Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Guerilla Gardening on the Ladder
Hi everyone,
I spotted a particularly nice planted traffic island thing in Vauxhall the other day (image below).
The planters halfway down Warham rd are also great.
In fact there's loads of good street planting around.
Does anyone have any experience of creating this kind of thing around Harringay?
- When there are actual planter structures in place, who puts them there? Is it something that can be applied for from councils? (I guess unlikely?) Or sponsored by local businesses? Or made as part of school projects? Or are they just created by enthusiastic local people?
- Will publicly planted flowers get nicked? (this happened to my friend's mum. Seems like an odd sort of crime, but I guess it does happen)
- What sort of plants do well on the street? (where presumably dogs wee on them and they might only get watered if the people who plant them remember)
We live on Wightman and I would like to plant up the new, much-loved (haha) pavement extensions. I am happy to go full guerilla in the middle of the night, although my budget will probably only stretch to one or two sites (around the top of Pemberton).
- Does anyone know if the promised trees are coming soon? I know someone on HoL said it was a bad time to plant trees, so have the council taken this on board and are going to hold off and do it later in the year?
- If the trees are coming, would it be better to wait until they're in place before putting in other plants around them, as they'll just get dug up again? Or could go for it and just see what happens when the tree planting people come?
- Is anyone else interested in forming a guerilla gardening group? Or does this already exist? Give me a shout, we can order some camouflage gardening jackets.
Thanks, Tom
Tags for Forum Posts: guerilla gardening, planters, street gardening, traffic islands, wightman road
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Charlotte on
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I did a bit of gardening around a tree in front of my house only for the council to come along and spray it with weedkiller :( Hopefully you have more luck!
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Permalink Reply by Sally on
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Hi Tom,
I would be very happy to help with any planting advice.
I sometimes have extra small plants which could be useful to you & could always collect seeds too.
The picture of the planting which you liked in Vauxhall is lovely & I can imagine something similar in Wightman...although most of those particular plants are a little pricey from nurseries.
I would say it's better to wait until after the planned trees are planted, as otherwise anything you do beforehand will be disturbed & then may not flourish. Also any new planting will require very regular watering in at this time of year to establish successfully.
I love your idea of further greening up Wightman Road so please do get in touch if you'd like my help.
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Hi Sally, I’m going to replant the planters at the passage junction on Falkland. Would you be willing to meet and discuss which plants might be suitable?
Tom, if you’re just going to plant around the tree pits, I would just go ahead and do it. If however you want to have planters installed I would approach the council first. They may be willing to provide them or you could work with them to locate appropriate sites and obtain funding to have them built. The Friends of Harringay Passage had a very negative experience when we installed the Falkland planters (even though we obtained approval) so best approach the council first before installing any of your own planters.
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Thanks for this Nick - yeah I think just in the tree pits to begin with, although maybe once they've done the new zebra crossing there could be some planters there, so I might look into it.
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Hi Nick,
Yes I'd be very happy to help you.
I've some experience with community raised planters - with wildflower seed mixtures.
I'll send you a connection request so we can arrange to meet & have a look at them.
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Thanks Sally, yes please to advice and to extra plants!
I think the planters in Vauxhall might have been done by a community gardening group (there was one at the end of the street so that was my guess. And maybe they had some funding, or got the plants to a good size in pots first)
The tree pits on my bit of wightman currently only have some sand in - i presume they would add soil when they plant the trees, so maybe I will wait and save myself the expense of having to buy all the compost myself...
Thanks a lot and speak to you soon!
T
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Sand is a good planting medium for wild flowers & grasses Tom.... as long as it's not too full of lime.
When I've created wildflower meadows I've added washed sand, grit or gravel to impoverish the soil as then the plants grow better as a community.
Maybe worth considering if you don't want to spend lots on compost.
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Hi there, I planted osteospernums in our street(Tancred Road) - they are pretty robust, come back for 2-3 years, and are in flower on and off from Spring until autumn, so all round good value for street plants (when I planted tall daffodils they all got their heads picked off, so planted dwarf daffs the following year, which were left undisturbed as no-one could be bothered to bend that low to pick!). Osteopernum's have been left undisturbed, apart from the odd bit of litter) https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=osteospernum
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Flowers that are difficult to pick are a good idea, like Carrie we found that small daffodils and other small varieties of spring flowers which were planted in planters remained, while large ones were picked, also those with lots of little flower heads like forget-me-nots or flowers like marigolds, nicotina and nasturtiums remain untouched.
Plants with little value remain however a few plants which were freshly planted and could be easily yanked out of the planter and would make a good garden plant such as a pretty lavender or geranium were taken, however once they were established and mixed in with other plants they have remained untouched.
Its good to plan in advance if you can for planters and think about the seasons so that all the spring bulbs can go reasonably deep in the soil as they do not need replacing so often and come up every year then in the soil on top can go plants that have summer and autumn interest and remain in situ all year round, with others added as and when needed, say a few cyclamen for winter colour or to replenish any losses. This means that you are not needing to plant up all the time and saves money.
Planters dry out quite quickly so think about water retention if you don't want to be watering all the time or think about plants that like dry conditions like grasses, herbs or sedums. Some of what goes for planters probably goes for tree pits too. I look forward to seeing some lovely planting on Wightman.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Smith on
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I planted some osteospermums around some of the trees at the bottom end of Pemberton Road several years back, and just as they were starting to grow well and looking like they were about to bud the council (I presume) came along and had a weeding session and pulled them all out. Haven't bothered since.
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