greening brownfield - a short history (part 2)

Part 2: 2010

In early 2010, Greening Brownfield started planning new estate-improving activities. Jennifer and Eleanor, two members of the Balfron and Carradale Residents’ Committee, persuaded HARCA to invest in brightening up the empty, grey space – once a children’s playground and a nursery school garden – in front of Balfron Tower.

Jennifer and Eleanor with the new raised beds

Estate residents enjoying some tea and cake

Party-goers enjoyed tea and cake while getting to know their neighbours. Residents planted wild flowers and spring bulbs in the raised beds, while children entered a ‘tallest sunflower’ competition and made chalk drawings on the paving stones.

Making chalk drawings on the flagstones

Meanwhile, plans were afoot for the transformation of the tennis court – the area which would eventually become the community garden. Jennifer and Eleanor put posters up around the estate to drum up new recruits for Greening Brownfield, and started holding monthly planning meetings. Along with a hardy team of volunteers, they cleared the tennis court of the weeds, brambles and broken glass which had made the space their home.

Clearing the weeds from the disused tennis court

Shifting 12 tonnes of soil from the pavement

Freecycle was scoured for wooden pallets, discarded tyres and unwanted play equipment, while the London Borough of Tower Hamlets donated 12 and a half tonnes of compost (formerly Tower Hamlets residents’ kitchen scraps!) And from these humble components, in the late summer of 2010, Greening Brownfield began to fashion a garden.

The very first flower to blossom in the garden

They piled tyres on top of each other and filled them with soil. They placed builders’ bags of soil on top of pallets and planted them up with whatever they could get their hands on: cabbages, courgettes, cucumbers, squash, broccoli and lots and lots and lots of kale. Best of all, this DIY approach garnered plaudits in the form of a prize in the Edible Estates competition, as runner-up in the ‘Create and Craft’ category.

        The tyre and pallet garden, as seen in EastEnd Life

By the end of 2010, residents from Balfron Tower, Carradale House, Glenkerry House and other areas of the Brownfield Estate were attending the monthly planning meetings, all with different skills to bring to the project.

Pallets, tyre and planters: the garden takes shape

The hotch-potch of tyres and bag gardens were slowly replaced by beautifully crafted planters created from the Freecycled wooden pallets. And with funding in place from Grow Your Own Tower Hamlets and Capital Growth, 2011 began to look like it might be a very good year for Greening Brownfield...

[This post is part of Metamorphosis Monday. Check back next week for Part Three!)