Community Planting Around Gauging Lock

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Air Quality Brentford team up with Canal and River Trust

Air Quality Brentford is a voluntary group of residents whose aim is to try to help improve air quality locally in Brentford through positive change.

Before planting

We were so pleased to have some cloud coverage on this hot summer’s day for our next community planting project. In collaboration with the Canal and River Trust, we planned to add greenery to the island at Brentford Gauging Lock, where the Grand Union Canal meets the River Brent, planting in to six containers. It was a glorious place to spend the afternoon, with boats passing through the Lock, the wildlife and birds, and some great company whilst making a bit of positive change. The canal water was covered in duckweed, a blue-green algae which starves fresh water of oxygen. The Canal & River Trust have cleared this already but it grows quickly in these hot weather conditions.

Many thanks to Kew Gardens in the first instance for giving us three amazing faux lead containers they no longer needed, they look perfect at the Lock. Special thanks as well to Syon House who grew some lovely Verbena and Bergenia for our planting projects. Further donations came from Wyevale garden centre at Syon, we made use of some plants they no longer wanted, and to a neighbour for donating some plants from a photo shoot. We bought some additional plants to add to these and create some visual impact from a distance. The Canal and River Trust purchased the soil and used a barge to move it over to the island saving us the job of doing so. We used a bucket and water straight from the canal to water the plants.

We never really know who will turn up for these events so a final BIG thank you to the volunteers who came out on Sunday and gave their time to do this project and to the Canal & River Trust volunteers who will be helping to keep the plants alive by watering them.

This is part of efforts to make Brentford a much greener place to live, to mitigate the harmful effects of traffic pollution and to help make our air cleaner. It also helps to create a more attractive area and discourages litter. To build on this we’re encouraging residents to look at ways to make their own front gardens greener.

If anyone is interested, there is a bank account and any donations will be used to fund future community planting projects. If you’d like to get involved in our next project please contact us at airqualitybrentford@hotmail.com.

Since the community planting at the Royal Oak end of Hamilton Road (pictured on a bad rubbish day) no rubbish has been dumped on the corner so not only is it greener but cleaner! Thanks go to the landlord for watering these plants.

On that note, if you are finishing your journey at Brentford station please empty your water bottles into the plant containers as they need every drop they can get.