Archived on 6/5/2022

Horniman: London Road Tree Planting Appeal

ForestHull

20 Feb '21

The Horniman Gardens have always been a wonderful resource for all of our local community, and this past year has seen them play an even more important role in helping people’s mental health and wellbeing.

We now want to enhance the Gardens for the whole community by creating a more welcoming, safe and peaceful haven for people and wildlife. One of the country’s busiest and most congested roads – London’s South Circular (A205) – runs alongside the Horniman. As a result, our Gardens and the wildlife that live there suffer from noise and air pollution at an increasing rate.

This year, we are tackling this problem and we need your help.

Here’s what we have planned:

We will improve the existing plant border on the boundary of the garden running parallel to the A205. This new area has been carefully designed in the theme of a woodland edge habitat. The planting will provide a natural and safe environment for wildlife and enhance biodiversity, provide shade and improve air quality and reduce noise pollution.

Starting with a line of densely planted silver birch trees, we will plant a mix of native shrubs, herbaceous plants and bulbs to produce a mid-layer and ground cover planting. The grass will be left to grow long and return to a meadow. These layers of vegetation will create a brilliant barrier between the Gardens and the main road.

By supporting our London Road Tree Planting Appeal, you will help the Horniman achieve some incredible things.

Create a visual barrier to London’s busy South Circular

Improve CO2 absorption and reduce noise pollution in the Gardens

Enhance people’s wellbeing by creating a more peaceful place

Provide a fantastic resource for wildlife

Create new and diverse planting of native shrubs and trees

Installation of log piles and bird boxes to encourage wildlife

The Horniman needs to raise £10,000 to complete this planting. Any additional donations raised will be used to care for the new planting in its first year and for general gardens year-round maintenance. If you love our Gardens and want to make a difference, why not show your appreciation by making a donation. It will make a huge impact.

Donations can me made to any amount at the bottom of their page: London Road Forest Border - Horniman Museum and Gardens

HannahM

20 Feb '21

What a lovely idea. I will definitely donate, the Horniman has been a real hero in lockdown providing us with a lovely calm place to walk and relax

oakr

20 Feb '21

It was our go to place for so many years when the kids were young, it almost felt like we lived there.

This is a great idea - le’ts hope they get the money they need.

ForestHull

1 Mar '21

They made it! The £10k target was met already (they are at about £12k today), so they have doubled it to £20k to additionally cover the costs of maintaining the trees for the first five years after planting:

oakr

4 Mar '21

Up to £13,367k at present, good going.

ForestHull

20 Apr '21

Great news - they’ve made £20k!

They are still accepting donations: London Road Forest Border - Horniman Museum and Gardens

ForestHull

13 Jan '22

Most excitingly the Horniman has published some more info on the design for the micro-forest it previously raised funds for, and it looks like early works have started on-site to prepare for planting:

A 300m2 area is being redeveloped to provide a ‘green screen’, protecting the Horniman’s Gardens from noise and air pollution, and creating additional wildlife habitats, following a successful fundraising appeal in 2021.

The eastern section of the area will become a woodland, featuring coppiced hazel under-planted with meadow grassland including a mixture of wildflowers and native plants such as snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells, wood anemones and snakes head fritillaries.

The western section – closest to a busy and congested junction of the South Circular (London Road) – will be planted using the Miyawaki method, to create a dense and fast-growing micro-forest.

The Miyawaki method, created by Japanese botanist and plant ecologist Akira Miyawaki, uses natural forest regeneration processes and close planting, prompting trees to grow faster as they compete for the sun. The method speeds up the creation of a diverse, healthy forest which can capture more carbon far earlier than traditional reforesting techniques.

In both sections, the existing shrub border adjacent to the South Circular will be deepened, and existing trees and shrubs will be retained wherever possible. The plans have been finalised by Head of Horticulture Errol Fernandes, and the Horniman’s Gardens team has been preparing the ground ready for this month’s planting to begin.

I found some more info on the Miyazaki method here:

oakr

13 Feb '22

There was a nice interview with Errol on Friday’s Gardeners question time talking about this. If you don’t want to listen to the whole program, I think it started around 17 minutes and 20 seconds in.