Alongside displays of bright flowers and cutting-edge garden design, visitors at this year’s Chelsea flower show will find an exhibition featuring native weeds and plants.
The display, which is part of the smallest garden ever shown at the event, has been designed by the guerrilla gardening group Grow2Know, to bring attention to the disparity of green space in the borough.
According to publicly available data gathered by the urban planning and design practice Prior and Partners, people in Notting Dale, the North Kensington ward where Grenfell is situated, have access to only 41.66 sq metres of green space – the equivalent of three parking bays – within a 1km radius. Those in the neighbouring South Kensington ward of Queen’s Gate have access to 2,149 sq metres.
The Grow2Know plot at this year’s show, called The Green Gap, is 4.2 sq metres, a 1:10 scale representation of the green space available to some of those living in Notting Dale.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith, the founder of Grow2Know and a footballer who was born in North Kensington, described the display as “a visual representation of the stark reality of inequality within the borough”.
He said: “As an organisation that strongly believes everyone should have equal access to green space, we are dedicated to driving and inspiring change, and we’ll make it our mission to make gardening more inclusive and naturally accessible to all through ongoing community-driven gardening projects and education.”
Encased in concrete, the exhibition brings together dandelions, thyme and chamomile, all of which residents can expect to find growing in their streets, just a stone’s throw away from the Chelsea flower show venue.
The project follows Hayden-Smith’s Hands Off Mangrove display at the flower show last year, which centred on a 4-metre tall, deforested mangrove sculpture with nine bare roots, each one honouring a member of the Mangrove Nine group of black activists whose trial in the 1970s exposed racial bias in the police. The sculpture doubled up as a protective canopy, under which people could gather in the garden’s second life in the North Kensington area, while the garden featured edible plants to encourage horticulture.
Hayden-Smith has since been appointed as a Royal Horticultural Society ambassador for young people and communities.
Grow2Know was formed in response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, as a way to promote collective healing, to reclaim space and to reconnect people in the community.
Based in North Kensington, the grassroots non-profit has collaborated with local people and schools to put community at the forefront in the creation of public outdoor spaces.
The group is responsible for the Grenfell Peace Garden and has collaborated with Penguin and the Natural History Museum to develop more green spaces in west London. It says it is also committed to pushing for more sustainable systems that promote biodiversity, circular economies and regenerative practices.
Grow2Know’s garden will be exhibited at the RHS Chelsea flower show from 23–27 May.
