Open Garden Squares Week-end

Water lily at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

This week-end there's a great opportunity to visit many of the garden squares around London which are normally closed to the public. Open Garden Squares Week-end is the one time each year when many of these private gardens can be seen and it allows access to some fascinating places. It's not free but for £10 (or £7.50 if you booked in advance) you can spend the whole of Saturday and Sunday visiting dozens of squares and gardens, many of which are also laying on special activities such as live music and wine tasting. The gardens involved come in all shapes and sizes ranging from large Georgian Squares to small community and roof gardens and also include a few wildlife gardens and nature reserves (including the one at Devonshire Road where I took this photo). There are even opportunities to visit the gardens tended by inmates at Holloway and Wormwood Scrubs prisons although you need to book guided tours in advance for those.

There are 213 gardens participating this year and you couldn't possibly visit them all. Here's my suggestions for getting the most out of Open Gardens Squares Week-end, based on my experience in previous years:

• Focus on one or two areas where there are lots of gardens - Bloomsbury is a good bet as there are 19 gardens within close proximity. The website lists all the gardens participating and you can sort them by sector, borough, postcode etc.
• About half the gardens (e.g. Gordon Square) are open to the public at other times anyway so to get the best value from your ticket it is best to concentrate on those which are not normally open. There are large numbers of these in Marylebone, South Kensington and Notting Hill.
• The best way to get around quickly between the squares is by bike. The London Cycling Campaign is organising two rides visiting gardens in Westminster and Camden on Saturday and gardens in South London on Sunday. The Open Gardens Squares Week-end website also has details of two self-guided cycle routes taking in some of the open squares in East London.
• Take advantage of some of the special activities on offer such as exhibitions, guided tours, activities for children and live music. Full details of what's on where are on the website which also provides details of free guided walks around some of the squares (you have to book for some of these).
• Not all gardens are open at all times over both days so it's worth spending a little time in advance planning what to visit when. There is a host of information on the website including details of public transport and how close other nearby gardens are.
• Finally, have fun and enjoy the experience! If you don't get to see everything you want to this year, there will almost certainly be another opportunity this time next year.

Composting workshop

Compost bins at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

According to this website, composting at home for just one year can save global warming gases equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually, or your washing machine produces in three months. However, it wasn't really the environmental reasons that persuaded me to start composting but the thought that if we produced our own compost for the garden it would save both the cost of buying it and the effort involved in lugging it home which can be abit of a pain when you don't have a car.

So a couple of months ago I took advantage of Lewisham Council's offer of a free compost bin but have never been 100% sure exactly what I should be composting and what I needed to do to it. That's why  I went along last week to one of the free composting workshops that the Council organises from time to time. I found it really useful even if the first thing I learnt was that I probably haven't put my compost bin in the best location. It is best to put it somewhere sunny as the heat speeds up the composting process but ours is tucked away in a fairly shady corner as we didn't want it anywhere too prominent in our small garden. I've decided not to go through the hassle of moving it though as our garden is something of a suntrap so it should hopefully get pretty hot anyway.

There was lots of discussion about what you should and shouldn't put in your compost. There's a useful summary of this information here. Whilst I knew most of this already, it did make me realise the need for a good mix of 'greens' (tea bags, vegetable peelings, old flowers etc) and 'browns' (cardboard, egg boxes, paper etc) to provide both nitrogen and carbon for the mix. We also learnt that urine is good for speeding up the composting process. If peeing in the compost bin doesn't appeal, nettle and dandelion leaves (but not the roots and stems) are another good accelerator or you could collect seaweed the next time you go to the beach (you need to wash the salt off first).

There are no dates advertised for further compost workshops in Lewisham but if you're interested it is worth contacting Kristina who ran the course to find out if more are planned. Kristina also runs Love Food Hate Waste workshops in the autumn which explain how to make the most of the food you buy and avoid throwing it away.

I'm not sure how many other boroughs organise similar workshops but they seem like a great idea at a time when landfill tax is increasing annually so anything that helps reduce the amount of waste going to landfill will ultimately save local authorities money.

Australian Garden at the British Museum

The British Museum is always a good option for whiling away a few spare minutes (or hours!). All of the permanent displays and many of the temporary exhibitions are free of charge and there is so much there you couldn't possibly see it all in one visit.

They are currently running an Australian Season. This includes a number of related events (film screenings, music etc) and couple of special exhibitions which open later this month - one on Australian prints and drawings and one on baskets and other containers made by indigenous Australian communities. Already opened in the Museum forecourt is an Australian landscape garden which was created in partnership with Kew. It's divided into sections to reflect the varying habitats of different parts of the continent with appropriate plants, trees and other features such as rock outcrops for each. Here are a few more pictures from my recent visit to the garden:

Summer on the South Bank

Both the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall (RFH) host regular free events (mainly live music) throughout the year but over the next few months there'll be lots more happening. The National Theatre's Watch this Space free festival has been running for a few years now and offers music, dance, circus and more in the square outside the theatre. There's not much detail available yet about this year's festival which starts on 1 July but I'm sure there'll be some interesting events on offer.

This year there is even more reason than usual to spend time around here as the South Bank Centre celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain with a 'festival of British culture and creativity' which includes a number of free performances and activities. I've already been along to a couple of events and hope to get along to several more.

 On Saturday 30th April, we took part in Billy's Big Busk with hundreds of us singing along to a range of songs led by Billy Bragg and many people also joining in on musical instruments. There were lots of guitars and a whole range of other instruments including saxophone, didgeridoo and percussion and it was great fun.

As usual Billy was good at engaging with the audience and he had a number of assistants who held up boards with the chords on to help those playing along. The songs included Billy's own (A13, A New England), old favourites (Daydream Believer) and recent hits (Adele's Rolling in the Deep). A couple getting married at the RFH that day were invited on stage to sing along to Shotgun Wedding! I only managed to take a couple of pictures as I was too busy enjoying myself but there are loads more in the link above.


We were back again last Saturday for some more music as the Magpie's Nest had organised various folk singing and dancing activities. We also spent some time exploring what else is on offer. This includes a food market behind the RFH, a beach and a series of beach huts next to the river and a garden on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. This last was my favourite. They have planted a wildflower meadow which should be wonderful when it is in bloom. There are also lots of raised beds with vegetables, soft fruit and herbs and even a cafe, so you can while a way an hour or so with a beer or coffee. When we visited it was relatively quiet up there compared to the hustle and bustle below but I guess that may change as people discover it.

There is also a Festival Museum which I plan to visit another time. The festival runs until 4 September and details of all the events are available here. This week-end the focus is on singing with a range of choral activities and the following week-end it's classical music.

It looks like it is going to be a great summer on the South Bank.