Energy Garden Spring Wrap/Summer Preview
Energy Garden is a network of people who care for London. These people include our outstanding volunteers, brilliant investor-members, vibrant youth trainees, public supporters and, of course, our wonderful staff. Together, we create community gardens on railway stations that spark curiosity and bring inspiration to thousands of London commuters each year. The physical spaces include twenty gardens, two live solar projects and an office-garden in Ebury Edge Pimlico. But what does this network look like in real life? What does it actually do? Here’s a mosaic-view of where we’re at right now:
Successful spring kickoff
As June begins, the dust is settling on a great programme of spring kickoff events, including the City Nature Challenge BioBlitzes, Good to Grow Week and Biodiversity Week; all in all, we mobilised 49 volunteers across 12 sessions for these programmes. Activities included wildflower sowing and planting, pond building, beekeeping, insect observations and lots more. Here are some other activities we tackled in April and May.
Building projects
We built bird boxes and gabions just in time for the launch of our newest garden at Hatton Cross; we finished the cob oven and started a wildlife pond at Ebury Edge; and we built a living willow fence at Canonbury station. Check out this short film about the garden at Hatton Cross:
Cob pizza oven finished and ready for the summer party on the 23rd July
Living willow fence at Canonbury Station. As it begins to root it will grow shoots and leaves along the arches creating a fluttering border along our path.
Planting
This was the first year we started plants from seed in our greenhouse, which meant we had hundreds of homegrown plugs to plant out in all the gardens. Along with planting out cultivar flowers and food crops, we also sowed lots of wildflowers to create more meadows. Read about our horticultural strategy and activities here.
A volunteer in the wildflower meadow at Bush Hill Park Station, established in 2022.
Biodiversity investigations
We’ve added loads of new observations and IDs to our open-source biodiversity project on iNaturalist so far this Spring. You can join the project here. In terms of habitat creation, we started a bog at Hampstead Heath, built hügelmounds and a hibernaculum at Honor Oak Park, and started building the pond at Ebury Edge. We’ve also been weeding and maintaining wildflower meadows at several gardens. Check out the recap of Biodiversity Week on our Instagram. And read more about our Biodiversity strategy and activities here.
Ellen and volunteers build a wildlife pond at Ebury Edge
Community engagement
We worked with groups including the Cubs & Scouts, the Pimlico Toy Library, SNUG, The Kew Society, and Friends of Hatton Fields. We facilitated a session with a corporate volunteer group from British Airways. And we showed one of our funders- Kensington and Chelsea Council’s Climate Change Team- around the gardens at Latimer Road and Ladbroke Grove.
Cubs and Scouts get stuck in at Hatton Cross Station
Summer solstice is fast approaching! Let’s have a look at how our summer is lining up:
The garden groups are buzzing, with regular sessions being organised on WhatsApp. Groups looking after station gardens typically meet 2-4 times per month, with engagement officers Callum, Morwenna, Bea and Anna taking on additional watering and maintenance activities. Join a group here.
On 23 July, we’ll come together for an evening Summer Party. Everyone is welcome to join us after work as we fire up the pizza oven, enjoy cold elderflower champagne and EG ales, and have a chat about how the year’s going. The whole EG team will be there and we’d love to have you join! RSVP on Eventbrite at this link.
Throughout the month of June, Leila and our youth trainees have been busy with a solar panel and battery-making workshop, and classroom studies on fuel poverty, energy markets, renewable energy, and comms & media. They have also been preparing for the workplace 1-1 CV writing sessions, professionalism practice & studies on equity, diversity and inclusion. We are recruiting for the next cohort (beginning in September) on a rolling basis- click here for more info and to apply.
As we approach the end of the school academic year Leila has continued to engage schools in both classroom-based 'Green Spaces & Solar' workshops as well as working with our engagement officers Morwenna and Anna to deliver Horticulture workshops to several schools in Lambeth and Lewisham. To book your school for a FREE workshop next term contact leila@energygarden.org.uk.
Check out this blog spotlighting Leila and all the excellent work she is doing as our education lead.
The solar projects are enjoying a bumper month as the warm weather means they have generated 75 MW hours of clean energy in the merry month of May. Martin and Aga are hard at work getting the next share offer ready to open. You can pledge to invest in our community energy benefit society in the meantime.
Ellen is carrying out biodiversity surveys to compare our gardens against their baselines from last year. You can join her and learn how to collect the data which helps us better manage our gardens for wildlife. Keep an eye on our events page for the next biodiversity-focused session.
That’s a pretty full snapshot of what’s happening in our network at the moment. See any ways you’d like to get involved? We’d love to hear from you! Write to info@energygarden.org.uk, or send us a DM on social media and we’ll connect you with an activity or group near you.