High Line Green Infrastructure Ideas Competition

This was our entry for the High Line Green Infrastructure Ideas Competition......we decided to build on our experience of working in Harlesden by exploiting the nearby Grand Union Canal, Harlesden's culture of markets and its neglected pocket parks. Our idea was a simple one..moor canal boats by the Willesden Junction section of the canal, grow fruit and vegetables in the pocket parks and sell it on the towpath. You could set up cafes, shops and even grow the produce in some canal boats as well. It would be the ultimate hydroponic experience. We linked the local Harlesden connection to a rejuvenation of the whole length of the canal down to Ladbroke Grove near Portobello Road. Alas we were not short listed but it was worth the fun.

Challenge Close Pocket Park Harlesden London

On September the 15th a community consultation day was held in Challenge Close Pocket Park in Harlesden, North West London. We have been working with local organisations including Lift, Catalyst Housing Association and Brent Council on a voluntary basis on this project. The aim is to reclaim this small parcel of neglected land and give it back to the community. All sorts of ideas have been mooted ranging from mini allotments, a cafe and bike repair shop to a wildlife haven. The results were hugely encouraging with over 200 people dropping by on a lovely sunny afternoon, leaving over 70 answered questionnaires and numerous comments and expressions of interest on the notice boards. As a consequence we are holding a public meeting to form an action group.....progress is slow on these types of projects with lengthy slack periods when nothing (apparently) is happening. But I got a real buzz as neighbours and local Harlesdenites turned up and delivered a strong positive reaction to the idea of doing something. It really makes it worthwhile.

Cambridge Project

This project has been in development for a number of years and delayed by planners for a variety of reasons. Now we are working through the first phase and will be developing ideas for the second. An underlying concept in the park layout has been the Fibonacci sequence. The eventual layout will be very different to the concept plans shown but will I hope reflect the underlying geometry found in the Fibonacci series.

Jardineros Guerrilleros!

We have been planting in Harlesden in the grounds of churches, pocket parks, clubs, front and back gardens a refined mixture of Jury, soulangeana & other magnolia hybrids!

One lady entering the local church looked slightly askance but that was been the only reaction.Hopefully when they flower officialdom will be enjoying them to much to worry about the why or the how. I decided to start planting them because each spring in the posher parts of London there is a blaze of colour whether it is from wisterias, magnolias or cherries etc. Harlesden by comparison is a bit drab... as time goes on and we keep planting this will change. I am not sure how many are needed for people to notice but we will see.

PRAIRIE IN A CLOISTER

What is a prairie doing in a cloister?
I have great difficulty reconciling the Oudolf planting with the building by Peter Zumthor. 

I just do not get it...I enjoyed the planting and loved the building but it grates conceptually.Was it a deliberate contrast between an enclosed space and an open space? Cloisters by definition are secluded and private and prairie planting (or steppe or naturalistic meadow planting however you wish to define it) belongs to the open, treeless plains and fields. 

WELSH OAK

I saw this magnificent Oak tree in Wales in August of this year (2011) in the Gilfach Farm Nature Reserve near St Harmon in Powys. It caught my eye because it dominates the farm valley with a mass that echoes those of the surrounding hills. It must be about 250 years old.....young for an oak. The silvery leaves cover a sturdy dense branching framework that straddles the River Marteg beneath. Otters paddle and fish along with Dippers and Kingfishers in the river's rocky cascades, swirling pools and quieter stretches. 

YORKSHIRE DALES

This lovely early morning shot was taken by the photographer Allan Pollock-Morris in a garden I have been working on for a while. The garden is deep within the Yorkshire Dales and surrounded by a magnificent landscape that earns the epithet that Yorkshire is God's Own Country.