Walthamstow Village in Bloom Mini-Portfolio 2020

Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2020 To be read with the 2019 portfolio

Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2019/20 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenge, hardship and tragedy to many. In the Village, residents, groups and businesses have pulled together and, with creativity, ingenuity and good humour, managed to make the lock-down bearable and sometimes even fun.

Connections and contacts made over the years and enthusiastic support from the Bloom Committee has enabled us to continue gardening throughout the pandemic and, as part of the Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association (WVRA), to reach out to all sections of the community.

Although community gardening was restricted for three months, our committee and volunteers continued to care for our adopted areas in socially-distanced and virtual ways. We’ve even managed to increase and enhance our planting!

The street-scene is looking lovely with even more front gardens, balconies and forecourts tended and blooming and an increased interest in all things horticultural.

The photo opposite is a tribute to the NHS, funded and created by Wood Street Walls from the design by @HolyMoly. Village east gateway Addison/Ravenswood Roads.

Supporting each other during lockdown Meetings continue via Zoom and it’s “business as usual”.

We sponsored, cooked and delivered a curry supper to thank the local shopkeepers, staff and their families for keeping us all supplied during lockdown.

We initiated projects and disseminated information from other groups via emails, posters, social media and helped set up WhatsApp groups for each street to ensure every resident had supplies and support, and that no one felt isolated.

We supported and advertised the independent businesses and restaurants that continued trading by delivering during lockdown.

We worked with businesses to safely reinstate the Saturday street-food market, and with WF council to suspend parking along Orford Road to allow pubs, restaurants to set up tables in the street to maximise custom.

Committee members ran and volunteered at WF’s Food Distribution Centre, ensuring 5,000+ food parcels were delivered to residents and the surplus and perishable items to food banks, sheltered housing, looked-afterchildren, foster-carers and rough-sleepers.

Most residents displayed rainbows, seasonal displays and messages of hope and encouragement in their windows and on Thursday evenings the “Clap4Carers” was deafening.

Gardening Club

Since 2004, the Village Gardening Club has met at the Village Square at 10.30 am on the first Saturday of every month. We had to cancel April and May’s gardening day, the annual spring clean and the Plant & Seed Swap.

During the lock-down hiatus, volunteers came forward to garden and care for beds or to litter-pick as part of their daily exercise and were given packs of hi-vis jackets, tools, instructions etc.

We resumed Gardening Club on 6 June and with a list of gardening tasks, volunteers can choose to work alone, in pairs, or in small socially-distanced groups.

We ensure that everyone observes the latest Government Guidelines on social-distancing and respects each other's safety. Some wear a mask and bring hand gel/wipes.

We provide green waste bags but ask volunteers to bring their hi-vis jacket, gloves, gardening tools and brooms as we cannot yet share tools and equipment, although there is a limited supply available.

Planters, flowerbeds and floral displays We felt it was vital during lock-down to keep everything looking beautiful for passers-by to enjoy and to keep up spirits.

Our volunteers rose to the challenge and looked after their adopted areas as their daily exercise.

Clive Meredeen and Teresa Deacon revamped the raised beds in Maynard Road.

We held a series of online virtual walks with pictures and explanations so people could still enjoy the splendours of the spring and summer planting.

As our Chelsea Fringe walks were cancelled, we joined Forest Flora’s Up The Garden Path trail, placing information boards at our key sites.

With its well-spaced benches, the Village Square became the place to meet safely during lockdown.

We are grateful to WF council for continuing to supply and maintain double hanging baskets along Orford Road and lamppost displays throughout the Village.

New Planting - the Village Fernery Jakob Hartmann, after much hard work, has created a beautiful fernery in the Chalmers House car park on Orford Road, in a difficult shady bed that once housed a tree.

Jakob used a pick-axe to break up the compacted, spent soil and added barrowloads of organic matter.

Using a donated pond-liner and collected wood, the bed has a damp area and a container pond.

It is planted as a haven for wildlife.

An information sign encourages passers-by to make their own fernery and includes the planting plan.

More new Planting By sheer good luck, to save water and labour, we completed most of our new planting during autumn/winter . We spent around £1,000 donated by WVRA and BEE17 to supplement planting at many locations:

• 4,000 Purple for Polio crocus corms via Rotary International (that were mistakenly supplied white!).

• 100+ mixed Perfect for Pollinators perennials • 12 grasses • 20 shrubs • 4 fruit trees In addition we received 1,000 mixed spring bulbs from the council’s Big Bulb Giveaway And another 1,000 mixed bulbs donated by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association.

Community Meadows Church End and Grove Road Orchard We added ancient grains to our 2019 meadow mix. At the autumn Plant & Seed Swap and Meadow Cutting Day, resident Rosemary Perrett taught us how to make traditional corn dollies using the reaped cereals.

