Green Up Gunnersbury!

Green Up Gunnersbury Pic

wcgs_logo greenThe Society is launching a campaign to encourage residents and businesses to take pride in our neighbourhood and become more actively involved in making Gunnersbury a greener, healthier place to be.

Please download our leaflet here. 

It explains the broad aims of our campaign and how residents and businesses can get involved.

If we all act at the local level to improve our streets, we could make a real difference.

Click here to

wcgs_logo greenResidents: Become a Street Champion!

Act as an ambassador for our campaign. Talk to neighbours, tell them about the campaign and get everyone, including children involved. Show how small actions, like planting a patch, a pot or window box in your front garden, can really brighten up your street.

wcgs_logo greenBusinesses:

Let’s come together as the local community to make Gunnersbury an attractive area. Work with us to green up your street frontage, improve the surroundings of your building and nearby public realm. An attractive frontage will be appreciated not only by local residents but also by your clients and employees and so be good for business.

wcgs_logo greenIdeas:

Share your ideas and implement them. If you need inspiration or advice, there are many sources available. Close to home, we have the excellent examples of Abundance London and Air Quality Brentford.

  • Abundance has been brightening up parts of Chiswick for some time with its guerilla gardening of abandoned patches and flower beds:

To see their website please click here.

  • Air Quality Brentford has achieved a range of local environmental improvements. Working with informal groups of local residents and businesses they had carried out several planting scheme such as that at Brentford Station.

To see their website please click here.

There are many other on-line resources and we will provide more links here.

wcgs_logo greenPublic Realm:

We are working with the Council, Hounslow Highways and other organisations on the greening and improvement to the public realm. Everyone can help by reporting issues such as fly tipping;

Check our ‘Street Scene’ page or click here for more information.

Gunnersbury Avenue 
Now that work on the Power Road Bridge is nearing completion, we have been following up on our earlier discussions with TfL on replanting this section of Gunnersbury Avenue.
During our recent informative and constructive meeting and “site visit” we were pleased to learn that the replanting and landscaping scheme includes areas of wildflower mix and a variety of trees. We encouraged the planting of the optimum number of trees both for their visual and environmental contribution. Trees are a key feature of Gunnersbury Avenue and are important in counteracting the negative impact of the heavy traffic. Trees not only provide some visual relief but also improve air quality. This will be very important as the introduction of the ULEZ is likely to see an increase in the traffic using the North and South Circular and in the levels of air pollution as the drivers of more highly-polluting vehicles seek to avoid the charge by using these roads. 
The works are now  (June 2019) being carried out and we look forward to the completion of the scheme and to an improved public realm.
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During our meeting we were intrigued and delighted to learn that TfL/Hochtief staff had been busy greening up their corner of Gunnersbury – albeit on a temporary basis.
During the summer the staff had created an award-winning allotment and butterfly garden within their Power Road Bridge compound. They had entered the site into the 2018 London Underground In Bloom competition winning first place for Best Fruit and Veg, Best Newcomer and third place for Best Cultivated Garden. The judges had been impressed by how the project utilised scrap pieces of land and transformed them into planting areas along with recycling ply board shutters to make planters and the compost heap. They also commented on how the staff  had produced enough veg to feed the entire site! A great example of what can be done with a little imagination and some positive people power.
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wcgs_logo greenSummertime!

Despite the rain and wind, Gunnersbury is blooming!

Here’s a taste of some of the green gems to be found around our patch:

  • A sea of poppies reviving an unused corporate area, thanks to some nifty guerilla gardening, and a riot of roses brightening up a long frontagepoppiesroses
  • Front gardens from private and shared spaces

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  • Walls, balconies and pathways bursting with summer blooms, and some crafty bin screening

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• All sorts of pots and container plants brightening up pavements outside pubs and shop fronts, creating a more relaxed atmosphere on the busy High Road

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• And somewhere cool for cats!

