We have put together a small flyer to introduce Fiends of Wilton Square to the local residents who may not know about it and might want to get involved. I am hoping to post these through the doors of the local residents this evening so look out for yours!
Tag: updates
We have been in touch with the GoodGym coordinator for 
Islington and they have agreed to come and lend us a helping hand with looking after the square.
A little bit about GoodGym:
“GoodGym is a community of runners who get fit by doing good.
Whether you’re new to running or are trying to beat your marathon PB, we’d love to have you involved in doing some good in your area.
We do physical tasks that benefit our community and keep us fit. You can run in a pack to work on a community project, do one off missions to help vulnerable people or commit to visit an isolated older person every week.
You’ll get the help of a qualified trainer and support to achieve your goals.”
Does that not sound a little bit amazing?
I have added the event to the calendar – please do feel free to come along to help if you have the time. I’ve also asked the council to lend us some tools on Monday so fingers crossed they will come through!
This week we have been focusing on the rose bed behind the single bench, mainly getting rid of the surprising amount of rubbish that accumulates there, as well as weeding and tidying up the bushes and deadheading the stunning roses that grow in that space.
It seems that the stones demarcating the rose bed have sunk into the ground over the years and are no longer consistently visible. This has happened with all the borders around the square but you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time so starting small.
With the compost delivery imminent, I wonder if I could ask for your opinion? Broadly, I a wondering whether you would prefer that we dig for the slabs currently used and raise them up to ensure they are visible OR do we create a more naturalistic feature of the rosebud with some wooden borders, as seen at the Chelsea Flower Show this year?
Disappearing border slabs
Natural wooden border from a Chelsea Flower Show garden
Personally, I am in favour of the more naturalistic approach as it would benefit the creepy-crawlies on the square as well as providing a good use for the twigs and branches around the square. What say you?
In other news, the annuals we planted earlier in the year under the three trees between
New North Road and Wilton Villas are growing nicely, helped by the wet weather.
Don’t forget, the next community gardening day is this Sunday 10 am- 1pm. Hope to see you there!
If you are following our Facebook page, you may have noticed that we have suddenly
started posting with more regularity and even set up a Justgiving site to gather donations to improve the planting on the square.
If you walk through the square regularly, you may have also come across the little helper that often toddles around whilst his mummy plays with the plants.
This is all part of a renewed effort to turn the square into a lush haven for kids to play in and adults to to enjoy, taking much inspiration from our friends on Arlington Square.
The next step in the grand plan is receiving a huge amount of compost from London Waste to improve the soil under our lovely large trees so that the plants we put down also have the nutrients they need once we put them in. We have gotten in touch with the area coordinator at GoodGym to help us spread this muck once it arrives. Do check them out and join- it’s a wonderful way to get fit and do good at the same time.
We are planning to hold regular community gardening days on the morning of every first Sunday of the month, as well as holding ad hoc events and gardening days. Do have a look at our calendar for further details on these. You’ll be able to find some images of the past events held on the square over in our picture gallery.
We have also started doing a bit more research into the area’s history with a particular interest in the square itself so if you know any interesting details or stories (like old gossip on residents of days gone by) please get in touch.
Whilst we await soil improvements on the square and funds for purchasing new planting, we have already started making the local area look prettier and recently planted some colourful annuals under the three trees in front of Wilton Villas by New North Road.
Before
After
Friends of Wilton Square 