London Road Station Partnership Blog

We had a good session on Sunday cutting back the shrub overgrowth on the Brighton Greenway. As the shrubs had grown outwards, so people had started moving off the path, and so a new pathway was taking shape. With the buddleia and cornus now under control, the pathway feels much easier to walk. Sadly, the graffiti is back on the arches.

We were around ten people, including a couple of campers from the camp set up by homeless people on the Greenway. They’ve pitched their tents in a tightly defined area between the fossil seats. Their help on Sunday, but also clearing litter during the week, has been much appreciated.

Wild ginger and cow parsley on New England Road bank

As the Brighton Greenway was planned to be a wildlife corridor as well as a human amenity, it was lovely to see the native wild flowers coming through. The bank by the steps up to the Greenway from New England Road is now covered with wild ginger (probably Asarum europeaum) which grows so well in shady areas, together with pungent cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris). After the bridge there are clumps of nettles, red campion (silene dioca) and ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata). And slightly further on, there are drifts of cowslips (primula veris). It’s some time since I’ve seen this plant in an urban environment; it declined seriously in the 1970s and 1980s but has since made a comeback.

Cow slips, ivy and galium

Further up the Greenway, the Council have spread rough soil and ‘wildflower’ seed mix. The ‘wildflower’ border has been spectacular in previous years but quite a few of the flowers  aren’t really native; for example, the pink Cosmos is originally from Mexico. The ox-eye daisies, poppies and blue chicory are. The challenge of ‘wildflower’ borders is always getting the right balance: typically, one species will overpower others after the first spectacular year. We’ll see what this year brings.

Red campion and more wild ginger

Along with others, we’ve formed Friends of Brighton Greenway as a group to help maintain and develop the Greenway.

Come along to our Inaugural AGM where there will be an opportunity to talk about some future plans: MONDAY 18 May, 7.30pm, Clarendon Centre, CCK, 47 New England Street.

There were very warm sunny days in April, it was then suddenly cool again but very dry, and now in May, lots of rain (at last) but an evil wind. Seeds germinated happily, but seedlings then sulked a bit due to the cold and now we’re ready to plant after the rain, the wind is torturing small plants. Looking back over this blog, it’s clear that every year has brought its challenges. This year at least, we are blessed with an evidently reduced snail population and no sign so far of aphid infestation.

Typically in April and May, I’m trying to catch up with myself. We’ve done lots of work in the gardens over the last month or so and I’ve not had time to update the blog.

In the shady garden, lush greenery is coming back and I think our star plants this spring are the orange-red heuchera I planted last summer. Heuchera all over the place are very happy, bringing purple, rich red and bronze into the otherwise dominant green of the shady garden. I propagated a lot after my potted collection was decimated by vine weevil last autumn so there are more to plant.

Our main campaign has focused on getting rid of the sycamore seedlings. Was it because of a windy year last year, or have conditions been such that the little helicopter seeds germinated strongly this year? There are colonies and colonies of them. Sue went for them yesterday with her characteristic vigour.

In the edible plot, Maggie and Tobias have planted up a new strawberry bed, we’ve got dwarf peas in pots growing under two apple trees, Madeleine is still willing the beetroot seed to germinate in the far ‘orchard’ bed, while the oriental leaves are providing wonderful additions to salads and the leeklets are holding their own.

The far central bed is planted up with chard and the shadier left-hand bed under the wall now has our mint bed (with Mark in mind), our strange variegated sorrel (how do we use this? it tastes awful but looks pretty), a rosemary plant desperate for transplanting, chives, parsley, leeks and standard sorrel.

The star experiment this year is our central sunny bed where we are trying out the ‘three sisters’ method: beans, squash/courgette and sweet corn. The sweet corn and courgettes went in yesterday after we’d spent the previous week mixing in lots of compost. I wondered about delaying planting but was reassured that corn at least is a prairie plant and should be able to withstand blustery conditions. Beans thus far have not been enthusiastic and have only just germinated: we’ve learned to be cautious about planting out too early.

