Islington Gardeners

Islington Gardeners are delighted that our Borough once again (despite rather fewer hanging baskets!) had a very sucessful year in the London in Bloom competition. Although Westminster was overall winner, Islington was a runner up and gained Gold; Angel gained Gold and was category Winner for Town Centres, the King Henry’s Walk Garden was First in the Community Gardens section and Islington residents Karyl and Charlotte Muswell came Second in the Front Gardens section.

Islington Gardeners had a special role this year in that the Islington entry was put forward (and the entry fee paid) by us rather than by the Council. This community involvement resonated well with the London in Bloom judges, and contributed to a complimentary Judges' Report. The text is reproduced in the October 2011 IG Newsletter, now available in the website library.

The "greening" of Islington is the result of efforts over many years by many community groups and individual residents, as well as Islington Gardeners and our Forgotten Corners team, and of course the dedicated work of many individuals at Greenspace. We are very pleased that this contribution to Islington's environment and the well-being of our residents has been recognised again by London in Bloom, and we very much hope, despite the current straitened financial circumstances, that Islington Council's Greenspace capability will be preserved.

We are pleased to learn that the Leader of Islington Council, Catherine West, has written a very firm letter to Network Rail, expressing the concerns of Islington Council about the unannounced demolishing of the Drayton park sidings’ trees, noting the numerous complaints from residents. She hopes that it will be possible to put in place a management regime that works for both the safe operation of the railway and protects the biodiversity value of the site, and that better communications can be achieved henceforth. Network Rail have responded that they would like to understand the environmental issues around their London lines, and have undertaken that no future work will be carried out without prior consultation (safety remaining a paramount consideration). Copies of both letters can now be seen in the Library section under "Network Rail". The Council will be sending Network Rail a list of the railway's Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation in the Borough, and a meeting has been arranged between the Council, Network Rail, and concerned residents when it is hoped a positive outcome can be achieved.

(Left, Drayton Park sidings before, and Right, after the razing of the habitat)

Members of the Highbury local community, Friends of Gillespie Park, and Islington Wildlife Gardeners are devastated that Network Rail has nipped in over a recent weekend and razed a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation alongside a railway line at Drayton Park. It appears that the reason is for passenger safety in the event of an emergency on a train, but this concern has been in abeyance for the seven years since the last razing of the vegetation, and in any case the area has been left with tree-trunks etc., strewn everywhere for fleeing passengers to fall over (and said passengers can also fall into various inspection pits, now concealed by cut vegetation).

Nature conservationists are particularly annoyed that despite an undertaking made in 2004 to contact Islington Council in advance, no contact was made, and the work carried out covertly over a weekend when no Council officers were available. Secondly, the many birds which have been living in the scrubland will have been in the process of raising second and third broods, and many will have been destroyed. A better time for clearance activity would be August-September. It is of course an offence against the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (amended 2000) to take, damage, or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built. Section 40 of the NERC Act (Natural Environment and Communities Act) also requires public bodies to have a regard to the conservation of nature in carrying out their activities. Residents would like to see a copy of the statutory nature report apparently carried out by Network Rail prior to the destruction of the habitat. Amongst the species living or feeding in the area were sparrows, now a Red Data species as their numbers have crashed over the last 20 years, as well as goldfinches, greenfinches, sparrowhawks, kestrels, and bats. (Drayton Park is a particularly sensitive area as one of London's rare black redstart colonies was completely destroyed when their patch of land was sold off by the railway company a decade or so ago and built on.)

We understand that the Council has now been in contact with Network Rail, and that a constructive conversation has taken place. Local residents would like to be invited to future meetings in order that the site can be managed with greater sensitivity to biodiversity needs, while obviously satisfying Health and Safety requirements. Residents would also like Islington Council to take legal action against Network Rail to discourage them from using the same "do the damage first, apologise afterwards" technique at either another SINC in the Borough, or at Drayton Park in seven years' time. Railway lands are an important reservoir for biodiversity around the Borough, and better management and co-operation from Network Rail would benefit nature elsewhere in Islington, nature which has very little space in our crowded borough.

Islington's updated BAP has just been put up on Islington Council's Wildlife Blog : islingtonblogs.typepad.com/blog/

The BAP sets out 18 policy statements, which formalise the Council’s and the Islington Biodiversity Partnership’s commitment to securing the future of Islington’s biodiversity.

IG is delighted that the BAP has finally been published, particularly after a worrying winter when Council cuts threatened Islington's nature conservation and the nature conservation team, and we hope that as a result of the aspirations and plans contained within the BAP that our wildlife in the borough will be supported and increased, and that we will all be able to enjoy more wildflowers, birds, butterflies, etc., even creepycrawlies as we go around Islington, to the benefit of our health.

We are re-introducing the Islington Gardeners’ back garden competition for 2011, so IG members (only), if your garden is looking promising, please return the entry form (mailed to you directly, or also in the website library) by May 31st. The winner will receive our silver cup to hold for a year, plus a prize of £50. Second and third prizes of £30 and £20 will also be awarded . These will be presented at the 2011 AGM. Judging will take place by appointment in the last 2 weeks of June.

