The Grass Roof Company - Urban Community Gardens

FOOD-GROWING, COMMUNITY GARDENS and RAILINGS

Talking to other Estates:

We are increasingly being asked to talk to other estates and housing providers about the work we do at Clapton Park. Always good to share ideas and more importantly the stuff that didn’t work?

With funding from REAP we have transformed two areas previously tarmaced into green space that not only breathes life back into the area but is also a public source for herbs and fruit. All now looked after and managed as part of our maintenance contract.

Railings are one of the greatest assets on our estate - they provide protection for the flowers and give us thousands of metres of trellis!

Please click the photos for a larger, more detailed view - click again to close.


Here is our most recent growing space, again taking advantage of another bit of unused grass within the estate. Many thanks to Louise for raising the funding and to Alpay, Louise, Nina, and Ru for all their help and enthusiasm!	We now have 4 allotments on the Clapton Park Estate, great for residents, carbon emissions and for me personally. It’s so great to find these spaces for people to grow food.	Before: impervious and sterile.	After: the new community garden at Clapham Park.


Making use of the railings on the Clapton Park estate.	Annual flower edge at the Clapton Park estate.	It is virtually impossible for residents to get allotment space on inner city estates so we always look for areas within our green space to give some room to residents to grow food. We removed elderly shrub beds or old hybrid tea bushes that have sat there for years and given this space to people to grow their own.	Food is a common connection between people where ever they come from in the world. You don’t need to understand a language to recognise different veg. Here are John and Charlie on the vegetable plot.