And with Marlene yesterday, we sowed marigold seed and planted up the right hand tree pit in front of the station with some pansies. Tobias also potted up the two long-suffering rosemary plants, grown from cuttings back in 2013, which have been root-bound in a window box for over a year! Liberation for these generally well-tempered plants. I promised to make rosemary biscuits for next week’s session.

We’ve drawn up our outline planting plan for 2015 for the edible growing plot. The big news is that we’re going to try ‘three sisters’ planting: sweet corn, climbing beans and courgettes/squash. The idea is that these three plants help each other. The corn provides a structure for the beans to climb, the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and the squash/cougettes spread along the ground forming a ‘mulch’, protecting moisture in the soil and preventing weeds. We going to use the sunniest raised bed for this: we know courgettes and beans grow well and easily, sweet corn is a bit of an unknown quantity, but having just been given some sweet corn seeds, it’s definitely worth a try.

Having gone through our joint seed collection, we’ve got everything we need for the new season except … chard. We have a whole range of different climbing beans: yellow, green and purple pods. We have Italian courgettes and winter squash. We only need a few tomato plants, but we have plenty of seed. Last year’s attempts with beefsteak tomatoes were not particularly successful, so we’re back to the reliable and heavy cropping cherry tomatoes. Collectively, we have a wide range of salad leaf seeds and despite the frustrations of caterpillar invasions and tough leaves, we are going to grow cavalo nero again in the shadier raised bed at the back of the garden. Our ‘three leaf (chard, rocket, cavalo nero) three cheese’ lasagne has been a hit at two harvest suppers now, and we know it’s easy to grow.

We’re moving our strawberry bed and leaving the growing area in the second ‘orchard’ bed free for the moment for later inspiration. And we’ll no doubt be sowing some marigolds and other ‘companion’ plants to provide colour and distraction for pests. With luck, this year’s frost will have prevented the kind of aphid attack our fruit trees suffered last year but we’ll probably spray our trees next week with an organic garlic-based wash which discourages the aphids. I’m assuming, of course, that the garlic flavour will have worn off by the time we come to harvest the apples: not a great combination.

Just got this lovely video from Jo at Brighton & Hove Food Partnership about volunteering in local community gardens. Our garden is featured towards the end (remember? Jo came round to film last summer).

Take a look!

And if you fancy volunteering with us, do get in touch: lrsp@hotmail.co.uk

Last Tuesday, we ventured out into the London Road station gardens for the first work session of this year. Two of us cleared weeds and straggly plants from the raised beds in the edible growing area and dug over the soil. It’s a bit soggy at the moment and benefitted from getting some aeration. In both plots, the soil is looking rich and moist with lots of worms, thanks to our liberal layering of compost in the autumn. We also cut back the autumn raspberry canes in pots and I’ve given them a top dressing of sulphur of potash.

At this time of year, as we finally feel spring is out there somewhere but are not quite sure when it will arrive, the gardens are looking tired. We’ve been blessed these last few days in Brighton with bright days and no rain, so it was a good time to freshen the soil and bring some colour into the shady garden. Two local shops have been selling cheap and cheerful primula and I managed to pick up 16 for not very much. They are not distinguished or subtle plants, but their unashamedly bright colour is a boon in the poor light of our early spring. We planted some miniature skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ earlier in the winter and their red flowers and glossy dark leaves work well with the reds and purples of the primula. Daffodils are in bud as is our Mahonia, bringing some splashes of yellow to the shady garden. I also think the fuchsia we planted during the early summer are going to survive: they are twiggy skeletons at the moment, but there was green wood there when I snipped off some of the spindly twigs.

Pansies, a few dwarf daffodils and primula are also flowering in our tree pits. And finally the symmetry at the front of the station has been restored. Another sorbus has been planted to replace the one which got blown down in a storm in October 2013: thank-you, Brighton & Hove Cityparks. We will look after it and water it if we don’t have much rain.