Judging Criteria:
There is a single category of “Best Back Garden”. The judges will be looking for the garden where the most has been made of the available plot. The focus will accordingly be on design, choice of plants and plant health. If you have only a tiny shaded space you therefore have just as good a chance of winning as someone with a large (for Islington!) and sunny garden.

The results for Islington's birds on the day of the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch can be seen on the Islington Wildlife Blog, via the following link:http://islingtonblogs.typepad.com/blog/

Our sparrow population appears to be slightly more numerous than in the last few years not least because of the Council/RSPB sparrow projects in the Borough, which is good news - but this is not the case in other parts of London unfortunately. The RSPB has also started a new campaign "Stepping up for Nature", (links in the Wildlife Blog) following the UK Government's failure to meet its own environmental targets in 2010, and the RSPB wants more public support to help meet the new biodiversity retention targets for 2020.

Following many messages to Councillors and meetings of concerned groups with Councillors and Islington Greenspace staff, resulting in Councillors becoming more aware of what the Ecology Centre staff actually do, two additional posts are to be retained at the Ecology Centre. While the Ecology Centre staff remain in an invidious position until the new arrangements are finalised, and we sympathise with them, it appears that the nature reserves will continue to be maintained properly, and at least some of the education work will continue. In this current financial climate, this is a reasonable outcome. The outcry has have brought biodiversity in the Borough to the notice of a number of our Councillors and its importance for people has been acknowledged, and we are delighted that Greenspace will be continuing to make our Parks and open spaces more biodiverse (and interesting to users) in this coming year.

Islington Gardeners are saddened to learn that our experienced and qualified Nature Conservation staff at the Islington Ecology Centre are to lose their jobs under Islington Council's response to swingeing cuts in their grant from the coalition government. The Biodiversity Officer is also to go. Many years of experience of and expertise in our local natural environment are going to disappear when this minute handful of people leave, and the spaces they look after will inevitably become less biodiverse and we as a community will lose knowledge of the Borough's nature.

We have been advised by the Environment Lead Councillor Paul Smith that "with our limited funds we are targeting helping those who are going to be most affected by the government cuts. This choice means that there is simply no money to keep on the staff you are concerned about. I wish this was not the case”.

All lovers of nature within the Borough must therefore be wondering who will maintain Gillespie Park, Islington's flagship local nature reserve, the Islington part of the Parkland Walk, and Barnsbury Wood, with anything like the current level of care and knowledge. What is to happen to the extensive programme of nature education given to local schoolchildren, vulnerable adults, and residents in general? It has been shown that it is the most deprived people who benefit most from contact with nature. What is going to happen to the regular programme of volunteer workdays, which are so much enjoyed by their participants, which contribute to their wellbeing and do so much valuable work on our reserves? Who is going to carry out the on-going monitoring of species, which is essential if we wish to retain any systematic knowledge of Islington's biodiversity? Who is going to implement the Biodiversity Action Plan, which aims to protect and sustain biodiversity in all corners of the borough?

In the event that we receive any answers to these questions - we have asked - we will post up them up. We have asked for details of the costs of the nature service, – but have no answers. We appreciate that the Council is having to make cuts, but we are shocked that all the biodiversity expertise is to vanish.

This is all especially depressing in the light of the 2010 report "Making Space for Nature" by Professor Sir John Lawton, (submitted to Defra) in which he points out the contribution which access to nature has on people's health, both physical and mental, and recommends that "Responsible authorities should take greater steps to reconnect people to nature by enhancing ecological networks within urban environments, including wildlife-friendly management of green spaces, and by embedding biodiversity considerations in the need to adapt to climate change (Recommendation 7). Islington is about to step backwards, it seems.


Everyone concerned at this impending collapse of Islington's nature conservation service should contact their local Councillors without delay. Follow this link to the contact details of your ward Councillors: http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/Political/Councillors/listcouncillorname.asp

Can you grow £500 worth of food without a garden or an allotment? That’s the target Mark Ridsdill Smith set himself on 1 May this year – all from his 9 x 6 foot north-west facing balcony and six window sills in Tufnell Park, North London. By 8 October he’d already beaten his target by £169, growing food worth £669.

“Few people realise just how much you can grow in a tiny space” says Mark. “This year my balcony and window sills have produced the equivalent of 100 bags of salad, 120 packets of herbs and 92 punnets of tomatoes – as well as runner beans, courgettes, mange tout, carrots, potatoes, blueberries and strawberries. The harvest weighs 66 kilos or 145 pounds in total – and there is still more to come. A big advantage of balcony growing is that you can keep a constant eye on your crops and harvest your food five minutes before you eat. It doesn’t get fresher than that!”

Even if you have only a few windowsills, you can still grow several hundred pounds of food a year. Mark estimates that over £200 of food came off his four south facing window sills.

The National Society of Leisure and Allotment gardeners estimate that a 300 square yard allotment produces £1564 a year. London allotments are roughly half this size.

