Community shows up in force to back Northwick Park Community Garden

The site beside the main railway line at Northwick Park

The Community Garden will run in a strip parallel to the railway line

The local community came out in force last night to puts its weight behind plans for a Community Garden in Northwick Park.  The idea hatched up initiaally by a group of  Northwick Park dog walkers has gathered support from local residents, professional gardeners and Brent Council.

After a presentation on developments so far and an explanation of the principles of forest gardens residents fed-back on the plans and made their own suggestions for what the garden should contain.

The group is a registered charity and has its own Facebook page HERE. One of the essentials is that in order to get funding for the project it needs local people to indicate their support - the more the better.

The project introduces itself:

In a special area of Northwick Park we are planning on creating a naturalistic green space where local residents, schools, visitors to the area including Northwick Park Hospital can unwind, learn about trees, plants and wildlife, and harvest seasonal produce. The produce will be organically grown without pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizer.

The garden design will be based on the permaculture concept. Permaculture mimics natural patterns within ecosystems. The ecosystem will take care of the garden in the long term. It will be a self-sufficient and sustainable natural development.

Fruit and nut trees, shrubs with edible berries, herbaceous perennial with edible leaves, flowers and herbs may feature in the garden design. It’s also important that we provide places for people to sit within the community garden and enjoy the natural surrounding.

The charity called ‘Northwick Park Community Garden’ was established in October 2018 to put all this in place. We are going to apply for Community Infrastructure Level (CIL) funding in December 2018. We’ll keep you updated on progress.

The construction of the garden will be done via the permablitz process where volunteers gather together to build the garden LINK. This is usually done in one day but a bigger project will need several phases.