Imagine a garden on the 10th floor of a tower block. Not possible surely..?!

Yes it is! I put a lot of effort into tower-block gardening at my London council flat, with many plants brought back from Devon – with mixed success.

---

I was never a ‘gardener’ as such although I love plants and gardens. Living on the 10th floor of a tower block rather limits what is possible, but I made the best of what I had. My inspiration came from other tenants on the estate who knew more about gardening than me and who had amazing gardens of their own, whether on the 7th floor or the 15th!

These were the first tower blocks built in London and consequently were amongst the best in terms of architecture and construction standards; this was before corners were cut in local authority tower block design and build.

Balconies were 9 metres wide, being the full width of the flat with two 3m bedrooms and one 3m-wide living room. The middle bedroom was smaller allowing a greater depth of balcony, with doors onto the balcony from the larger bedroom and the living room. There was also a kitchen balcony shared with your neighbour but there was no access to this from the flat.

A sample of balcony garden photographs from the 1980’s and 1990’s

Click on an image to view full-screen.

I attempted to grown the most common and well-known palm tree in Devon – Trachycarpus Fortunei – but it did not do well, even with two or three attempts with different plants. I thought the ‘false palm’ – Cordyline Australis – often referred to as a ‘palm’ by Devonians who should know better – would do well, but I was wrong. Without knowing for sure I think the major problem for these plants was the wind-driven rain, which can be quite ferocious 10 stories up.

I had more luck with hanging baskets and was particularly taken with a tree-like shrub – Rhus – which had bright red leaves for much of the year. Perhaps surprisingly, the agave pictured above survived for many years, and in fact I brought it down to Devon with me when I moved in 2004.

Until I scanned these old negatives I had forgotten that for some years I had outdoor speakers attached to the balcony wall. They were great for a bit of background music and I managed to get quite a bit of reading done on sunny days.

So there you go. And I bet there are many people out there who did not believe that council tenants living in tower blocks could have gardens!

#BrandonEstate #towerblock #garden #plants #London