Vertical Veg is a not-for-profit enterprise that aims to inspire people to grow high yields of food in small spaces. See:http://www.verticalveg.org.uk

The River of Flowers has had a busy year, amongst other activities donating wildflowers and bulbs to a goodly number of Islington and Haringey sites, so please have a look at Kathryn Lwin Brooks' report in the Documents Section in the website Library.

The Three Sisters Project run in Islington this summer to encourage city dwellers to grow their own vegetables in anticipation of rising fuel costs and the end of cheap food is nearing completion (and no doubt everything has been eaten). To see Liam Devany's illustrated report, please go to the website Library, and the Three Sisters Project can be found in the Documents section.

Just over the Islington Borough boundary is a new food-growing venture in the sky, in fact on the roof of Crouch End's popular and pretty green supermarket, Budgens. Have a look at their new website:
www.foodfromthesky.org.uk

We understand that visitors can climb the stairs and inspect the vegetables themselves, your editor will be doing this as soon as possible. What a fantastic effort from all the eager gardeners, and from Budgens who are happy to have people gardening on their roof and have not come up with a load of reasons why the project would not be possible. Please go and have a look and do your shopping at Budgens who are trying very hard to make their business environmentally sustainable and who have been in their building for decades longer than the two other (much bigger) supermarkets who have moved in alongside to steal their trade.

Islington Council has been redrafting its tree policy, and although IG members like trees, there are many huge forest-sized trees in Islington's small gardens, particularly sycamores, which many of us consider need to be felled and replaced with something better, be it smaller, more attractive, native, or fruit bearing. One of our members has written "A Story about a Tree" which details her struggles with her then Tree Officer to fell a next-door tree, shown below, which was entering the house by both the gutters and the cellar, and this can be read in the Library Section.

New wildlife blog goes live!
Islington Council have launched a new wildlife blog to celebrate nature in Islington. A large amount of wildlife lives in the Borough and a lot is happening every day in our natural environment as the seasons change. The blog will keep you up to date with what our birds, pond life and other wildlife are doing as well as telling you about our trees, plants and the habitats that exist in Islington.


http://www.islingtonwildlife.typepad.com/blog/

Some of us have been trying to identify an unusual bird which was seen in a back garden in Ashmount Road London N19 on Wednesday 13 January 2010, when we had all the snow. Two photographs were taken of this large blackbird-sized visitor, the best of which is below, as taken, and as clarified via Photoshop. The lucky householder did not recognise the visitor and passed the photograph around Islington’s birding experts, and Jonathan Elphick FLS FZS, Natural History Author, Richard Meyers (Nature Conservation Ranger (Outreach), London Borough of islington,based at the Islington Ecology Centre), and others, have come to the view that it can only have been the Red-Throated Thrush (Turdus ruficollis), a wanderer from the Altai Mountains in Siberia.

Original Photograph (Sue Lees):





Photoshopped version:





This is a mega-rarity in Britain, with only 2 definite records, and extremely rare in western Europe (probably fewer than 40 records). Although the photo is rather unclear, most of the distinctive plumage features of an adult male Red-throated Thrush are visible, including the brick-red throat and breast with the red extending onto the head as a supercilium (stripe above the eye) and below the cheek; the crown and upperparts look dark greyish, and the rufous red of the breast is clearly demarcated from the whitish lower breast and belly, which appears to have a few smudgy grey streaks. The rufous undertail is hard to make out (the upper tail too should have rufous outer feathers, and in flight it may have been possible to see the rufous underwing coverts (nearest the body) rather like a Redwing's).

Unfortunately the original photograph is not the best quality, and there are other suggestions: an aberrant blackbird or fieldfare, or even a robin-blackbird hybrid (which Jonathan Elphick reckons is most unlikely, as both have been kept as cagebirds or in aviaries, but robins have rarely been bred to one another in captivity, let alone to blackbirds, and he could find no record of natural hybridisation in the wild, either in a search of the scientific literature or on the major online database of avian hybrids, which contains 3,143 unique bird hybrids from 1,950 references).

So the matter rested, until today (Wednesday 17 February), when the original spotter encountered the bird AGAIN, this time twenty feet up in a spindly conifer at the edge of the Philip Noel-Baker Peace Garden in Elthorne Park, Hornsey Road, N19, a quarter of a mile or so away from the original location. The day was bright and sunny, the bird looked blooming, with his red-brown chest and neck burnished in the sun and against a bright blue sky. He has obviously done well in the many trees and woody patches in the locality. He had departed before a camera could be obtained and so there is no photograph of this second sighting. It would appear that time in Elthorne Park and the adjacent Sunnyside Gardens (where they manage the site with wildlife very much in mind) would be repaid by a further sighting of this beautiful fellow. If anyone sees this bird, and even better, takes a photograph, please send it in to Susan(at)lees.org.uk and we will put it on the website, and send it in to the London Rarities Committee, as the original photograph is not adequate. It would be great to get a really sharp photograph of this intriguing bird to confirm his identity, and meanwhile, just consider the roller-coaster of excitement that wildlife-friendly gardening can give you and go out and plant some berry-bearing bushes or trees!

