Spring Tour of West London

Spring has sprung at Energy Garden! From colourful blooms to lush shades of green, here's a quick pit stop across our network of green spaces this spring, focusing on some of our west London spaces.

The first stop has to be at Ebury Edge's greenhouse where we grow our (mostly) annual plants that then go off to the different gardens.

The team was busy from as early as February sowing seeds of different edible and ornamental plants, including aubergine, artichoke, tomatoes, strawflowers, cucumbers, teasels, kale, a variety of beans, and of course, the humble (and stunning) rainbow chard. We're particularly excited for squash varieties such as Tuffy and a variety of purple sweetcorn, purple Perliti.

The second stop is Brondesbury Park, the pioneering garden in our network.

Here, the group of volunteers has been direct sowing carrot, kale, pea, parsnip, spinach, chard and leek from March through to May - and we're already seeing the benefits, with a regular supply of spinach and mustard greens to cleanse our palate for a late spring filled with cordials, jams and other foraged floral creations - already kicking-off with wisteria jelly, courtesy of one of our volunteers, Janice. Oh and a shout-out to our new bug snugs (spring is a great time to build habitats for our fellow invertebrate garden residents).

Over to the Brondesbury Park orchard in platform 1, ground cover has given us a constant supply of colour, with ox-eye daisies dominating the landscape at the moment (early May).

Just two stops down the line, westbound, we get off at Willesden Junction, where several years of consistent bulb planting and wildflower sowing efforts are really showing in the main part of the garden, the Mound.

The meadow patches sown as part of Bloom Junction in 2025 offer new surprises each week - blue cornflowers, red poppies, orange marigolds, and so many more! Many of these will self-seed and replenish the slopes of the Mound with colour for the coming years, attracting pollinators (and new volunteers!).

The mix of managed and more wild patches in the Mound make-up a magical mosaic of colour, transitioning from celandine-covered ground in early spring for a beautiful addition of yellow, all the way through the blooms of our apple and pear trees in late March, and now a purple rain of alliums, irises and ceanothus.

Last stop is at Acton Central, where we were generously donated 6 new containers by the construction team behind a new waiting room and toilets in the station.

As a result, the group has been hard at work tearing rotting containers apart and replacing with new ones, filling these with soil and compost and planting them up (no small feat!). New residents in the garden range from attractive Fatsias and artichokes, to choisyas, fragrant sarcococca and alternating white pelargoniums with orange marigolds in the hanging containers for an Overground-themed design.

New container at Acton Central

Alliums and irises

As spring gathers pace and rolls into summer, our gardens are bursting with life. Bees are back from hibernation and returning to our gardens — just as our gardening groups are back in full swing across the network.

We’d love to welcome you into the garden, whether you’re keen to learn, lend a hand, or simply spend some time outdoors in good company.

We hope to see you in the gardens this growing season!