It all started with a leaflet about Community-Rail partnerships. Living around London Road Station, Brighton, we were thinking about what we could do to improve the environment around the station. We invited Sam Bryant from Sussex Community Rail Partnership to a meeting of the Ditchling Rise Area Residents Association in March 2011. Sam, and Southern Area Manager Paul Wyborn, were very encouraging and happy to support our idea of developing small gardens at the station.

A quick walk around the station with a camera had highlighted various plots of unused land. We decided to focus on two of them, on either side of the station building in Shaftesbury Place. We completed Southern’s risk assessment and drew up a project plan on the basis of which Southern agreed to provide some start-up funding. The next stage was our safety briefing and, having received our lovely yellow hi-viz ‘Volunteer’ jackets, we finally started on clearing the two sites in May 2011.

On the west side is the SHADY TRIANGLE. We’ve dug over the soil, sifted out as many stones as we could and incorporated compost donated by Veolia, who run the nearby recycling plant. A neighbour, Rhiannon, also left us her 4 year old compost heap. The triangle is shaded by trees, so we’ve planted it with shade-tolerant perennials and shrubs: ferns, perennial geraniums, astrantia, foxgloves, pulmonaria, bergenia, alchemilla mollis, heuchera, fatsia japonica and mahonia japonica. Almost all of these have been transplanted or propagated from our gardens or donated by other neighbours. We’ve added as much colour as we can with annuals such as busy lizzies, pansies, antirrhinums and fuchsias.

On the east side, the GATED PLOT has very poor soil; in fact it’s mostly hardcore, stone and lumps of concrete. We decided to try growing edible plants in containers. We started with mangetout and runner beans in growbags and pots. We’ve added tomatoes, a courgette, a chili plant, lettuces and lots of squashes, donated by neighbours and friends. We’ve also started growing herbs in pots. We then experimented with building raised beds, thanks to a donation of scaffolding planks from Gordon Chalmers Scaffolders in Worthing and yet another neighbour who gave us quantities of topsoil. We now have four raised beds. In one, we have planted seeds for autumn/winter crops (radishes, chard, frisee lettuce and cavalo nero), while another acts as a base for our squash plants in pots. Two are awaiting more soil – again, pledged by a neighbour.

Thanks to Southern, we’ve been able to purchase water butts for each plot and cover the paths with woodchip. And our immediate neighbours, the small family joinery firm of A.A. Taylor, made a cash donation which has allowed us to buy plants, twine and canes … and set up our community bank account which enables us to plan for the future.

We’ve had wonderful conversations with so many passers-by who’ve stopped, curious, to find out what we were doing and who’ve been so enthusiastic about the gardens. Many neighbours have donated plants or soil from their gardens, and staff from Harvest, part of Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, have visited to offer valuable advice and provide support.