Birmingham Road Garden
We recently created a garden area on the Birmingham Road in Stratford upon Avon.
Councillor Cohl Warren-Howles who is the Town Councillor for Avenue Ward wanted to create a 'living green wall' in her ward and after carrying out a short survey with local residents who were very enthusiastic about the idea. She applied to Stratford Town Trust for a grant who supported the initiative and Cohl then contacted Carole Longden, Forest of Hearts.
The garden was created with the aim of transforming a rather dull wall into an evergreen, beautiful area to provide an instant visual impact and to boost the biodiversity.
The creation of the garden helped engage the local community with our Green Therapy group assisting with planting through their horticultural therapy sessions and volunteers from Cadent helping with the digging at the beginning stages.
The garden itself contains towering ivies from our show ivy collection accompanied by living wall planters which are a prominent feature along the wall. The living wall planters contain species rich plants to absorb nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter to reduce pollution and provide a suitable habitat to encourage pollinators.
Each side of the wall showcases mini garden areas with an alpine garden section containing an array of alpine and hardy succulent plants and a semi-circle of evergreen and colourful plants alongside a border of lavender.
We finished it off with decorative slate chippings, planted Daffodil bulbs to add another burst of colour in the Spring and planned the whole garden to require little maintenance.
