Bees and things and flowers, right in the heart of the East End
You can find Approach Gardens on Russia Lane in Bethnal Green. Its an oasis of calm, with bees and things and flowers, right in the heart of London’s East End. We have raised growing beds for residents and other community members from around the Approach Estate area where they can grow their own fruit and vegetables.
Summer 2017
July. Sunflowers and other summer lovelies.
July. Bee friendly Aliums
June. Our beautiful wildflower meadow
Spring 2017
March. The new ‘Bug Hotel’, mostly constructed with scaffold boards re-cycled from the old growing beds after they were dismantled.
March. Installing the new (sustainably sourced) teak bench and new garden gnome in the pond area. Bench kindly donated by the Deutsch Börse group.
February. The new ‘Big Lottery’ funded growing beds under construction.
2016
October 2016. The condition of some of the growing beds before the ‘Big Lottery’ rebuild takes place.
You will find our community garden on Russia Lane in Bethnal Green. We’ve transformed what was just a patch of grass into a beautiful garden.
We have a very mixed group of members reflecting the rich diversity of the area and we’re super proud of how the garden brings together people from different countries and backgrounds.
The local old people’s day centre has its own bed as does the local primary school. Some of the kids won’t have ever visited the countryside and our garden will be as close as they’ve been to nature in action!
There are raised beds for the members to grow their own veg, fruit and flowers, and there are shared beds full of herbs and strawberries.
We have a rich bio-diversity policy and there’s a pond with frogs, toads, newts and fish. In one corner there’s a wildflower meadow but the whole space is beautifully landscaped, with a wide variety of plants and flowers all helping to attract birds, bees, bats, butterflies and creepy crawlies.
We grow a lot of fruit and have a well-established orchard in another corner of the garden.
There’s a big patch of grass in the middle and we usually manage a couple of community events here every year.
Some Luvverrly July Crops Late June to early July The critters are emerging from the pond… Mr. Toad hiding from the blazing sun… Great Get Together 2018 The Great Get Together party on a very hot Sunday 24th June just after England beat Panama by a whopping 6-1!
Crops at the Start of June Strawberries and a fine balsamic vinegar Little Gem lettuce. Five minutes from garden to plate. Drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Open Garden Squares Weekend 2018 A great excuse to show off our most recent awards at Open Garden Squares …
April 2018 A bee tucking in to some of last year’s kale gone to flower. Spring pond TEEMING with tadpoles. The early spring meadow. Yellows first, with the blues emerging over the next couple of weeks. Woodland are under the orchard is about to burst into life. Spring bulbs flowering to …
Want to join our community garden?
Residents from the estate take priority but others are welcome to join the waiting list. If you would like to find out more please get in touch.