CHUG and SkyWay Community Garden

In 2015 CHUG met with landscape designer Peter Beardsley, who had been commissioned by CRT to work with local hackney charity SkyWay, to regenerate an area of Haggerston Canal and transform this into a community garden.  SkyWay supports at-risk young people in Hackney aged between 8-25 years old, to achieve goals, realise their potential and contribute positively to their community.

CHUG recognised that this was a project worthy of some continued support, as well as being a great opportunity to kick start further community gardening projects along the Haggerston stretch of Regents Canal.  So we applied for a Hackney Community Chest Award for £1,000 to enable us to build and equip a garden tool shed within the SkyWay Garden for community groups to be able to easily access tools and garden safely along the towpath. And hurrah!  We were successful!

In December 2015 as part of the CHUG annual Christmas Fair, a CHUG team, Peter Beardsley, SkyWay, and members of the local community set sail down the canal on Santa’s Boat Cruise armed with fruit trees (apples & quince) and three sacks of Narcissus ‘Rippling Water’, which we planted along the towpath close to the Skyway Garden.

Since then we have been busy building the community tool shed and equipping it with the necessary tools and equipment.  Huge thanks to our neighbours at Travis Perkins, Kingsland Road, who donated a wheelbarrow and a number of other tools to the project.

The next stage of the plan is to establish and submerge native aquatic plant beds in the canal. And of course we are preparing for Spring/Summer planting!

The next community gardening activity day is likely to be held in May.  Please keep an eye out here for future dates or, if you are keen to learn more about how to get involved or have your own ideas to contribute then please email info@yb8.dc8.mytemp.website.

To find out more about SkyWay Charity please see http://www.skyway.uk.com/community-garden/.