Last day of March

These are some pics of the amazing people who spent their Monday afternoon helping make Leabank Square look absolutely beautiful!!

Many thanks to the gardeners - Amy, Cyprus (who worked so hard - even with a broken foot!), Denai (surely Hackney Wick's youngest gardener!), Sennur (who suggested Monday afternoons as a regular gardening event!), Safiri & Shanthi.

But equal thanks go out to everyone who came along to give encouragement. You see........

It really does work - if one person plants something - then 10 other people get enjoyment out of it!

Please - Hackney Wickers - lets get our whole hood as green & colourful as possible - that way when we go for an evening stroll or weekend cycle - we can admire one another's gardening skills!!

Colours

The bulbs planted earlier this year in the garden of Leabank Square are starting to come up now.

Everyone who passes them does a double-take!!

The management company of Leabank Square has severely neglected the garden & some of the residents joined hackneywickgarden.blogspot.com in trying to do something about it!

Please remember that anyone can join us. All you gotta do is plant something in Hackney Wick - take a couple of pics - and submit them plus a few words to this blogsite.

As easy as that.

Officially spring!!

The clocks sprung forward by an hour this morning - so it must officially be spring!

So some of us decided to plant a whole heap of new bulbs along the canal again.

300 to be precise!!

Of course - for those of us without a garden of our own - this is the next best thing - but guess what we all agreed was the absolute bestest thing ever?

The amount of cyclists, ramblers, working-off-lunchers, canoeists, even the odd (very) joy riding biker - ALL saying how nice the existing flowers are looking!!!!

For any sceptics out there - who are still not too sure about brightening Hackney Wick up with plants & trees - just chat to your neighbours & see how appreciative they are of what we're all doing!?

You'll be out there with a spade & fork before you know it.

sniff... fig.... sniff

A massive condolence out to Joana, Katarina, Marta, Pena, Safiri & Shanthi - the amazing fig tree you planted Last year - seems to have been crushed under an Olympic Bulldozer!!

We managed to get a few pics over the blue wall - and there is a dirt track where it once stood!

Very sorry - but as soon as we can save up for a new one - we'll plant another THIS side of the wall!!

Re-Cycled Cherry Trees

These cheery trees were planted in Leabank Square - just behind their re-cycling bins a few weeks ago - and already they're starting to bud & blossom!!!

Lets face it - some of hackney council's re-cycling bins look a bit boring - so some of us decided to bring a bit of shade & colour to them over the next few years!

If anyone else is interested in planting some fruit trees soon - we bought these from Lidl in Well Street (just before Mare Street) - and got them down on the bus the 5 stops back to Hackney Wick.

Lidl has a range of fruit trees (& loads of seeds & bulbs) - from different apple varieties, pears - & of course - these cherry trees. The trees all cost only £3.99 each!!!!

I promise I don't work for Lidl - but I swear they are one of the cheapest gardening shops around!!

Are there any more recycling bin areas around Hackney Wick that could do with some brightening up?

Fig tree!!!

This was a fig tree we planted just before the big blue Olympics wall went up last summer.

As you can see - there was no shortage of volunteers helping to clear a suitable space, dig, plant & water.

As far as we know - it has not been bulldozed (like the Willow & Pine trees!) - and on the first really warm Spring day - we will attempt to take a pic over the wall with the aid of a self-timer on the end of a long tripod.

Watch this space........

Bulbs on Lea River Canal

This was a lovely warm winters day - & we planted loads of bulbs all along the Lea River Navigational Canal here in Hackney Wick.

Please take a walk along this weekend & you'll see the flowers starting to come up giving us a bit of colour along the massive blue Olympic wall.

We'll add some more pics when more of them start flowering.

Oh yes........ also check out the 120 sunflowers (!) & summer meadow flowers this summer along the same towpath. We planted them a few days ago - so keep checking this blog for more pics - or better still - go for a nice long stroll along the river!!