Grass roots
David Perkins, education and resources manager
for Roots & Shoots community garden in Lambeth, is in Paradise
Corner when I arrive, busy digging a hole. Along with student Wayne and
two other members of staff, he’s bringing exotic plants and a pond back
to this sunny, southfacing spot, after a period during which it was
used by some local builders working nearby. In some ways, this
regeneration process typifies the whole story of Roots & Shoots,
which began in 1982 with a large-scale leap of faith: the
transformation of an acre of derelict wasteland into a beautiful,
inspiring wildlife garden.
‘Where you’re standing at the moment – for most of the twentieth
century that was a toilet,’ says Perkins cheerily. ‘Of course,
from 1740 ’til 1904, these were gardens, quite posh ones. But then
there was a warehouse factory here that was built in 1903. That was
demolished in about 1979, but when Roots & Shoots came in 1982 it
was just concrete floors, corrugated fences round it, broken glass,
demolition debris generally. Linda [Phillips, manager of the project]
cleared the site, brought topsoil in and laid it out as a community
garden in about 1984.’
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For a while, the plot was open to the public 24 hours a day, but
problems with vandalism triggered a rethink, and now access is
restricted to office hours and staffed weekend and evening events. ‘If
I become aware that we’ve got some teenagers in, like we did last week
in half term, I just discreetly wander over and say, “Are you all
right?”’says Perkins. ‘And if they’re up to no good then they leave,
because they can see they’re being watched. But if they’re genuinely
interested then I’ll give them a bit of my time and talk to them about
frogs or whatever.’
Perkins, whose background is in education and natural history, is proud
of the garden’s wildlife. ‘Some gardeners might think it’s a bit untidy
but because it’s lovely and wild you get lots of insects. We’ve got 15
species of butterfly, seven species of bumblebee, 20 other species of
bees over 30 species of beetle, three species of grasshopper in the
meadow and two rare crickets. They’re amazing little creatures. They
just spotted this tiny patch of greenery and moved in.’
There are plenty of opportunities for visitors to learn about the
resident invertebrates, birds, frogs and newts, from identification
charts dotted around the garden to full-scale educational events, like
the Beastly Business day on March 19. As part of National Science Week,
this is a fusion of art and science projects based on insect eyes and
the science of vision. Roots & Shoots are working with local school
children in the lead-up to the event, but on the day anyone can come
along and discover more.
The event will coincide with the garden’s Spring Fair, one of four
seasonal open weekends featuring stalls selling fresh organic fruit and
vegetables, honey from the London Beekeepers’Association and crafts by
local people. The Roots & Shoots shop also sells a seasonal range
of produce all year round. ‘You can’t really buy nice organic fruit and
vegetables round here,’ Phillips points out. ‘We’ve linked up with a
farming cooperative in Norfolk so we should be able to sell lots of
lovely food. There will also be plant sales in May and June – we grow
herbs and bedding plants to sell, as well as organic compost. We
press our own apple juice in the apple barn in the autumn, and that
sells really well.’
These commercial opportunities support main purpose of Roots &
Shoots, which is to provide vocational training – conducted in a newly
constructed eco-building bristling with green features – for young
people with special educational needs. ‘We pick up the ones that no one
else really wants,’ says Phillips bluntly. ‘But we have a very high
success rate of people getting jobs. At the moment we have about 19 to
20 students at one time, doing a 40-week course. But that funding
finishes in March 07, so I don’t know what will happen after that.’
She’s an old hand, though, at winkling money out of government bodies;
she likes to show bureaucrats round when the tea-roses are in flower
and ‘they take us to their hearts’, she says. Maybe it’s not just rare
crickets who appreciate a little patch of green from time to time.
Roots & Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, off
Kennington Rd, SE11 6DN (020 7587 1131) Lambeth North tube. Garden open
Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, phone for details of evening and weekend events.
Spring Fair Sunday March 19, 11am-4pm, adm £1, children free.
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