#urbangreenspace

The sun has been shining today, the official first day of Spring, after a week of rain and even hailstorms, so it seems a good time to share a snapshot of the plants we are enjoying in Dalston Curve Garden right now. 

Today is St David’s Day, a day of national celebration for Wales, and as Daffodils are the Welsh national flower, first on our list is Narcissus ‘Tete a Tete’. This is the earliest of the Daffodils that emerge here and this year they’ve been flowering since the beginning of February. We aim to have Daffodil varieties in flower one after the other, right through to the end of April, planted in the ground and in tins and containers. 

Our tins of yellow Daffodils look good next to purple Crocus. As well as planting them in containers, we grow Crocus tommasinianus ‘Ruby Giant’ under trees, and in our ‘Bee Bed’. We love the way Crocus open their ‘faces’ when the sun is shining, but as we’ve had so many overcast days of late, sadly they’ve remained more closed than open this year!

Several years ago we planted a tiny clump of Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) and have been happy to see them spread more and more ever since. Although the pretty little flowers are not scented like those of Sweet Violet, they are attractive to bees and as their leaves are evergreen, Dog Violets do a good job of covering bare ground all year round.   

The Hellebores have started to clump up nicely in our ‘woodland’ bed. Lovely as they are, their downward facing ‘sulky’ flowers are best appreciated from a low crouching position. Alongside them, we are enjoying the spotty leaves of Pulmonaria (Lungwort) Their strange bi-coloured, pink & purple flowers are a good source of nectar for any Bumble or Solitary Bees emerging from hibernation on warm days in early Spring, when there are not many other flowers available. 

Although Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) can take over if not kept in check, it is another Spring flowering plant that’s good for several bee species and other pollinators, so we are happy to make it welcome in some parts of the Garden. Bees are also supported by the unusual dusky pink Primroses that were donated to us last year from a garden in Wales and are settling happily in their new Hackney home. 

With so many beautiful flowering bulbs and plants emerging after winter, this really is an uplifting time in the Garden. Many thanks to our hard-working team of volunteers who planted hundreds of bulbs last Autumn that are now bringing so much joy to Dalston in early Spring.  

It’s bulb-planting time at Dalston Curve Garden! Every Autumn we plant thousands of bulbs to bring colour and scent and nectar for bees in the Spring. After several weeks of planning and getting very excited about our choices, we started the first of our planting sessions with our hard-working volunteers early in September. We will continue with this marathon task every week until the end of November. 

We try to have flowering bulbs popping up in the Garden every month from January until the end of May and we also fill containers for inspiration, even if you are limited to a window-box. 

We wrote about some of our favourite bulbs in a previous post earlier this year but we can’t get enough of Sandra Keating’s beautiful photos, so if you are still planning to plant your own bulbs, here are more to inspire you. You can continue to plant right through until the end of November or even later, if the weather is not too cold and wet.  

One of our favourites is Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’, Summer Snowflake, which last year we planted under trees, on banks and in beds.  

We loved our continuous display of Narcissi (Daffodils) every month from February until early May with varieties ‘Pipit’, ‘Tete a Tete’ ‘Thalia’ ‘Hawera’ ‘Pheasant’s Eye’ and ‘Baby Moon’ under trees, in beds and in pots, tins and boxes. 

Muscari latifolium (Grape Hyancinth) is always popular with bees and every May visitors and bees love the drifts of giant purple Allium ‘Purple Sensation’. 

We love having the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural right next to the entrance to the Garden - what a privilege - and today’s #InternationalDayofPeace ‘devoted to the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples’ seems the perfect day to celebrate it!

This wonderful artwork represents everything we love about Dalston -  its energy and diversity, carnival, community activism, strong people, music and colour. We are confident that these qualities and this spirit will continue to endure, despite the rapid changes that are happening in the area.

The mural is based on a real event that took place in 1983 – the Hackney Peace Carnival - and depicts local places, like Navarino Mansions on Dalston Lane and well-known faces in the community, including the late Jah Globe.