Thrilling news: Thames Water have agreed to sell Fortis Green Allotments (minus the copse at one end) to the allotment holders for £30,000, if they can assemble the money by March 31st 2010. The FGCAT are busily holding events to raise the money, but donations from supporters are greatly hoped for and appreciated. Please click on this link for their latest newsletter and full details, paypal methods etc:
http://www.savefortisgreenallotments.com/

We are delighted to learn that the Archway-based River of Flowers has been given funds by Awards for All (Big Lottery) to run a festival next summer called Wild in the City, as cities represent some of the most environmentally and biologically degraded ecosystems on earth, and heavy urbanisation has resulted in the decimation of many native species. In addition, the River of Flowers has work planned throughout 2010 to promote biodiversity through wildflowers, especially appropriate as this is the Year of International Biodiversity. We hope to be seeing the results of the RoF Urban Meadows Floral Bank project, and that our Islington Schoolchildren can enjoy the Roving Exhibitions Project, and also that progress can be made with the GIS Wildflower Mapping project. For further details of all these activities please see Kathryn Lwin Brooks' latest article in the Library Section or go to the RoF website: www.riverofflowers.org/

We have been delighted to discover that the RHS has featured Islington Gardeners in the latest issue of their newsletter for their affiliated societies. To read the article, please click here:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Community-gardening/RHS-affiliated-societies

(Then click on the Autumn 2009 Afiliated Societies Newsletter on the righthand side of the RHS page. You may find that you cannot make the Adobe work properly, in which case you should do a right click on your mouse and then press "Save Target As" which will then download the newsletter to your computer and you can read it in its entirety, as well as see the photographs.)

Also in the media spotlight (briefly, anyway!) recently has been IG's Newsletter Editor Alison Barlow who wrote in to support the neighbours of a previous guest on Saturday Live who objected to the guest's plantings of eucalyptus trees in her garden in Highbury. Alison pointed out that eucalyptus trees are not only non-native but grow much too big for small urban gardens. She suggested that the eucalyptus should be taken out and replaced with a British native such as hawthorn which is on a better scale for urban gardeners. Ed's note: Hawthorn is also far, far better for our English wildlife as it supports a wide variety of creatures, and has two periods of charm in the year with its spring flowers and autumn berries.

The latest newsletter from the Save Fortis Green Allotments Campaign brings good news. Thanks to 1,100 people (which included a good number of Islington Gardeners) signing the e-petition against the proposals to sell off the Fortis Green allotments, the media coverage, and letters of objection, Thames Water have decided not to sell the site at auction for the moment, and to give the allotment campaigners "first refusal" in making an offer for the land. A fantastic result so far. Negotiations have begun, but a price has not been agreed - and Thames Water have said "that there is no guarantee that the land will not be put back on the market again".

Keep an eye on the website www.savefortisgreenallotments.com
for details of fundraising events, the 2010 Fortis Green Allotments Calendar, etc.

An ancient Iroquois method of growing sweet corn, beans and squashes together for mutual support. It can even be done in grow-bags. Please see an article in the Library Section by Liam Devany explaining how to use the Three Sisters Method. In London we need to be sure to use a suitable variety for our climate of sweet corn and bean as our weather is more unpredictable than that of the USA.

Two components that are necessary are a rich compost - such as worm castings or the food waste that is processed at Edmonton - and a very sunny location, particularly needed for good growth on the sweet corn.

Experimenters this year have had great success with this method using grow-bags with Edmonton compost. Use of a natural liquid fertiliser such as comfrey / nettle / or worm tea will aid the growth of the sweet corn in its early stages. The photograph below is of the spectacular
grow-bag using the Three Sisters Method that flourished down at St Luke's Centre until it was harvested. All three plants are visible in the first picture. By August the sweet corn was around 8ft high.




If gardeners in London and of course in Islington decide to try the Three Sisters Method, please could you let Islington Gardeners know via on our email address islingtongardeners2@hotmail.co.uk so that we can run a data tracking sheet of who has planted what variety and then compare success rates later next year - that way we can identify by the end of next year which are the best combinations of these three sisters that work in our climate.

Thames Water have announced it will sell their Muswell Hill allotments to the highest bidder and is encouraging developers to think they will be able to overturn Haringey Council planning restrictions and build up to 48 dwellings on the Fortis Green Allotments. All those who know the non-cash value of allotments for health, wildlife, food growing, glimpses of the land, etc., please sign the following epetition: www.ipetitions.com/petition/savefortisgreenallotments

The Fortis Green reservoir site used to be part of a larger green space and wildlife corridor that has been eaten away by progressive building development over the past two decades. Some of the plot-holders have been growing fruit and vegetables there for thirty years, and there have been allotments on the site at least since the 1920s. In Islington we are all too aware of the demand for more allotments as Islington has only a handful (but plans are afoot for a few new ones!). Haringey Council estimates that it needs space for 1,500 new plots by 2016, such is the popular demand.

For more information please see: www.savefortisgreenallotments.com.

