Grass Roots
Time Out London, the Green Issue, March 2006
Lisa Mullen visits Lambeth's secret garden, Roots & Shoots, formerly a patch of derelict waste ground.
David perkins, education and resources manager for Roots & Shoots community garden in Lambeth, is in Paradise Corner when I arrive, busy digging a hole. Along with student Wayne and two other members of staff, he's bringing exotic plants and a pond back to this sunny, southfacing spot, after a period during which it was used by some local builders working nearby. In some ways, this regeneration process typifies the whole story of Roots & Shoots, which began in 1982 with a large-scale leap of faith: the transformation of an acre of derelict wasteland into a beautiful, inspiring wildlife garden.
"Where you're standing at the moment — for most of the twentieth century that was a toilet," says Perkins cheerily. "Of course, from 1740 'til 1904, these were gardens, quite posh ones. But then there was a warehouse factory here that was built in 1903. That was demolished in about 1979, but when Roots & Shoots came in 1982 it was just concrete floors, corrugated fences round it, broken glass, demolition debris generally. Linda [Phillips, manager of the project] cleared the site, brought topsoil in and laid it out as a community garden in about 1984."
For a while, the plot was open to the public 24 hours a day, but problems with vandalism triggered a rethink, and now access is restricted to office hours and staffed weekend and evening events. "If I become aware that we've got some teenagers in, like we did last week in half term, I just discreetly wander over and say, "Are you all right?" says Perkins. "And if they're up to no good then they leave, because they can see they're being watched. But if they're genuinely interested then I'll give them a bit of my time and talk to them about frogs or whatever."
Perkins, whose background is in education and natural history, is proud of the garden's wildlife. "Some gardeners think it's a bit untidy but because it's lovely and wild you get lots of insects. We've got15 species of butterfly, seven species of bumblebee, 20 other species of bees, over 30 species of beetle, three species of grasshopper in the meadow and two rare crickets. They're amazing little creatures. They just spotted this tiny patch of greenery and moved in."
There are plenty of opportunities for visitors to learn about the resident invertebrates, birds, frogs and newts, from identification charts dotted around the garden to full-scale educational events, like the Beastly Business day on March 19. As part of National Science Week, this is a fusion of art and science projects based on insect eyes and the science of vision. Roots & Shoots are working with local school children in the lead-up to the event, but on the day anyone can come along and discover more.
The event will coincide with the garden's Spring Fair, one of four seasonal open weekends featuring stalls selling fresh organic fruit and vegetables, honey from the London Beekeepers' Association and crafts by local people. The Roots & Shoots shop also sells a seasonal range of produce all year round. "You can't really buy nice organic fruit and vegetables rond here," Phillips points out. "We've linked up with a farming cooperative in Norfolk so we should be able to sell lots of lovely food. There will also be plant sales in May and June — we grow herbs and bedding plants to sell, as well as organic compost. We press our own apple juice in the apple barn in the autumn, and that sell really well."
These commercial opportunities support main purpose of Roots & Shoots, which is to provide vocational training — conducted in a newly constructed eco-building bristling with green features — for young people with special educational needs. "We pick up the ones that no one else really wants," says Phillips bluntly. "But we have a very high success rate of people getting jobs. At the moment we have about 19 or 20 students at one time, doing a 40-week course. But that funding finishes in March 07, so I don't know what will happen after that."
She's an old hand, though, at winkling money out of government bodies; she likes to show bureaucrats round when the tea-roses are in flower and "they take us to their hearts", she says. Maybe it's not just rare crickets who appreciate a little patch of green from time to time.