The Flagpole Town Hall Garden

After Hounslow council contracted out many of their services, some small pieces fell through the cracks. One of these pieces was the green spaces around the leisure buildings. While parks went to CiP (and thence to John Laing and thence to Carrillion and thence to Lampton 360 Greenspace), the street greenery went to Hounslow Highways, and the leisure centres and Town Hall went to Fusion Leisure, who had little facility with greenery. The small garden under the flagpole at the Town Hall was left in a vacuum. After succumbing to weeds and litter, it was handed over to a plastic lawn company which covered it in concrete with a plastic grass cover, along with a large advert. After residents complained, Abundance took over the maintenance of the corner in 2015.

Initially the corner was planted in swirls delineated with Hebe topiaria interspersed with Ilex crenata ‘Convexa’. The sections within the swirls were then planted with Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Bevan’, Heucherella alba ‘Autumn Bride’, Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’, Liriope muscari ‘John Burch’, Santolina virens ‘Lemon Fizz’ and Satureja Montana. The Santolina expired almost immediately, as did replacements, so it was replaced with purple sage. The Liriope took three years to get going but then became dense and happy.

After a couple of years snowdrops and narcissi were added to the mix, to provide some early colour.

Cheryl Lanyon, Julie Aldridge and Jennie Figaro water and maintain the garden.