Putting Down Roots Garden
Meet our new urban pocket park – an award-winning collaboration from the green-fingered folk at St Mungo’s and Cityscapes.
A Blooming Partnership
For ten years, St Mungo's and Cityscapes have been working together to transform lives, communities and places. St Mungo's, the homelessness charity, and social enterprise design organisation Cityscapes first collaborated when Cityscapes designed and installed a garden in Southwark, turning a neglected space into a green, urban oasis. The garden required regular maintenance, and this was taken on by Putting Down Roots, a horticultural therapy and training project using gardening as a tool to help people in their recovery, created by St Mungo's.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022
In May 2022, Putting Down Roots put their incredible skills to use for an exciting new project - the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show. After months of preparation, the garden was installed and attracted thousands of visitors, and was deservedly awarded one of ten silver medals from the Royal Horticultural Society! The garden was funded by Project Giving Back and designed by Darryl Moore of Cityscapes.
Featured Foliage
The planting design is based on a matrix scheme, creating an ecological plant community using layers of different heights, creating a naturalistic look.
The plant selection is for shade and partial-shade, due to the trees, which create a woodland-type setting. Key matrix plants in the shade are ferns, while the key plants in the partial-shade are grasses. All of these are interspersed with perennial plants.
Key ferns: Asplenium scolopendrium (Hart's-tongue fern) and Dryopteris Affinis (Scaly male fern)
Key grasses: Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted hairgrass), Luzula nivea (Snowy wood-rush) and Sesleria caerulea (Blue moor-grass)
Low perennials: Astrantia major (Great Masterwort), Geranium sylvaticum ‘Mayflower’ (Wood cranesbill ‘Mayflower’), Silene dioica (Red campion) and Stellaria holostea (Greater stitchwort)
Tall perennials: Aquilegia vulgaris ‘White Barlow’ (Columbine ‘White Barlow’), Anthriscus sylvestrus ‘Ravenswing’ (Cowparsley ‘Ravenswing’), Cenolophium denudatum (Baltic parsley) and Thalictrum delavayi (Chinese meadow-rue)
Trees: Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn), Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan), Acer campestre (Field maple) and Betula pendula (Silver birch)