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wcgs_logo greenGunnersbury Meanwhile Garden

meanwhile garden team photo

In the Society’s ongoing work to improve our local area we have installed 2 new planters on the area across the road from the entrance to the Business Park.

This was funded from part of a Government “High Street Grant” awarded to Abundance Londonvia the Business Services and Investment section (Housing, Planning and Communities) of Hounslow Council.

To read more about the High Street Grant please click here to see the W4 article on this.

Abundance London is a voluntary organisation with charitable aims to work with local schools, volunteers, businesses, community groups and local government.  They try and reconnect people with nature and protect it in an urban setting trying to create beautiful spaces, mainly through planting but also through art.

To read more about Abundance London please click here to see their website.

The planters themselves were installed by apprentices of Cultivate London from recycled pallets. Cultivate London is a charity that helps young people into employment via horticulture.

To read more about Cultivate London please click here to see their website.

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Together with an enthusiastic group of local residents, WCGS members and commitee members we planted up the raised beds with bee-friendly and attractive perennials.

Marie, our chairman, said “Why a meanwhile garden? Well, local residents are still waiting for much needed improvements to Gunnersbury Station and its surroundings. So,meanwhile, its great to be doing something to brighten up this neglected corner of the High Road near the station with the help of our friends at Abundance and Cultivate.”

Residents and the neighbouring falafel stall-holders will water and care for the planters. Further improvements are planned for the area.

In January,  we added  2 new planters  to the Meanwhile Garden. The planters and plants were donated from the Robins and Day construction site and were kindly transported to the Meanwhile Garden by Cultivate.
Thanks to Charlotte and Rob for planting in the rain. 
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We also planted bulbs donated by Abundance in all four planters and in other sites around our area, including a couple in Thorney Hedge Road/Silver Crescent.
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Well done to everyone!

Is there somewhere near you that could be in bloom?

It’s not too late to get some summer colour going – try perennials Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’, or some Japanese anenome plants; you can still plant seeds for later flowering annuals such as marigolds, nasturtiums, zinnias or calendula.

wcgs_logo greenMeanwhile Garden Update

In the summer of 2022, with the much appreciated help from the Chiswick Flower Market, we added trellis, climbers and seating this summer.

To see the article in the Chiswick Calendar , please click here. 

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Photograph from the Chiswick Calender July 4, 2022

https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/chiswick-flower-market-team-build-parklet-outside-gunnersbury-tube-station/?mc_cid=238a1fae47&mc_eid=c167f3a624

WCGS members and other local residents put in a lot of hard work watering the garden over the summer and we have had positive feedback from many passers by. At the end of the year we added more bulbs to welcome the Spring. The Meanwhile Garden is the “flagship” of our “Green up Gunnersbury” campaign.

wcgs_logo greenChiswick Tree Adoption Scheme
Another local initiative that we are supporting as individuals and which we would like to draw your attention to is the emergency Chiswick Tree Adoption Scheme that has been put forward by Abundance London. Since the early in the year Hounslow has been planting trees around Chiswick to replace dying or dead ones. Around 95 trees have already been planted but the extremely dry conditions since April mean that the trees are in desperate need of water in order to survive. The idea is that people living close to the trees water them. Indeed even mature trees need water in very dry periods so please don’t hesitate to give your nearest tree a drink from time to time. Residents of Silver Crescent and Thorney Hedge Road have been watering the Meanwhile Garden on a rota basis for a while now and this system could also work for the young trees and old in your road.
The following roads in our area with new trees that need to be adopted and watered are:
Clarence Road
Harvard Road
Oxford Gardens
Silver Crescent
Details of the scheme and exactly which young trees need to be looked after are in the link:
Many of us have been truly grateful to live in such a green area and to have access to our lovely local parks. If this crisis has a positive side it is that we have become more aware and appreciative of our local resources and we hope that you will help to support the two we have brought to your attention.

wcgs_logo greenNext Steps!:

We will add to this page as the campaign evolves. Now its over to you – spread the word and get going!

In the meantime if you have any queries, just email us at: chairman@westchiswickgs.org

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