Flower Market Surplus Being Reinvested in the High Road
Nearby flower beds being redesigned and replanted
Working on the newly planted flower beds on Chiswick High Road
The success of Chiswick Flower Market is yielding benefits for the local environment with surpluses now available to reinvest in the local community.
Following what the organisers describe as overwhelming support from a survey, the decision was taken to redesign and replant the flower beds that run along the High Road, bordering Old Market Place. These had become neglected and weed-ridden.
The Flower Market commissioned Jutta Wagner, a German designer and gardening author who lived in Chiswick for many years and had designed local gardens including a public perennial meadow and the walled gardens at Chiswick House, as well as specialist gardens in Berlin, to produce a planting plan that would be sustainable, bio-diverse, beautiful and resilient.
The council contractors, Hounslow Highways, worked in partnership with the Chiswick Flower Market team, and prepared the beds for replanting, as well as supplying some of the new planting. The bulk of the planting was paid for by the Flower Market CIC and was supplied by Rochfords Nursery, with bulbs from Chelsea gold medal winners Jacques Amand, and Eurogarden. Planting was carried out over two days in late October, by the Flower Market team and other volunteers.
The newly planted flowerbeds
The planting focussed around a structure of Hydrangea arborescens (smooth hydrangea), Phormium ‘Sundowner’ (New Zealand flax), and Sarcococca confusa (sweet box), interplanted with grasses, Hebes and Persicaria. White narcissi varieties, Chionodoxa (glory-of-the-snow) and alliums made up the 3000 interplanted bulbs.
The area has been tidied up having been previously neglected
The founders of Flower Market CIC are local residents who work without pay with the aim of creating a market that is sustainable, joyous and commercially valuable, bringing footfall and business to a struggling High Road.
One year on and the Flower Market is well on its way to achieving many of these aims. The market has not only survived lockdown, but is now expanding from 30 stalls to around 60 on special occasions (such as Christmas, spring planting) and now includes music, entertainment and special events.
Having established the market on a stable organisational and financial footing, the CIC is now looking at ways to fulfil its constitutional aims – to improve the High Road area.
The Flower Market is now looking to other projects to improve the High Road area. Meanwhile it is planning a festive Chiswick Christmas Flower Market, with choirs and other seasonal offerings.
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October 30, 2021