The Final Garden - 2010

Project: What Will The Harvest Be? - The Final Garden Proposal

A productive pleasure garden influenced by the site’s Medieval to recent history.

We have developed the Council’s approved garden plan by Sharon Swift, retaining many of its key inclusions. However, we propose a more overt and playful referencing of the Garden’s histories, and a more assertive use of architecture on the site.
Our input will be holistic rather than focused on a single permanent ‘art’ object, and will include the design or commissioning of specific objects needed in the Garden – for example the fruit training structures, buildings (allotment huts), plant supports etc.

Orchard
The garden’s West end perimeter – adjoining the DLR – will house an ‘orchard’ of large standard fruiting trees in training structures, probably apples or pears. These will be formally planted in a matrix under-planted with the resilient herbaceous plant ‘London Pride’.
Hard landscaped pathways through this will continue throughout the site.

Earth form
The Garden’s central feature is a raised earth form with a grassed top which evokes a range of influences – prehistoric British earthworks; the formal terraces of 19th century English gardens and even the ubiquitous suburban bowling green. The formal, angled slopes of its sides will be planted with a matrix of native British plants, probably Hart’s Tongue Fern, Wild Strawberry and Bugle. The aim is to refer to the sensibility of the British countryside, but also to the stylised ‘flowery meads’ familiar from Medieval tapestries and pictures.
Narrow, incised steps will offer access to the top ‘lawn’ from ground level.

On the side adjacent to Bakers Row this structure forms a seated, tiered ‘amphitheatre’ around the Medieval and Victorian ruins exposed at the site. This feature will provide extensive seating (probably wooden inset into the earth form) for Garden users, a ‘frame’ for the ruins and a viewing platform for the rest of the site.

Parade
The site’s long South-facing wall is an ideal site for a parade of wall-trained fruiting plants alongside a formal path. Depending on the available maintenance these could be apples, pears, grapes, etc. or - less intensively – figs, nuts, or berried plants for wildlife (e.g. pyracanthus) with an under-planting of native plants such as Lady’s Mantle and bluebell.

Mixed Bed
Between the Earth form and the Building we propose a large, mixed bed of plants with a focus on historic relevance to the site (see Plant List). These would be largely herbaceous but selected for low maintenance and long season of interest. There would be occasional formality such as clipped holly or beech. Paths to the Building’s seating would cross through this border. Again, this area seeks to balance an evocation of the English natural landscape with the formality and limited planting of early gardens of the medieval period.

Shelter
The project offers a fantastic opportunity for an architecturally and technologically innovative building to house all the site’s services and many social and practical functions. We would like to quote from the engraving of the site’s one-time gatehouse in this design, but also to reference the familiar and much-loved folly, bandstand, beach hut and garden shed. This building is sited to divide the public and community garden areas and thus would include a lockable gate, probably at the North side, as well as a permanent honesty stall at the other end. It’s ‘public’ side would be focused on seating facing the Mixed Bed and Earth form, whereas the reverse side would provide tool storage and covered social space in the community garden. We would anticipate installing rainwater harvesting and solar power generation on this building, and see the integration of these into the design as a truly exciting opportunity.

Community Garden
The final design of this area will be developed in close liaison with FOAG and with new Garden users reached through the 2009 project stage. However, based on research to date it is likely to include raised beds for fruit and vegetables; social / play areas, a pond and ‘wilderness’ area. Interest in an apiary and a bread oven has been mooted. This community area will require reasonably secure fencing surrounding it, with a gate in the northern perimeter for vehicle delivery access from the street.
We propose a hedge and planting of standard trees along this perimeter to offer some screening from the street.
It is hoped that some of the 2009 materials can be recycled effectively in this part of the garden.
By waiting a year to finalise these plans we will also allow time for current unknowns such as the DLR design & Abbey House development to be resolved.

Labelling & online presence
We’d like to instigate documentation of the garden’s evolution as soon as possible (see proposals for the Harvest Garden), with a view to developing from this a permanent labelling system for the final garden’s plants and features. The aim of the labels will be to provide the plants names as well as their social origins - this could include facts such as local historic connections through to more personal details such as the actual person who propagated the plants as part of the project. These labels will also show URLs linking the plants back to the Harvest database, containing deeper reference material but also documentation of the individual plant’s history and care.

Research and development from 2009
The level of community engagement apparent after the 2009 project period will profoundly inform the entire Garden’s design. For example, if an interested orchard group emerges, it will be viable to plant trained apples requiring a higher level of input than would be ordinarily available on a public site. If local residents show a real enthusiasm for growing vegetables the provision for raised beds in the community garden could be expanded etc.

Summary of key areas
• An ‘orchard’ of standard fruiting trees grown on bespoke sculptural training structures
• A parade of fruiting plants along the South-facing wall
• A bespoke structure dividing the communal and public gardens, providing social, storage and working space and integrating water harvesting & solar power
• An earthwork amphitheatre / viewing platform surrounding the site’s ruins
• A large-scale bed in the public garden of mixed planting reflecting the site’s historic influences
• A community garden section with leisure, play, wilderness and productive areas (design yet to be finalised) developed out of the experience gained from the Harvest Garden
• A bespoke labelling & interpretation system for the garden, linked to an on-line blog/plant database

Click here if you would like to download a pdf of the A1 plans (6.9 MB) for this phase of the garden (tiny version on the right)