Hampton Court Flower Show leftover gardens have been put to good use on Kingston and Thames Valley Housing sites this year.
Working with the Charity "Growing Southwark" and with assistance from its suppliers and subcontractors, Quadron organized the collection of left over plants and materials from the 2010 Hampton Court Flower Show for the benefit of residents in Kingston and Thames Valley Housing Associations.
Assistance was freely given by and gratefully received from
- Advanced Tree Services
- Garden Care Limited
- AFG Grab Services Limited
- The Royal Borough of Kingstons Ranger Services
Collection of materials - a range of vehicles were used including 3.5 ton transit tippers, 7.5 ton hi-ab lifts and 20 ton loaders to remove just under 80 tons of material from the Hampton Court Show and distribute the materials to a range of community groups in the Kingston area.
Above: RBK Rangers using 3.5t tipper vans to collect timber & turf for allocation to community groups and allotment associations to construct raised beds.
Below: Thames Valley Housing Association's Resident Participation Manager, Eleanor, filling her car with grasses and herbaceous plants for garden projects in Hampton, Hillingdon & Northolt.
Above: Gardencare transported mulch, timber and plants from RHS Hampton Court to Knollmead Permaculture site in Tolworth, and Below, ATS assist with their 7.5t grab lorry to collect ton bags of aggregates, ballast, topsoil and bark mulch. Sand was allocated to St John's primary to put into the sand pit within their Eco School Wildlife Garden. Ballast was allocated to community groups for raised beds and topsoil, and mulch to community gardens.
Community Planting Projects that benefited from Garden Re-use
Once materials had been collected from RHS Hampton Court and transported the short distance to Quadrons Alexandra Recreation Ground Depot, materials were either collected by community groups or Quadron and its partners laid on transport if materials were of a bulky nature.
Next year we will aim to transport all the materials using electric vehicles to reduce the carbon footprint.
After receiving the list of community groups from Growing Southwark and compiling the list of collected materials we tried to allocate materials to all community groups that applied and where materials were left plants were allocated to parks, open spaces and allotments around Kingston to ensure nothing went to waste.
Above: Thames Valley Housing: Mary Rose Close Community Garden - volunteer offloading bark and compost ready to plant native Hornbeam and Hawthorn hedging to secure garden perimeter.
Below: Knollmead Permaculture Reserve - transporting scaffold boards and bark for raised beds to improve community food growing area.
Above: A 15ft high Bee Sculpture, grasses and native hedge whips with 6 ton bags of sand have all been allocated to St John's Primary School for its Eco-School Wildlife Gardens. The 15 foot high sculpture had to go the long way round to avoid the low bridge!