Gardening on the Brandon Estate
Welcome to the Brandon estate gardening group.
We are a collective of estate residents who have actively decided to get involved with planting and maintaining the plants, shrubs, and herbs that are growing in the 22 raised bed planters on the estate.
We are also part of the Walworth Community Garden Network (CGN) and are working with other community gardeners locally.
The planters were originally put in place by Southwark council to surround and protect the Henry Moore statue – ‘Reclining Figure No. 3’ which was placed on the estate shortly after it was built.
The planters are located in three groupings.
Seven planters containing herbs and edible vegetables, located adjacent to Cruden House.
Eight planters containing perennial shrubs and olive trees, running from the Cruden garages, alongside the path running towards the shopping precinct,
Seven planters, containing perennial plants and shrubs, running from Cornish House to Bateman House.
There is also a wildflower meadow, directly in front of the Henry Moore statue.
In Autumn 2017 Southwark council awarded the estate a grant to have a landscape gardener design a planting scheme, and the plants were put in place in late 2017.
A group of residents decided to get involved with helping with the planting, and have taken on the responsibility of watering, weeding, and maintaining the plants.
In the planters at the base of Cruden House, we currently have a variety of herbs, sage, rosemary, bay leaves, thyme, lemon thyme, and also some edible vegetables, tomatoes, chilli peppers, courgettes, sweet peas, and sweetcorn growing.
The intention is that these be available to residents and members of the gardening group.
We have access to water and hosepipes at the base of Cornish, Cruden and Brawne houses, and in this hot weather we really need to water the planters about twice a week.
It is actually quite therapeutic, and in the sunny weather quite a nice way to relax and de-stress, after a long day at work.
All residents are welcome to come down, get involved, and be involved in what we plan to plant and grow next year.
Photo Credit: Loz Pycock – Flickr: Henry Moore’s ‘Two Piece Reclining Figure No 3’, Brandon Estate
