It is a paradox of Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate that it stands very close to a large public park but isn’t a terribly green place. Its western side looks out over the Lordship Recreation Ground in the Moselle valley. The estate’s very name harks back to the area’s still fairly recent rural past. Yet for residents, proximity to nature can still feel far away.
The beauty of the Debden Garden Terrace is that it brings it closer. You might say it is in the backyards of those living in the estate’s Debden block. It would be more precise to say it brings it to their deck. The block’s deck level, a feature of Broadwater Farm’s late-1960s municipal architecture, provides a communal terrace where the garden got started almost two years ago, thanks initially to a suggestion and some cash from Haringey Council.
A resident called Mri (pronounced “Marie”), a mainstay of the garden, showed me around last week. An array of wooden planters contained an abundance of produce, even in the darkening autumn months: peas, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, apples, strawberries and more. Flowers also bloom. “We love it here,” said Mri (whose named is pronounced like “Marie”). “It’s really peaceful and good for your health.”
It’s not the first such venture on the estate. Mri previously had a spot in the garden of the nearby Croydon block before Debden followed suit, encouraged by a council’s community engagement officer for the estate. Initial funding got things going and the garden is now largely looked after by a group of around eight gardening residents. Not all of them live in Debden, and Mri emphasises that people from other blocks can apply for a plot (although there is queue).
Open days have been held in order to share the garden’s joys and perhaps prompt others to take up the idea. Nursery-age youngsters from the estate’s children’s centre started their own little corner garden on the terrace. And the garden has won a string of prizes, including individual awards at the Tottenham Flower and Produce Show (Mri got first prize for carrots, pumpkins and onions) and a Haringey in Bloom silver certificate of achievement for best vegetable plot. On an estate where few people have balconies, the garden has become integral to it.
I learned about the Debden Garden Terrace because I was a member of a panel appointed by Newham-based community engagement consultants Newman Francis to allocate grants of £500 to a variety of local projects across the capital, all of them seeking to improve neighbourhood quality of life. The prize money, Mri says, has been spent on more and better soil, manure and some extra plants, including a lemon tree which is establishing itself robustly in its pot.
I left the garden with a fragrant gift of herbs and veg and with renewed faith in the power of small community endeavours to make large differences to London lives.
Dave Hill is the publisher and editor of OnLondon.co.uk. Support this unique website and its writers for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money that other people won’t. Details HERE.