We’re delighted to be ‘opening’ the London Road Station Partnership gardens for the Brighton Garden Gadabout on Saturday 23rd June from 11am to 5pm.

The Garden Gadabout is an opportunity to visit a whole range of private and community gardens in and around Brighton. It raises vital funds for the Sussex Beacon, a care centre supporting people living with AIDS/HIV. Funds are raised via an entrance ‘donation’ and garden sales or activities. The gardens are organised into local trails. We are part of the Fiveways and Roundhill trail. The entrance donation for a single garden is £2 , or a one day ticket provides entry to all the gardens across all the trails for £7.

The London Road Station gardens are not Chelsea show gardens, nor examples of ‘municipal’ style annual planting that used to be typical of station gardens. What they do show is what can be done with two small pockets of waste land and a great deal of enthusiasm, when there is support from the local community.

Our shady triangle garden of shade-tolerant ornamental plants (photo above) has been planted almost exclusively with plants propagated and donated by local people. The raised beds in our gated edible growing plot are made from scaffolding planks donated by local companies; our mini-orchard of cordonned fruit trees was sponsored by our local pubs. There’s a story behind every plant and every fixture.

Come along on Saturday 23rd. We’ll be there to tell you the stories, talk about our links with other community gardens, about our trials and tribulations, about composting and cordonning, about London Road Station and its history …