Thames Water is now owned by Australian investment bank MacQuarie, and any responsibility which Thames Water as a public utility had for societal benefit has vanished under the requirement to achieve best cash benefits to owners and shareholders - this sell-off is a clear example. (Ed)

The Highbury Builders' Collective have come up with a method of growing vegetables in a restricted space, the Micro Food Farm. The MFF brings together "worm tea" (from a vertically stacked wormery containing hybrid "tiger" worms and domestic food waste), a compost medium and rainwater to produce a constant supply of organic veggies. A number have been installed in Islington's schools, and there is one in the hands of an Islington Gardener who has been enjoying a flow of salad vegetables for months. The MFF is seen here below with Liam Devany, its designer, and there is an article by Liam explaining the workings of the MFF in the Library section of the website.

The Archway-centred River of Flowers is a project launching on Saturday 25 April with a Wildflower Planting Day when five tree pits outside the Archway Herbal Clinic on Archway Road, N19 (just north of the Archway gyratory system), are to be sown with wildflower seeds kindly provided by Islington Council. Time: 10.00-11.00 am (Volunteers welcome, please bring equipment – rake or weeding fork - and please wear gloves.) The River of Flowers has also been offered land on which to plant a Wildflower Meadow at the Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill, and the ground is to be cleared shortly so that seeding and planting can take place this spring. Spring and Summer meadows are envisaged, and also a Forest Garden area.

The objective of the River of Flowers project is to identify and support existing areas of native wildflowers in the Highgate/Crouch End/Holloway area (and outwards!) which are important for essential pollinators such as bees, to plant more wildflowers especially in "pollination gaps", to interest people in the beauty of wildflowers and to inform us all about the health and medicinal properties of our native plants. A website is to be set up and the areas of local wildflowers mapped. If you are interested in getting involved in this exciting local project please contact Kathryn Lwin Brooks at the Archway Herbal Clinic on 020 8411 4411 or email: reception@archwayherbal.co.uk

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.

Grow Your Own Food scheme in Islington launched: people who want to start to grow their own vegestables are provided with a container, composts, seeds, and are hooked up to a volunteer street rep, who will provide support and know-how. All for a modest £5 (subsidised) joining fee. To join, please contact the Islington Organic Growers' Network.

Those wishing to get to grips with growing their own can now study Mark Donaldson's plans for his Islington backyard for 2009, available in two papers in the website library. IG members have been invited to visit his garden on Sunday 3rd May, followed by a visit to a functioning Micro Food Farm!

The IOG Network was formed last year by a group of local residents who are passionate about organic gardening and food growing, and take the view that everyone should have the oportunity to grow their own food and live in a clean and green environment. Members enjoy meeting on a regular basis to share their horticultural knowledge and encourage each other. As well as the Grow Your Own Food scheme, the IOGN organises Beginner Growers Workshops, (see Events page), and an annual horticultural show. Monthly meetings take place between 5.30pm and 6.45pm at the Green Living Centre, 222 Upper Street, (and then participants retire to a local pub) and this season's dates are: 22 April, 19 May, 18 June, 1 July, 20 August, 16 September. Membership is free, to join please either email: info@islingtonorganicgrowers.org.uk, or telephone 0207 527 6726 (Kerry Kirwan), and then just come along to one of the meetings.

IG are delighted to learn that the Olden Garden and Management Committee were given a Civic Award from the Mayor of Islington at a ceremony held in the Town Hall on March 12, 2009, for their contribution to the local community. Volunteers have been working for decades in nearly two acres of open space known as the Olden Garden off Whistler Street, Highbury, and have turned it into a community garden and woodland. Much fundraising has been organised by the Management Committee in the last year or so. The most recent resulting improvement (amongst many) to the Garden is the rebuilt Garden House which will be available for small local functions, but the Olden Gardeners have moved on to plan wildflowers for the meadow, and have dug a vegetable patch from an area of brambles. Children from a nearby school also have their own vegetable garden within the site and benefit from the outdoor activity.

New volunteers are always welcome, to help with all aspects of maintaining the garden, and to enjoy being outdoors and socialising. If you are a local resident and you are interested in getting involved with the Olden Garden please contact Jill Mckeown (membership secretary), 49 Whistler Street, N5 1NJ. Tel: 7226 0222. Membership fees: £5 waged, £2.50 unwaged.

Islington's Laycock Street Park is part of a new London-wide research project looking to restore the Capital's failing house sparrow population. Numbers of this common garden bird have fallen 68% in London over the past 15 years. Other Islington sites involved in the project include Paradise Park and Whittington Park.

RSPB research suggests that a lack of food may be responsible so a major new three-year project has been launched to test the theory. It will involved growing different types of grass in discrete areas of parks, like Laycock Street. The idea is that the grass will provide food for birds and other wildlife in the form of seeds and insects. Islington Borough Council is one of seven partners involved in helping the RSPB unravel the mystery of our vanishing house sparrows.

To find out more about the Heritage Lottery funded project, or what you can do the help save house sparrows, contact the RSPB London team on 020 7808 1260 or email them at london@rspb.org.uk There is also an article in our Library page.





