Bulb planting on Turnham Green

Image above: Spring bulbs on Turnham Green; photograph Friends of Turnham Green

With 8,000 bulbs to plant, your help would be appreciated

It is that time of year when your help would be greatly appreciated planting bulbs on Turnham Green. The Friends of Turnham Green have organised a bulb planting session on Saturday 11 November.

The Friends supplement the work of the Parks department at Hounslow Council by volunteering their time and labour to make the Green look more attractive. They describe their mission as ‘to rescue Turnham Green from municipal shabbiness’. As a result, the park has received the Green Flag award from the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy for at least the past five years.

Leading British landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith drew up a landscaping proposal for Turnham Green last year, the results of which were seen in the spring. The idea was to improve the bio-diversity of the Green and ‘visually unite the different elements of the Green using naturalistic planting’.

READ ALSO: Friends of Turnham Green share plans for new proposals for more ‘naturalistic’ planting on Turnham Green

Images above: Spring bulbs on Turnham Green; photographs Friends of Turnham Green

Planting scheme by the leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith

Nick Pusterla, an associate landscape architect with Tom Stuart-Smith, will be on hand on Saturday to give advice.

“Nick has advised us on the bulb selection and was the driving force behind our spectacular spring bulb display on the west green earlier this year” says the Friends committee.

These are the bulbs he has suggested for the planting scheme this year – 8,000 are ready to be planted, at a cost of £1,800, which has been covered by a grant from the London Borough of Hounslow, and donations from Chiswick Flower Market and Abundance London.

Images above: L to R Galanthus nivalis (flowers January); Crocus tommasianus (February); Narcissus peudonarcissus var lobularis (March); Chionodoxa forbesii (March- early April); Narcissus ‘Elka’ (April); Narcisssus ‘Sunlight Sensation’ (April); Narcissus ‘Sailboat’ (April)

Volunteers are asked to turn up any time between 10am and 1pm, for as long or as little as you like. ‘Bring a trowel or bulb planter if you have one and gloves. Everyone welcome.’

The Friends will be planting on the east green along Chiswick High Road – between the entrance at the war memorial and the entrance opposite Café Nero. So they have an idea of how many people to expect, they ask that you sign up here: Turnham Green Bulb Planting, to let them know you are coming.

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