Avon Gardens Trust - Engaging with Local Communities

As part of the Avon Gardens Trust’s widening participation policy which aims to make more communities aware of the rich garden and park heritage in our region, I had it in mind to offer a free trip to a local place of interest. As the University of Bristol also has a similar policy, there was a natural meeting of minds: here was an opportunity to introduce Bristol’s Asian Community to a little paradise on their doorstep, which otherwise they might not know about. This was the University of Bristol's Botanic Garden, which since its move in 2005 from Bracken Hill in Leigh Woods, has gradually nestled into its new location in the grounds of the Holmes, a fine old sandstone house used as a conference centre in Stoke Bishop, a northern suburb of Bristol. Slightly hampered by lack of personnel in the form of volunteers, there is still much work to be done in terms of planting and building the hard features, but this year of 2008 has seen substantial progress and the garden is starting to feel lusher and more verdant.

I needed to pick on a group of people who were well organised and were already in the habit of making excursions to places of interest. With a little research, and from my existing local knowledge, the Asian Health and Social Care Association, which operates in part of the Easton Community Centre in East Bristol, seemed an obvious choice. Their leader is Amarjit Singh, originally from the Punjab, who told me that several nations are represented in his centre including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. They have more than 50 members who live in various parts of Bristol and who congregate four days a week for lunch, and frequently on Tuesdays set off on an excursion.

When should the trip take place? The wrong time of year might lead to disappointment, but I was advised by one of the gardeners that the third week of June was the best week to see the greatest amount of plants at their best, and she was proven to be right: there was a lot to see: four themes plant collections including Plant Evolution; Plants of Mediterranean Climate Regions (which include zones such as Northern & Central Chile and the western Cape Province of South Africa); Useful Plants; and Local Flora and Rare Native Plants.

After tucking into my vegetable curry lunch at the Asian Day Centre, some 34 of us set off by coach across the city to the northern suburb of Stoke Bishop. We were met by their volunteers and Nicholas Wray, the Curator, who has clocked up the Botanic Gardens for twenty-four years. Nick explained with authority and clarity the different aspects of the gardens as well as the increasing knowledge and understanding about plants, which was causing old beliefs to be revised, particularly about what is related to what. There were many curious and interesting plants for the visitors to starting with the 'ferns on trunks' or tree ferns, Dicksonia Antarctica, which formed a little grove. Nick explained in easily understandable terms a number of aspects of plant development: he broke off small shoots to show their texture, explained the early evolution of plants, including propagation by spores, then by seed.

The Herb Garden was a treat for the senses, especially smell: Nick crushed sprigs of artemisia for the visitors to sniff, creating pleasant sensations. This garden, which was looking its colourful best, is arranged according to the ailments the herbs are supposed to treat: digestion, respiration, musculo-skeletal problems, urinary infections and so on. Moving away from the Herb Garden there was, however, one plant which no one touched: Cotinus Coggygria, which is poisonous – when you get it on your skins it causes a blister.

There were many exotic species, some of which have acclimatised to our shores such as the monkey puzzle tree from Chile, still small here due to recent planting. Others were less familiar, for example Wollemia Nobilis, which was believed to be extinct, only being known in the form of a fossil until it was discovered growing in a remote part of Australia in 1994. Certain areas in the garden were awaiting development, for instance ‘South Africa’, which would be planted without alkaline in the soil to suit the plants from this region.

The visitors had plenty of questions about what to do for their gardens, and some were particularly delighted to see plants they had once known in their ancestral homelands in South Asia and East Africa.

Moving into the glass houses, each had its own temperature suitable for certain types of plants. We were struck by the numerous small cacti, each fighting for room on the overcrowded benches. Amarjit Singh thought he recognised the smell of marijuana from the days that he worked with drug users, trying to get them to kick the habit and lead a profitable life. But these may have been the oily odours being given off by mainly South African native plants.

We were saved the most dramatic plant till close to the end – the Giant Amazon Waterlily, which dominated one of the tanks. Nicholas Wray explained that this plant goes through a remarkable transformation during the course of two nights – first going white, then opening up and then trapping water beetles. On the second night it opens, releasing the water beetles and goes purple. There were many new things that surprised the visitors, another being that vanilla is an orchid, grown mainly in Madagascar where each plant needs to be pollinated individually by hand, making its cultivation very labour intensive.

‘Very interesting’, ‘thoroughly enjoyed’, ‘what I saw was really beautiful’, ‘as someone who isn’t a keen gardener, it knocked me out’ were some of the comments of the group.

A success? Without a doubt, and the lessons to be learned for any gardens trust hoping to engage with local communities would be to:

1) Choose a well-organised group which meets and goes on excursions regularly

2) Be prepared to accommodate the special needs of the group, which may be lack of mobility due to advanced years.

3) Go to an easily accessible park or garden that is within an hour’s drive and that is accustomed to visitors

4) Go at the right time of year to appreciate the plants at their best.

5) Hire an engaging and authoritative speaker who makes no cultural faux pas!

Jonathan Holt

Chairman

Avon Gardens Trust