June is of course for roses, and they are looking absolutely splendid in the orchard garden at the moment. I even got a comment about them being better than the ones in the Queen Mary garden, Regent’s park!
The raised beds in the orchard garden- Iris and allium.
The most regular plantings of flowers in the park are in the four raised beds in the orchard garden (not withstanding the adjacent meadow which has just been planted with a mix which includes poppies and cornflowers for later in the year).
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The Perivale Park meadow 2025 – a blue theme!
The meadow has been rotavated and is currently as I write this being seeded with the following mix:
Isabella Plantation- Richmond park
Following on from one of the spring highlights of west London, here is another. The Azalea and Rhododendron glade in Richmond park, known as the Isabella plantation. This is a movie of the famous still pond in the centre of the plantation.
Perivale wood 2025: bluebells, celandine, stitchwort and cuckoo flowers.
This year there is no public open day viewing of the bluebells in Perivale Wood, so I thought I would show some of the highlights here instead.
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Tree planting in Pear Tree Park
The last of the autumn colour: Cosmos
The meadow “frame” planted earlier this year has finally brought the Cosmos to the fore. They have been going for a little while now, and will indeed last a little longer!
More seasonal activity!
The entire year has been wet! And so to the 2024 vintage fungii – which are now emerging in force.
Autumn colour in the park: Spindle.
Walking along the Capital ring path in the path, one comes across a collection of flowering bushes with spectacular pink and orange fruits and red leaves.
Guerrilla gardens close to Perivale Park
Along Hicks Avenue, the houses of which back up to the park, we spotted this wonderfully cheerful little Guerrilla Garden. Its been there for a while, but is looking particularly cheerful at the moment when Perivale Park itself is starting to wind down for autumn. It is wonderfully well tended, and whoever looks after it, we want you to know it is appreciated.
All about Bees!
This blog features bees quite a lot. Way back in 2019 we had highlighted the Ealing Beekeepers just down the road from the park. Just recently I was contacted by Christy from savingourbees.org offering some nice advice on how to do the very best for our bees and it is reproduced here as a guest post.‡
“Framed meadows”
Ealing this year has adopted a policy of “framing meadows” with colourful strips of flowers, whilst retaining more “bird friendly” sowings in their centres. At least for the central meadow in Perivale Park.
A summer’s day (spiral) walk around Northala Fields
Just to the west of Perivale Park are the Northala fields, a prominent feature of which are the four large mounds. The largest and tallest of these has a spiral (right handed!) path to the top, which we walked today. The flowers on either side of the path were stunning – as was the scent from the thistles, attracting quite a few butterflies as well.
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The orchard meadows in June!
The orchard meadows were sown in 2019, five years ago. Watching them each year, I am struck by how very different each year has been. This year is no exception. The photos below do not do the meadows justice – go see them for yourself!
Volunteers improving the ponds! Purple Loosestrife.
Lythrum salicaria or purple loosestrife is native to the UK (but considered eg a pest in areas like north America) and likes wet environments such as pond edges. Here are three volunteers planting 80 plugs into the edge of the ponds near the kids playground in the park.
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Magnificent Roses in the park.
June heralds the start of the rose season. The main area where they are found is in the orchard garden, although they can also be found elsewhere.
The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) in Perivale Park.
The TCV group organises events around the country and today they came to Perivale Park on a corporate volunteering day with a group of about twenty very enthusiastic people from PwC – and one volunteer dog accompanying Ben!. An area of ground‡ on the banks of Costons Brook near to its exit from the culvert in the park had recently been cleared by GEL using an impressive robotic cutting system and it was now ready for replanting.
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Animal proof litter bins anyone?
Around 9 old litter bins in the park, often raided by animals in the past if they could smell food inside them, have been replaced by ones with animal-proof flaps!
A strip of summer annual and perennial flowers is coming!
Last week, a 3m wide strip of the flower meadow in the park was seen being prepared. It runs alongside the meadow seeded with bird mix last year.
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Late spring colour along the River Brent
The walk along the river Brent from Longfield meadows/Gurnell centre to Greenford is delightful at this time of year.
Diversity in the Park orchard: A 2024 update.
Back in June 2021, a biodiversity survey of the park orchard meadows was carried out for us by Neil Anderson. Since then the meadows have largely been left alone, with no added nutrients and only a minimum of “weeding”. Time I thought to see what changes of three years of being left mostly to their own devices might have induced. Neil very kindly agree to repeat his survey for us and the results are included below.
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Now it’s the turn of the tulips – 2024.
Again in the orchard area in the raised beds.
Quince blossom in the orchard
In 2019, a fruit orchard was planted in the park. Of all the 24 trees there, one has really taken off – starting last year and literally blossoming abundantly this year – and that is the quince.
Updates – the park Fritillaries and the Colne Valley Viaduct.
Firstly the fritillaries, which are now looking splendid. Again, I think the bountiful rain this spring has helped!
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2024 – A good year for Daffodils.
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that each new season seems to especially favour some species of flower? This year, it seems to be magnolias, cherries and daffodils that are particularly splendid. Perivale park does not have any magnolias or cherries, but it certainly has a nice display of daffodils in the orchard area – thanks to volunteers who planted them last year.
News for February, 2024 – every little helps!
A stroll around the park has revealed interesting new features for this year.
- A new rubbish bin in the Longfield meadows, next to the bench where you can admire the lakes. Every little helps – but hey Ealing parks, don’t stop there. Put a few more in!
- Two large swathes in the north Londfield meadow appear to have been seeded. I will try to find out what the mix is (two years ago they put yellow rattle in, but it did not germinate).
- The bulbs in the raised beds in the orchard are showing. It’s quite a selection we put in last year, so do pop by when the flowers start in a few weeks time.
- I could not resist showing the mahonia next to the storage container in the orchard. It’s been there for years, having been planted when the area was a bowling green. It is starting to look very nice this year.
Continue reading “News for February, 2024 – every little helps!”
Late autumn colour in 2023 – the avenue of Pear trees.
The relatively wet and warm autumn here has delayed the onset of full tree colour. One of the best displays in the park comes from the row of trees planted along the path parallel to the athletics track. The colour lasts a long time before the leaves drop.
Continue reading “Late autumn colour in 2023 – the avenue of Pear trees.”
Autumn 2023 fungi, splashes of colour and gardening chores
Hunting for fungi is always great fun in the park – not for eating of course. Here are just a few we found over the last few days.
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Overgrown path now clear – thanks to local volunteers.
A well-used path connecting the bridge across Coston’s brook and the Betham road entrance across the meadow there used to be a main access point to the “tadpole” pond in the park. Thanks Ros for photo!
Continue reading “Overgrown path now clear – thanks to local volunteers.”
The meadow in autumn 2023.
Thanks to the relatively late seeding, the larger flower meadow in the park (in between the orchard area and the MUGA court) has some late autumn colour. Thanks to Michael for some photos.