(Dr John Mallord, research scientist, at Laycock St, with a sparrow, photo credit Leo Hornack, and sparrow having its leg measured at Laycock St, photo credit RSPB)

You can also help monitor the changing UK bird population by taking part in the 30th annual Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of 24/25 January. Participants record the highest number of each species of bird seen in their garden at any one time over the course of one hour and send the results, good or bad, to the RSPB for analysis. A free recording sheet and full details are available from www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch.

Islington Gardeners' Forgotten Corners team are thrilled to have received a Special Award from the Conservation Foundation's Green Corners competition, and individual Green Corners Awards for each of our Forgotten Corners. Our FCs can be seen from the pavement by visiting Corsica Street , N5, St Paul's Road, N1, (the Alwyne Castle Strip between the Alwyne Castle pub and the bus stop), Pyrland Road Border, N5, the Rosemary Green, outside the Rosemary Branch Pub, Baring Street, N1, the Campdale Road Hedge, N7, Boxworth Grove, N1, and the Whitehall Park Garden, Pauntley Street, N19. Other Islington winners were the Ockendon Road Tree Gardens, N1, and King Henry's Walk Gardens, N1.

The Conservation Foundation had a total of 50 prizewinners from all corners of London, all contributing to making the capital a brighter, greener and healthier place to live. Naturalist David Bellamy signed the certificates wearing his honey bee t-shirt, to emphasise the contribution the Green Corners make to London's biodiversity.

One of IG's young members Mark Donaldson is getting a grip on food sustainability in his own backyard:


From Concrete to Kitchen: Growing Vegetables in a Backyard in Islington

Mark Donaldson has now written a piece on his operations in his backgarden, with many photographs, and this is now in the Library. As well as getting lots of vegetables, he operates as sustainably as possible, not least by using discarded wood, estate agents' signs, and other unwanted material for his shelving, raised beds, and so on. He has plans for the future involving hens, bees, fish ..... Mark is a member of the Organic Gardening Forum which is a gathering of Islington residents who are trying to promote home food growing. The Forum meets monthly at the Green Living Centre (222 Upper Street, Islington),and welcomes anyone seeking advice on organic gardening, anyone wishing to organise a food-growing event, and other existing community groups wishing to grow food. For more information please contact Greenliving@islington.gov.uk or telephone 020 7327 6726.

Our Spring Newsletter (now in the Library Section of the website) contained a article discussing the ongoing waste problem created by many thousands of plastic plant pots. We are delighted that one of our intrepid IG members has uncovered the fact that Capital Gardens, which run the Highgate Garden Centre, N6, and the Ally Pally Garden Centre, N10, will take back unwanted pots from customers, sterilise them, and reuse them in all six of their London centres and their landscape gardening operation, as well as passing them to local suppliers. This is a practical and beneficial way of reducing landfill waste and full marks should go to Capital Gardens Group for setting it up. We hope that they do more business as people realise they will take unwanted pots, and of course, that other retailers of plants get themselves organised in a similar manner. IG members desperate to reduce their plant pot mountain sustainably should also remember that Capital Gardens will give them a 10% discount on production of a valid membership card on weekdays.

We are pleased to have been sent a summary of the presentations made at the Conference on Growing Food For London (urban food growing) held at City Hall on 30 June 08, and this is now in our Library Section. For further details of this topical event, including press coverage, please go to the Sustain website: http://www.SustainWeb.org.uk/page.php?id=454

(yes, out of Islington and indeed in West London) has a very interesting website: http://www.kitchengarden.org.uk They are growing and selling food, involving the local community and welcome visitors.

Pesticide Action Network UK is an independent non-profit organisation which will send you a monthly email containing gardening tips to help gardeners to grow fruit and vegetables using as few pesticides as possible. To register, please send your email address to: roslynmckendry@pan-uk.org or go to www.pan-uk.org/gardening.htm

After nearly three years of planning and hard work, King Henry's Walk Garden is now open. This spring there will be a sustained programme of planting, and a series of workshops led by Caroline Foley, author of 'Practical Allotment Gardening' and a special springtime workshop with BBC's Gardeners' World presenter Joe Swift, who is a patron of the garden.

58 plots approximately 6 square metres in size have been allocated to interested members of the public in the Mildmay Ward of Islington to grow their own fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The garden is a greenspace success for Islington: in 2005 Islington Council Greenspace consulted the local community about what they wanted from a disused site tucked behind King Henry's Walk Adventure Playground. A community garden was decided upon and a dedicated committee of volunteers including IG members has since raised over £170,000 to design and create the garden, including raised beds, communal area, accessible communal building (with sedum roof), greenhouse, a rainwater collection system, and also to manage its own small woodland which is graded as a 'site of borough importance'.

The garden is open to the public between 12 pm and 4 pm on Saturday afternoons, and from 10 am to 3pm on Wednesdays. Residents of the Mildmay Ward are invited to become keyholders and plotholders. See www.khwgarden.org.uk for full details. The building may be hired. The creation of this garden is a major achievement for all concerned.