Owing to the pandemic, our community spring sowing and plant swap was cancelled so we let the meadows grow from the self-sown seeds of many years. It is a great success!

We mowed paths through and set up information boards for people to enjoy the meadow and the wildlife it attracts.

On 5 September we have planned to run our meadow cutting, produce and plant swap and a BEE17 Honey stall.

Village Veg – our on-street community allotment In 2020 the project is again being ably led, but in a socially-distanced way, by Caroline Barton and Sam Hilsdon.

In winter we added 1,000 litres of well-rotted farmyard manure to replenish the soil.

This year, most of the plants were grown by kind residents from the seeds saved from our Plant & Seed Swaps.

Community planting and maintenance has been replaced by volunteers coordinating separate visits.

A team of seven "Weekly Waterers" tend and water with the hose hidden nearby.

Plants are labelled and passers-by can help themselves.

Plans to add water-butts have been postponed till 2021.

Dickon J C Bowling Very sadly and suddenly on 16 May, our lovely friend and neighbour, of East Avenue, passed away aged 82 of a heart condition.

Dickon's family arranged for him to be brought back to his house before his final journey.

Neighbours, friends, family and colleagues gathered, observing social distancing, to say goodbye. As the hearse drove away there was a spontaneous round of applause and many tears.

As well as volunteering with many sight-loss organisations, Dickon was a generous supporter of our Bloom projects and contributed beautifully packaged plants and seeds to our swaps.

Dickon worked at Kew as a researcher and gardener until his retirement; his plant knowledge was extraordinary. He took great care of his gardens and had wonderful collections of rarities in his conservatory, back garden and glasshouses; many of us were invited in to see them, never leaving without some treasures.

Dickon was the deserved winner of the Village's Best Front Garden in 2018 - always immaculate .

Dickon had a smile and a wave for everyone. He will be sorely missed.

Henry Maynard Primary School Following our revamp of the school’s Community Garden in 2019, during lockdown it had become unsafe with brambles, nettles and weeds.

We weeded and tidied it so the pupils, in their "bubbles" could use it as an outdoor classroom.

Year 5 Children made us lovely plans to show what they had planted in the raised beds.

We have made further ties with the school so we can promote each others’ events and activities.

“Through the Garden Gate” – working with other groups and communities We continue to work closely with the Church Hill Road Gardeners, led by Penny Wiles who are entering as an IYN for the first time. In 2019/20 we have helped fund and plant a new community orchard, donated bulbs and helped with their bid for a noticeboard and more planting.

In autumn, Teresa Deacon and Helen Lerner were invited to visit Love South Chingford IYN to give advice based on our experience since 2003.

Helen and Teresa judged Cleveland Park IYN’s local competitions.

We hosted a walking tour for LiB judge Mark Jones and the Rainham Village group entered into Britain in Bloom 2020.

We are part of the Waltham Forest Community Gardeners and Forest Flora groups and join in and promote events. Plotted on a map, the many gardening groups almost cover the borough.

We get UK-wide enquiries from people wishing to start groups; most recently a group starting in Lower Stoke, Kent run by exVillage resident Viki Willmott. We encourage, give advice and offer to visit.

St Mary’s Churchyard Village in Bloom committee member and St Mary’s head gardener Tim Hewitt has entered into the Churchyard category for the first time, so he is providing all the info this year.

The churchyard has been breathtakingly beautiful and an absolute sanctuary for residents and wildlife during lock-down.

Jakob Hartmann, with David Christmas, has made an absolute triumph of a new accessible path along the south-side of the church, using recycled materials and sand bought by donation from us.

Village residents and the church community have embraced Tim’s Burials in Bloom initiative.

We have benefitted from woodchips from recent tree work to mulch Lavender Corner and leafmould and compost for the Village beds.

Looking ahead We feel proud that we have proved our resilience and that we can adapt our gardening to suit these challenging times.

We had to cancel our fundraisers and events such as the Annual Curry Supper Quiz, Spring Clean, the spring Plant & Seed Swap and BEE17 Honey Stall.

Future socially-distanced events planned this year include the autumn Produce & Seed Swap, Meadow Cutting and a honey stall, the Village Jumble Trail and our AGM with cheese & wine.

During lock-down we took the opportunity to make Village lavender bags, BEE17 soap, beeswax candles, etc. for future fundraisers.

We have plenty in the bank so decided not to ask for donations from our usual sponsors during this difficult period.

We have postponed till next year our plans to green Ravenswood Industrial Estate using old barrels planted with grape vines, hops and junipers with a raised “botanics” bed by the outside seating areas of the gin distillery and breweries. The estimated cost for materials and plants is £800 and we can cover this if the businesses can’t sponsor.