Of all the places in the world, Finsbury Park doesn’t feel like the home of a gardening revolution. But among the stone walls and barbed wire sits a green oasis, where gardens flow freely between houses and benches sit invitingly outside. For these are not the houses of strangers, but the Blackstock Triangle Gardeners (BTG), co-founded by Naomi Schillinger.
The first thing that strikes you after passing through Naomi’s chaotic garden and entering her home, is how neat it is in contrast. The wooden floors, replaced recently to allow for muddy boots, is free of debris, while her walls display a multitude of images, betraying her past as a photographer. One of these is a framed picture of her young cats, siblings Emile and Hector, who clamber over us as we chat.
Trying to get new neighbours involved
Though she may have given up photography to become a professional gardener and writer, images are still vital to Naomi’s work. “It’s really important when you’ve got a project like this to have images… it tells the whole story,” she says, and what a story it is. The Blackstock Triangle Gardeners were set up just over a decade ago, initially distributing seeds for free, but now greening whatever spaces they find, from gardens to tree pits, with their small army of volunteers. “We’re going from strength to strength,” she says, “trying to get new neighbours involved.”
Naomi attributes this success to the group’s community focus. “The whole reason we have 100 households involved is that we knock on doors and asked,” she says. Asking goes far beyond a bit of help with the project, however. As we leave the house, it becomes clear how many neighbours’ gardens she’s taken over. “Borrowed,” she insists, as she describes the plants around her. Among names such as Hollyhock and periwinkle, there’s the odd dabbling of Latin. “I might hook you a bit of Sarcococca hookeriana – it’s got a stonking scent.”
“It’s not just about growing veg,” she says, “it’s about making it a lovely place to live: safer, friendlier, and getting to know your neighbours.”
A similar scent, that of success, can also be used to describe BTG’s clear impact on the lives of the local community. “It’s not just about growing veg,” she says, “it’s about making it a lovely place to live: safer, friendlier, and getting to know your neighbours.” She subsequently proves this when, like a scene from a Blyton novel, she addresses her neighbours by name as they walk by, and promises the children next door that they can pay Emile and Hector a visit.
Encouraging parents to grow plants with children
Children like this are at the heart of what Naomi wants BTG to be. “When I was doing my teacher training, a lot of kids didn’t know what a leek was,” she says. Having grown up gardening, she wants to see more parents growing plants with their kids, even if it’s just little succulents indoors. It’s also something she’d like to see more widely. “I think it should be part of the curriculum,” she says. “There might be a little bit in science and a little bit in something else, but it’s a real lack of knowledge.”
One of the problems with this is to overcome the staid image of gardening, to “get people doing things rather than reading dry old books.” BTG, as a result, goes far beyond planting a few green beans every now and again.
“There’s quite a lot of tea and cake involved,” Naomi says, with the group holding ‘Cake Sundays’ a couple of times a year, where seeds are distributed and baked goods shared. Last year, as part of the Chelsea Fringe gardening event, they even transformed Cake Sunday into a dog show, featuring floral headdresses for competitors. “It probably was our best ever,” she says “with everyone from babes in arms to 95-year olds in wheelchairs.”
So though her garden may be full of gardening supplies for her neighbours, and BTG’s funding is never guaranteed, this sense of community is Naomi’s ultimate reward. Even then, she’s keen to stress that she benefits just as much as anyone else. “It’s much more village-y round here. People smile and wave hello, and for zone 2 in London, that’s a very good thing.”