Xmas 2014 decorations at LRB

It’s that time of year. We’ve moved on from Christmas, but it’s still dark and wet. Never mind – a good time for meeting and looking forward. We’ve just had our Annual General Meeting: our report and accounts can be viewed under Documents above or by clicking here. And here are four key things we want to work on for 2015, in addition to our usual work on the edible plot and the shady triangle of shade-loving ornamental plants.

1. We hope to be bringing splashes of colour again to the area when we plant up (or renew planting in): 3 planters on station platform, the tree pits in Shaftebury Place, 2 planters at The Signalman and the hollows of the trees cut down on Ditchling Rise. We’ve overwintered and propagated lots of geraniums and fuchsias ready for late spring planting, we’ve also got alyssum seedlings on the go, ivy plants are growing well, and I’m hoping the purple red heuchera cuttings don’t get undermined by vine weevils.

Vivid colours in our platform planters

2. The big old planters we were looking after at Preston Circus are to be removed. We’ve cleared most of the plants, and we’re talking to BHCC about a new planter at the bottom of Clyde Road with more harmonious paving and a community notice board at Duke of York cinema. We’ve repotted santolina, festuca grasses, a couple of hardy chrysanthemums. Sadly, plants in the Duke of York planters had suffered from vine weevils.

Removing nettles on Brighton Greenway

3. We’re also involved with Brighton Greenway to try to make this into a really pleasant walkway up to Brighton station, as well as a thriving wildlife area and mini-park, with interpretation boards celebrating its railway heritage and possibly with some food growing. Next Action Day: Sunday 8th February 12.30 to 3.30 meet back of Clarendon Centre, BN1 4GQ. Contact Madeleine (madcary@yahoo.com) or me if you’re interested in taking part.

4. And finally … We’d like this year to get another nomination for Southern Railway’s Stars and Tsars Best Community Station award: to do this, we need to keep up efforts to tidy and improve environment at the station, and keep everybody involved in gardening, composting, events etc. We’re going to do a recce of the station and areas which need a bit of attention: the Albion in the Community group did a fantastic job clearing weeds, but they do come back, and walls by the edible plot need repainting. And there’s paint peeling away in various places – all ready for a spring spruce-up, once we get the spring.

My last post of 2014 in early November and my first post of 2015 bear an almost identical photo. Our miraculous foxglove is still flowering on the south platform at the Brighton end …

It’s not been a bad end of year. We’ve had some storms, we’ve had some rain, we’ve had some frost but few of the extremes we’ve experienced in previous years. As usual, gardens are looking very forlorn though the platform planters at the station are holding their own.

To get the new year started, while the days are dull and short, here are some key dates for the first part of 2015:

Sunday 11th January 12.30 – 3.30 Greenway Action Day, Church Christ the King (CCK), Boston Street. Bring secateurs and loppers if you have them, and gardening gloves – and as it does get cold and wet, do wear warm rainproof clothing.

Tuesday 13th January 3.30 LRSP get-together/AGM. Conservatory, Shaftesbury Lane by LR station. Our time to look back at 2014, plan for 2015, review our accounts and elect committee.

Tuesday 13th January 7.30 Greenway Action Group. Venue to be confirmed, but likely CCK Clarendon Centre.

Sunday 1st February 10.30 – 4.30, Seedy Sunday, Corn Exchange. The biggest community seed-swap in the country. More info here

Sunday 8th February 12.30 – 3.30 Greenway Action Day, CCK. To be confirmed.

Tuesday 3rd March 2.30 – 4.30 Beginning of LRSP gardening year – we hope! Meet, weather permitting, in Gated Plot by bridge, south side.

Wednesday 18th March 2pm, City in Bloom Working Group, Ante Room Brighton Town Hall

Monday 30^th March, 1pm, Brighton & Hove City in Bloom 2014 launch, Jubilee Library.

Thursday 23rd April at 2pm City in Bloom Working Group, Ante Room Brighton Town Hall

Thursday 28th May at 2pm. City in Bloom Working Group, Ante Room Brighton Town Hall