Short version:
Photos of things in gardens and on the streets in my local area that show what grows well in urban gardens, how food can be incorporated into the front garden, how structures can be used and a couple of great ideas for making the most of your space.
E.g. It’s bananas that there is a banana tree here. I’ve not seen fruit on this tree but even it’s existence just makes me incredibly happy.
So… we moved to Streatham for a few reasons:
- It was further out of London and less polluted. This is a great link if you want live information on pollutants in your local area, right down to the individual streets. https://www.londonair.org.uk/LondonAir/nowcast.aspx
- We got much more house for the money.
- We could actually afford a garden. A real one. That has soil.
- Schools. Turns out a lot of the people who have moved to our area of Streatham have also moved for the schools.
What I didn’t realise until after we moved was how friendly the neighbourhood would be. We actually know, as in have real conversations, with people who live on our road. There’s even a Whatsapp group. I’ve even met people in 3 of the houses in the road parallel. In my 20 years of London living, I never knew such a thing was possible.
As well as the friendly natives, I absolutely love some of the gardens that I’ve seen. So today I’d like to share some of these wonderful things.
If anyone recognises any of these pictures as their property and you’d rather not have the photo up – please do let me know and I’ll take it down.
I love it when people use all the space they can, even in the walls. In the photos below, the dividing walls have planters built in:
These geraniums are not edible, but they do thrive well in the small space. Herbs would do just as well. 
A planter can ensure there is the ericaceous (acidic) soil that raspberries thrive in. 
This one has rosemary, sage, currants and bay.
I love it when people don’t resign themselves to flora-less gardens when they don’t have bare earth:
Herbs and flowers in lovely pots on a low wall 
Much of this garden was edible so I think this is taro. 
This basement flat has large hanging baskets on the wall. 
None of this is edible, but I wanted to include it because it is truly beautiful! 
Rosemary, strawberries, lavender, pansies and mint.
In these pots there is a pear tree, currants, raspberries, strawberries, chard, potatoes, tomatoes, some sort of lettuce, coriander, spinach and possibly a few other things I don’t recognise.
I’ve also seen some very clever planters:
This planter is on wheels! 
This old chest of drawers was full of dead strawberry plants. I think the problem with this is that the drawers don’t retain moisture. 
This looks like it may have been an old staircase, though the steps are very tall so it may have been purpose built for these strawberries.
Not only are there planters in the gardens but sometimes in Streatham you see planters on pavements with signs saying you can help yourself to the herbs. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of those planters, but I love that these are planters just on the streets:
These are always full of lovely flowers. 
These two (there’s another in the distance) have strawberries and an assortment of herbs
Sometimes things make it into the streets by themselves. I make a mental note of plants like these. If they seed themselves happily in cracks, then there’s no reason why I wouldn’t also be able to grow them in my own garden.
This is a melon plant of some sorts growing in a woody area. 
This is a pavement tomato
Sometimes they just spill onto the streets from the gardens.
One of these two rosemary bushes is taller than me. In summer they (and the berry bush between them) are just humming with bees. 
This lavender is taller than me too. In summer this is also a bee haven. When it’s not busy with bees, the little one and I sometimes brush our hands through it as we walk by.
Here are some more big bushes/trees. I am often surprised by how big a tree you can actually fit in London gardens if it’s slow growing enough and not too close to the building:
This is a citrus of some sorts. 
This fig tree smells amazing. 
I made a new friend when she was scrumping damsons from here. 
This is a cherry plum on the street. 
This is a hazelnut / cobb on the street too. 
There seems to be lots of figs around. This is another large one beside a bay tree. 
This might be two different apple varieties grafted onto one tree as there are red/green apples on the left and pale green on the right. 
This olive tree is laden with little green olives and the bay beside it matches it in size.
Those trees, being so large, would have taken many years to establish. There are some shorter term ways to utilise the vertical space:
This eco friendly wooden arch has, what looks like, a yellow cherry plum trained up it. 
This gate provides access to garages of two houses, so training a grape vine at this height is a fantastic non intrusive use of space. 
This passiflora growing over this gate in a shady patch has edible orange fruits. I also love the bike shed for using the space. 
This is another passiflora trained up the sunny front wall of a house. There are also currants growing below.
There’s also ways to make the most of any space lower down:
Curved wall, straight fence = space for one climbing nasturtium. 
This pathway to the front door is lined with a strawberry patch. 
Hidden behind a hedge are runner beans, peas, oregano, basil and lavender.
You can also incorporate edibles into hedging:
Olive tree hedging. 
In amongst the traditional hedging is a grape vine. 
Not exactly hedging, but this grapevine coming over the wall, if left for a couple of years, will make this whole wall green. 
An espalier trained apple tree makes an interesting edible hedge. 
This is another apple tree with less leaves so you can see the structure when it’s been trained.
Of course my favourite option is to go all out and just grow edibles in the front garden.
There is passiflora over the front of the house, artichokes, tomatoes, gooseberries and sorrel as well as a whole load of flowers. There’s probably other edibles that I didn’t spot too. I decided that chasing my 4 year old to ensure her safety was kinda more important than being inquisitive.
A whole garden of raspberries and roses. 
The raspberries have escaped via underground runners and have made these bonus plants through paving cracks.
A garden full of kale.
In the local park there is a children’s centre and they’re growing tomatoes with raspberries hiding behind them. In the same garden there are also plenty of herbs. Opposite the garden, in the park, there have been some apple, pear and cherry trees planted this year.
These photos (so far) are all just things you can see from the road so I love to imagine that there’s a plethora of BACK gardens in the area that hide edible treasures and ingenious gardening ideas. Of course I couldn’t get photos without trespassing and probably jail time. I don’t think the defence ‘I’m just really really nosy’ would stand up in court. However… there was a 5th birthday party in a centre that had a fantastic vegetable patch in the back that excited me much more than the bouncy castle!
In this garden there were tomatoes and nasturtiums…. 
…sweetcorn, runner beans, borage, calendula, onions, radishes and brassicas.
Finally, just to show that I don’t have a one track mind and can also appreciate a good wild flower meadow:
Actually… I think I might be lying. I love this wild flower meadow because it’s great for bees…and well…. bees are important for anyone who wants to grow their own food. Turns out I really do just have a one track mind. It’s not dirty, but it does think about the composition of dirt quite a bit.
Not a Horticulturist 