings, a bench and a per - meable surface. The old hut was renovated and painted, and a community notice board and a rooftop finial added. After much discussion about what to put in the new beds, Kate Johnstone mapped out a planting plan and on 24 March volunteers planted herbs, apple trees, bay trees, onions and carrots, as well as a new hedgerow of fruit shrubs in the wooded area next to the community garden.
Ximena and Emma from Growing Communities, a community-led organisation based in Hackney (www.growingcommunities.org), came to offer us valuable gardening advice from their experience of growing salads for their organic vegetable box scheme.
Meanwhile the volunteers continue to plant new shrubs, plants and bulbs in the borders of the square. They include hellebores and hostas, wood sorrel and anemones, snowdrops and Solomon’s seal, bleeding hearts and cobra lilies. On 14 April we’ll be planting 400 lavender bushes as borders for the rose beds, as well as hundreds more perennials in the square.
By Open Squares weekend in June, volunteers from your association will have planted a total of 10,000 plants and bulbs.