In a study currently running in Greater London the RSPB have found that providing mealworms through the breeding season (May to July) doubles the number of young sparrows emerging from nests. To help chicks, gardeners should be tolerant of aphids and annual weeds. Unfortunately, this success with chicks has not yet translated into more breeding sparows in the following spring, and the RSPB is now feeding seeds all year at its target colonies to see if this helps. For the full details of the research, spelled out at the recent RSPB Members' Day by Dr Will Peach, please see the article in the Library.

At the recent awards ceremony of the London Gardens Society we were delighted to receive the Wakefield Trophy for 2007. This is won by the Affiliated Society gaining the most points from their winning gardens entered into the LGS awards. We entered a number of outstanding gardens belonging to and created by IG members, one of which won its class. This garden, in College Cross, Islington, is open under the NGS Yellow Book scheme, so look out for it in 2008. Our congratulations go to these superb gardeners.

Caroline Spelman's Bill on Land Use which will remove the definition of gardens as brownfield land will be considered in Parliament on 19 October 2007, the June reading having been postponed. Those wishing to urge the Minister of Housing and Planning, Yvette Cooper, to support Ms Spelman's bill, should write to Mrs Cooper at the Department of Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU, or to your local MP, before this date. There is a sample letter available on www.saveourgardens.org.uk, and this site, which is managed by Garden Organic, also has extensive examples of developers buying up houses with gardens, overpowering the local council's objections, and building over the entire site.

It was so far down the Parliamentary agenda that there was no time left in which to discuss it, and the October opportunities were the its last chance. What a system. Mrs Spelman is hoping that another MP who wins a slot in the private members' bill ballot in the next parliamentary year will take up the issue as it had much support.

We were delighted to discover Islington Gardener Rose Irving being interviewed by TV presenter Carol Klein for a forthcoming programme, snapped as they were filming in Rose's verdant and exotic garden in N4.

We were thrilled to come across a pair of large lime hawk-moths in an ivy hedge recently, shown below. Apparently "often seen in towns where limes are planted" but despite living in North London for over ten years, this was our first encounter with such splendid creatures (article in July 07 newsletter, in library).






In the same hedge we also found a nest of spiderlings which exploded when we disturbed them slightly:

One of our members recently found a dead woodpecker below her front basement window. We assume that it could see through the room to the back window and the garden beyond. Very sad, although indicating that these lovely woodpeckers are hanging on (and possibly flourishing) in this part of Islington with lots of old trees. The RSPB has been noting this type of bird casuality, which is also connected with garden mirrors which are favoured by some gardeners and garden make-overs because of the illusion of space they give. Unfortunately the birds think that the mirrors are open flying spaces and jet straight into them, and break their necks.

c.J. Wildfoods Ltd (0800 731 2820) or www.birdfood.co.uk can supply two things to prevent these tragedies: Sentinels, which are silhouettes of hawks and falcons to stick to the windows (A94401 Black - Fly through, A94402 Red - Reflection), and Window Webs (A94400). Spiders' webs are a natural deterrent to birds.

C.J. Wildfoods' catalogue notes: "Window strikes are more of a problem with young and inexperienced birds at the end of the breeding season. If you see a bird on the ground that you suspect has been involved in a window strike, handle it very carefully as it may be just stunned and not dead. It should be placed very gently in something like a shoe box lined with kitchen roll and left somewhere warm, dark, and quiet for at least 20 minutes. Take the box outside BEFORE opening it as birds that appeared beyond hope will often shoot out past your shoulders before the lid is fully open."

A private member's bill to remove gardens from the category of "brownfield sites" is to have its third Reading in June. This is the Land Use (Gardens Protection) Bill. It seeks to end the current planning law which classes gardens as "brownfield sites" and which allows developers who buy houses with large gardens to then cram in as many homes as possible in the site despite objections from residents, and the local authority. A petition in support of this Bill has been organised by Garden Organic (the working name of the Henry Doubleday Research organisation) and can be signed on their website: http://gardenorganic.org.uk/saveourgardens. The website also has a sample letter so that people can easily write to their MP to encourage them to attend the Reading, and vote in favour of the Bill.

Do have a look in the Library at an article by one of our internet-minded members who has put together a selection of gardening websites from the UK and around the world which she has greatly enjoyed looking at and learning from.

Islington Ecology centre, in partnership with the London Wildlife Trust, has just launched a guidance pack for encouraging wildlife into your garden. Covering all aspects of habitat creation (all possible within the tablecloth-sized Islington garden, and some even on your balcony), and filled with useful lists of what plants to use, how to make a sparrow terrace, pond data, places within the Borough and wider London to visit .... Pop along to the Islington Ecology Centre, 191 Drayton Park, Highbury N5, and collect a pack. Take the opportunity to walk round Gillespie Park and enjoy the billowing meadows and dog roses (they also have wildlife-friendly garden plants around the building) and forget about the hassle and bustle of London.

These ladybirds can now be seen around Islington. It seems that although harlequins, which originate in Asia and having been imported into the US, are now rampaging over the US, biocontrol companies continued to import them into parts of Europe, from where they have spread by themselves to the UK. For a guide to identification, with illustrations, please go to the following website: www.harlequin-survey.org/recognition_and_distinction.htm We also published a useful note in the IG newsletter Oct-Dec 2005 (in the Library). The harlequin website includes the welcome news that a meeting of European scientists took place in March to discuss the problem and make a start towards dealing with it.

