London has more than 600 friends of parks groups. Normally made up of volunteers, ‘friends’ have become an essential part of our city’s green space.
They elevate their local parks, inviting the community to get involved and giving people a sense of licence in the places they live.
Susanna Grant, is planting designer and trustee of Friends of Arnold Circus, a small public garden and bandstand located in Tower Hamlets Boundary Estate where there has been a friends group since 2004.
“The garden at Arnold Circus is built on a mound of rubble from the slum housing clearance that took place before the Boundary Estate was built,” Grant explained. “Tired and neglected It was a bit of a no-go zone for many years.”
Supported by local artists including Rachel Whiteread and Martino Gamper, who created artworks to sell in order to fundraise for the restoration of the garden, the friends have replanted the space with ecology in mind.
Since 2020, Chris Raeburn, previously the gardener at the Phoenix Garden, has brought his knowledge of public gardening and wildlife to the Circus.
“Gardening in a public space is quite hard,” said Raeburn. “People do all sorts of things, so the plants need to be resilient, but the people gardening do too, things will always get trodden on or broken, but you can’t let it break your spirits.”
In a nod to the area's plant growing history before the estate was built, their next fundraising event is community plant fair, taking place on Sunday 13 October.
Some of the country’s best plant growers, including Great Dixter, Beth Chatto and Leahurst Nurseries will be selling their plants around the circus to raise funds for the continued upkeep of the gardens.
Gardening with plane trees
Tips from Chris Raeburn, Community gardener at Arnold Circus
● We garden under big plane trees on a steeply sloping mound of rubble. In summer, watering under the plane trees is rather pointless so we don’t. Some plants will collapse disgracefully from drought, and that’s ok. We cut back the worst, ignore the rest and focus on drought-proof evergreens.
● Sculptural seed-heads and golden grasses carry us through autumn when rain returns and fresh growth soon re-greens the garden even as the plane leaves fall.
● There is a lot of nonsense said about plane tree leaves that “they never break down”. We have great big leaf bins where all the plane leaves are turned into fantastic leaf mould. There is no trick, we just keep them moist and turn them a couple of times through the season to mix with a few handfuls of chicken-poo pellets chucked in for luck - filled each autumn it’s ready to use the following year. We make 15 m3 of leaf mould each year.
● In winter, the circus is bright, sunny and inner-city mild. It is ideal for early bulbs and winter flowers. Spring has it at its best with woodland floor stalwarts carpeting the ground with colour before the plane leaves open and it’s plunged into deep shade.