It was created by Ray Walker who sadly died before it could be fully realised. His friend Mick Jones and his wife, Anna Walker, completed the work, which was unveiled in 1985 and is dedicated to Ray’s memory.

He was part of the ‘London Muralists for Peace’ which was commissioned to create six murals in London with the theme ‘Peace through Nuclear Disarmament’.

It’s well worth having a look at the London Mural Preservation Society website to read more about the Mural. They quote Ray Walker saying

 “I developed ideas motivated by local festivals, particularly by a peace carnival organised by Free form and local peace activists. The finished sketch is largely a reflection of this event and other local elements have been developed to express something of a positive celebratory character.”

In more recent years, the mural had fallen into some disrepair and was badly tagged. Following a campaign by local activists, including OPEN Dalston, Hackney Council funded its restoration by Paul Butler and Linda James, who painstakingly worked on it over the summer of 2014. On completion, the  Garden organised a weekend long celebration, with a community feast, music, talks, art workshops and a call out to the people who were depicted in the mural all those years ago, to join the party. We were delighted when the invitation was accepted by, amongst others, the son of Jah Globe, who shared archive photos of his father.

The Peace Carnival Mural continues to excite, inspire and bring joy to Hackney. We regularly use it as inspiration for our art workshops with local school children and as the backdrop for community celebrations, most recently with a performance for the Artkskickers Awards by young performers from East London, accompanied by Street Orchestra. And how delighted were we to recently be given a model of the Mural and the Garden entrance, made by six- year old Cassius Holman and his family!

The #Artskicker Awards celebrate ‘the unsung heroes of the East London Arts scene’. Last year we were completely bowled over when we won the ‘People’s Choice’ award, so we are very excited that in just one week’s time we will host the awards ceremony here at the Garden and cheer on all of this year’s nominees and winners!  

Angie Gough, who founded the awards, explains what it’s all about: #Artskickers is about celebrating the arts, the people, their stories and talent – it’s what makes East London such an inspiring place to live and visit. We’re determined to create opportunities for young people in our communities and to shine a positive light on the people who facilitate creativity in sometimes challenging places”

Angie and Kay Richardson created the #Artskickers Urban Symphony, bringing young aspiring performers from the East London boroughs, accompanied by London’s pop up ‘Street Orchestra’, on tour to six East London locations on one special day earlier this year. We were overwhelmed and moved by the energy, talent and positivity of the young performers when they entertained a packed audience at the Garden, including the Irish Ambassador, the Mayor of Hackney and Dalston Councillor Soraya Adejare. 

We are delighted that the young performers and Street Orchestra will return to perform the Urban Symphony on the evening of the #Artskickers Awards, Thursday 13 September, for everyone to enjoy. The performance will take place outside the Garden in front of the Peace Mural from 6.30pm - 7.15pm and everyone is welcome.  We hope you can come along to cheer them on and help celebrate these brilliant young #artskickers of East London! 

The awards ceremony is for an invited audience of #Artskickers nominees. The Garden will close at 5pm that evening so that we can prepare to host this celebration of all their hard work!

As we say goodbye to the month of May, we’re revisiting some of our botanical highlights and remembering that it wasn't all just about Tulips and Alliums, show-stopping as they were! At last temperatures warmed up after the prolonged cold of early Spring, leaves unfurled and fresh green finally arrived in the Garden. Our ‘bee bed’ was abundant with the blues and purples of Alliums, Geraniums, Veronicastrum and Perennial Cornflowers, mixed with the lacey flower heads of Cow Parsley. The weeds got well and truly going too, but in our opinion, that’s not all bad! Here at the Curve Garden, we tend to leave many weeds to do their thing, provided they are not suffocating our vegetable seedlings! The bright yellow of Celandine looked lovely in May, popping up in nooks and crannies all over the Garden, Comfrey is good for supporting insects and Red Valerian, considered by some to be a ‘problem weed’, is great for attracting butterflies, so we are happy to see it sprouting out of neighbouring walls!