The RHS has produced a booklet entitled: Garden Matters - Front Gardens - Are we parking on our gardens? Do driveways cause flooding? This can be viewed by going to the RHS website at www.RHS.org.uk.

The booklet contains statistics on the numbers of front gardens which are paved around the country, the environmental impact which this is having, and suggests ways of getting the car off the road without going for the full garage forecourt look. Do Islington Gardeners have views on the subject? Please let us have your thoughts here in the Discussion Forum: press 'Post Reply' to add your comment to this discussion.

We have had permission from the Guardian newspaper to place in the Library Section of the website a very interesting and relevant article about the building over of backgardens, a practice which is favoured by property developers, no doubt because it is cheaper than cleaning up old industrial sites. What is lost as new flats are shoehorned into backlands is the outlook of existing residents, the biodiversity of the old gardens, the ability of the space to absorb rainwater, and peace and quiet. If you have Islington examples (the article focuses on Tunbridge Wells and the North of England) of such garden grabbing, please let us know in the discussion forum.

An IG member bought this hardy geranium at our Spring Plant sale this year and cannot identify the cultivar. Its habit is rather lax and sprawling and the stems are reddish. The flower size is about 1.5 inches, and although it is very like Buxton's Blue the foliage is not as deeply cut as those of the Buxton's Blue our member already has. It has flowered continuously since purchase and like many hardy geraniums has had quite a flush of blooms this autumn. If anyone knows please email Susan(at)lees.org.uk



Mystery Solved! We think it is G.rosthornii Rozanne.

...was the showpiece in the N1 Shopping Centre on Saturday 2 September as part of Islington Council's Imagine Islington event which this year focussed on climate change. In the Biodiversity zone was an eyecatching garden of the future, the brainchild of Islington Gardener Beryl Hislop of the North One Garden Centre and designer Julie Zeldin. The style was Mediterranean, a reflection of hotter weather to come (hopefully not, we must all install low energy lightbulbs etc etc), and the planting featured canna lilies, olives, spectacular bougainvillas, plumbagos, a sculptural agave, as well as buddleias and tobacco plants to attract insects, and chilli peppers which may become easy to grow here. To help biodiversity the toolshed had a "green roof", actually a sedum roof, where all manner of birds and insects can live and feed and which will offset an equivalent patch of concrete by absorbing CO2 and slowing rainwater runoff, and this can be obtained in handy rolls from www.qlawns.co.uk. There were bird and insect boxes, feeders, hibernaculums, a log pile habitat, a water butt, and specially drought resistant grass. Elegant stone mulches were used to aid water retention.aid water retention.









Further details (and the plants) can be obtained from the North One Garden Centre, 25 Englefield Road, tel 020 7923 3553 or via email n1gc@btconnect.com .

Beryl Hislop has also alerted us to the vulnerable state of GREAT DIXTER garden. Before his death in January of this year gardening guru Christopher Lloyd set up a Charitable Trust, but this only owns 40% of the house and garden. In order to ensure future public access to this inspirational site, the Trust needs to raise a staggering £3 million within the next two years, or the house and gardens will be lost to public access and the nation. By becoming a Friend of Great Dixter people can help save Christo's creation and further details can be found on www.greatdixter.co.uk or via email: friends@greatdixter.co.uk

Following on from Bird Week, we thought that it would interest people to have a look at the survey map of birds in Islington which Islington Gardeners carried out in the spring of 2004, and this can be downloaded from the Library page. (For those who do not know, pressing the magnifying glasses at the bottom of the page will make the map bigger or smaller.) This is does not pretend to be be either comprehensive or systematic, but is record of the general types of bird which some 50 IG members saw locally over the previous year.





Sparrow decline: The latest research. The following is an extract from the Spring 2006 issue of the RSPB's Conservation Planner magazine: "Kate Vincent, of De Montfort University, has completed her PhD investigating the causes of house sparrow decline in urban areas. By monitoring chick diet and condition she found that many chicks starved while still in the nest and a lack of small insects, including beetles, craneflies, aphids and spiders was a problem in suburban areas lacking deciduous trees, shrubs and long grass.

Kate says: "House sparrows need key habitats in which to find insect food for their young during the summer breeding months and they particularly target deciduous shrubs, grass lawns and tilled soil. The trend for low maintenance and smaller gardens with more concrete, gravel, paving and evergreen shrubs, as well as the increased development of brownfield sites in city areas, could limit the availability of invertebrates".

Will Peach, Senior Research Biologist at the RSPB, says: "This study has clearly demonstrated that a lack of insects in suburbia during the summer prevents house sparrows from rearing their young. Although we are not sure about the exact causes of the population decline, any measures that boost insect numbers such as growing deciduous shrubs and trees, leaving patches of unmown long grass and minimising usage of insecticides should help".

The RSPB web site www.rspb.org.uk has a wealth of information to help gardeners encourage biodiversity and hopefully sparrows.