A FLOATING GARDEN SLOWLY COMING TO LIFE
The Spring Equinox. A perfect balance between night and day. And now the days are getting longer and warmer. For many across the world this is the celebration of the new year. Which makes so much more sense than our calendar years. You can feel new life in the air and in the soil, as people, animals and plants poke their faces out and get busy outside.
It finally feels like this winter is behind us. It has been a particularly hard one - cold, wet and dark - with a lockdown in place which has made it impossible for us to gather with loved ones over this period. We have kept the Story Garden open throughout as a safe outdoor space to wander around in, for daily exercise, and to find a peaceful spot away from the four walls of our flats.
It is also during these quieter and darker months that much of our invisible work takes place - the meetings, planning and negotiations to get any new venture off the ground. For years one has been brewing … the possibility for us to set up a Floating Garden on the canal in King’s Cross, and it is now, along with the blossom in the garden, coming to life.
View of barge location from footbridge at Granary Square
Marking out location of barge
The idea first arose when we found ourselves, once again, in between homes. Needing to move from our fourth iteration of the Skip Garden without having found a new place to continue our nature connection and educational work, a barge on the canal came up as an idea. Straight away the image caught our imagination and we knew that somehow we had to make it happen. It was not going to serve as our main garden as our team would not all fit, but rather as a special space inspired by water - partly in terms of it’s history and movement but above all about the calming and soothing effects of water in the middle of the city.
Our new barge!
Our new barge! Out of the water getting checked over and a lick of paint.
Now 2 years later, with support from Argent and Camden Council, we have bought a barge! We are really happy to give the Cinema Barge, which UP Projects, ran a new lease of life, so that the space can continue to offer educational and connecting activities for local children, young people and families. Over the summer, we worked with a group of local young people to co-design the barge and these ideas are now being turned into detailed designs for the planning application.
Co-design process with young people
Co-design presentation evening
Ideas from the young people
Much like the seeds we have been planting in the garden - who have worked hard to first establish their roots underground and invisible to us - are now shooting through the soil showing their first leaves, the Floating Garden has for many years been a seed of an idea, establishing roots, and is now finally showing its first small leaves above ground. I am looking forward to what is to come.
Notes from the Garden
I wake to a bright crisp winter’s day. Finally … after weeks of storms ravaging the country.
As the year ends we are reminded of the magic and beauty that our gardens bring, as places to come together and celebrate, even in difficult times. This year it has been challenging not to be taken over by fear and despair, with extreme weather events being mirrored in different ways across the world, from floods to droughts; with the most recent political events; with wars destroying land and displacing entire populations; and with the constant increase in the cost of living creating ever more inequalities between those that have and those that do not.