Category Archives: Digs

Some more little gardens…

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While Chelsea flower show might be in full swing (my invite is obviously still in the mail…) so are my little gardens. I headed out today with my friend Stephanie Wolff from London Insight, to create some little beauties. I thought I’d post a few – more are on the way shortly.

As you can see the gardens at Chelsea aren’t the only gardens in London that are having issues with the wind…

Pothole garden East London Guerilla Gardening Steve Wheen Chelsea Flower Show

Pothole garden East London Guerilla Gardening Steve Wheen Chelsea

Pothole garden East London Guerilla Gardening Steve Wheen Phone Box

Pothole garden East London Guerilla Gardening Steve Wheen Clothes Line

Pothole garden East London Guerilla Gardening Steve Wheen All garden

OK so this last one isn’t a pothole garden, more of a wall garden :)

The very kind folks over at PG Tips have given me some tickets (two pairs) to BBC Gardeners’ World Live, which is taking place from the 15th – 19th June at Birmingham NEC. It’s all sponsored by PG Tips in aid of their new range of New Ones.

If you’re keen for these tickets, just drop me an email – thepotholegardener@yahoo.com with PG Tips in the subject line, along with your name and I’ll randomly choose two winners on the 9th of June.

Good luck!

A little pothole veggie garden…

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Here’s my latest little garden. It’s a little bit different to my other Garden’s as there’s no mini-furniture, or even flowers (I know it’s not the prettiest but it has a purpose!).

I’ve been inspired by recent projects such as The Green Line and Landshare, and so decided to create a mini-vegetable patch.

The kind folk over at Urban-Allotments posted me some bits and pieces (I’ve never received plants in the mail, but why not!) and here is my mini-veggie patch with lettuce. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes :)

Hopefully I’ll be eating a salad with lettuce leaves from my pothole garden later this summer!

Pothole veggie garden

Oh, and to whoever stole my bike a few weeks back, I hope you’re taking good care of her.

A new garden

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I headed out last weekend for some more gardening – this time with journalist Hanna Welin.

Here are the results, enjoy!


And, yes I’m addicted to the Hipstamatic app on my iphone :)

A Royal Wedding garden part 2

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I blogged yesterday about my adventures with Kate McAuley over in the Queen’s postcode creating a little garden to celebrate the upcoming royal wedding.

Well, we shot a wee video and here it is. Enjoy!

Thanks again to Kate McAuley you can check out her work on I am not a celebrity and Weather to Wear.

A pothole garden fit for a king (to be)

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This morning I headed over to Pimlico. Now for those of you who know me, to date my pothole gardens have mainly been around East London. So why Pimlico I hear you ask…

Well I headed over to the Queen’s postcode to meet Kate McAuley, of I am not a celebrity and Weather to Wear, to create a little garden to celebrate the royal wedding!

Here is my little garden. Good luck to Will and Kate (my invite must have been lost in the mail…).

Royal Pothole garden

Royal Pothole garden

Royal Pothole garden

Royal Pothole garden

Royal Pothole garden

I will post the video when it’s finished.

Oh, and I’m on twitter too!

A pothole from Mexico

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I was recently sent this picture along with the note:

Whilst driving on Mexico’s Yucatan highway 261 between Dzibalchen and Xpuhil in the Campeche region we hit this massive pothole.  As a result we lost our hub cap which after a bit of searching we managed to retreive (along with two others found only metres apart).  I thought this would be a great addition for your site.  I think the pot holes here are more enormous than London can produce.  We were fortunate some of the 3 wheel bikes that are used by the locals to get between their crops / farms and home were not in the oncoming path of our hub cap missile.

Now that is a pothole (with a very artistic head). Thanks so much for sending that to me, I do love getting mail!

Speaking of getting stuff in the mail I was stoked to get a copy of this book recently, and was even more delighted to read a section on my pothole gardening!

The book, Growing Vegetables, Flowers, Fruits, and Herbs From Containers is available from Atlantic publishing.

My biggest one yet…

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Just around the corner of my house, this hole in the pavement has been annoying me…it’s huge, check it out!

It’s so huge, in fact, that I decided I couldn’t tackle it alone, so I enlisted some help! The Homebase team very generously helped me out by supplying all the compost and plants for this dig, my biggest yet!

This must be one of the biggest potholes in London!

pothole gardener homebase

As usual I ended up with a bunch of spectators who were not quite sure how to take the garden in progress!

Pizza delivery guy whizzing past…





From above

Pothole garden homebase

Here’s the final garden.

Stay tuned for my next garden – I’m heading out with my friend Kate from i am not a celebrity and partner in crime in Weather to Wear (our fashion forecast based on the weather) to bring you a Will and Kate royal wedding special!

Thanks again to Homebase, who provided all the tools and materials to create this garden! You can shop online and buy everything you need for your garden (big or small…), from plants and compost through to garden furniture and greenhouses.

Ranunculus in shoreditch

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The sunny weekend in London inspired me to head up to Columbia road markets and do some gardening. I found a nice new home for these ranunculus just near Arnold Circus in Shoreditch.

Thanks to Tom my new gardening buddy for his help!

Enjoy :)

 

 

A little bloom to brighten up the gloom…

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To help brighten up an otherwise fairly gloomy weekend, I created my latest little garden around the corner from Wilton’s Music Hall.

The kind folk supplying flowers online, Interflora, have offered their support to my blog by giving away 3 fantastic treats from their flower shops (check out the goodies  here, here and here) to subscribers of the pothole gardener. 3 people who have subscribed to this blog will be chosen at random and sent one of the items before Mother’s Day! Simply subscribe to this blog by entering your email address in the box on the right hand side of this page and I’ll post up the winners names on the 30th of March and you’ll get your flowers delivered before Mother’s Day.

Spring is in the air!

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It’s been so chilly lately that gardening hasn’t been on the top of my list of things to do I have to say. But with the recent warmish weather I’ve been inspired to get back out and hit the streets armed with a load of bulbs and some compost.

On yesterdays dig I was joined by Wendy Hurrell and the lovely crew from Inside London and we ventured to Sutton in South London where there is certainly no shortage of potholes.

More pictures to follow shortly!

A Winter Garden

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I recently headed out on a dig with a French TV crew for some guerilla gardening…it was load of fun – they sure were up for an adventure.

I snapped my latest little garden right before it was rundown :(

(I’m totally addicted to the hipstamatic app on my iphone!)

A winter garden

Here’s an excerpt from my recent interview for a German TV channel that I did earlier in the year…

 

Whitechapel is sporting a new little garden!

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My recent little garden is in support of the Aussie Cricket team…

Cricket Anyone?

Cricket Anyone?

I added some Pansies to this garden in support of The Pansy Project. They recently had their facebook page taken down for some unknown reason – to learn more check out their site: The Pansy Project.

I was recently sent these photos too which I wanted to post, check out this great effort from Riga!

Sunshine!

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My latest creation to celebrate the recent sunshine!

The recent amazing sunshine inspired my latest little garden.

It seems pothole gardens are popping up everywhere, check these awesome pictures just in from Latvia, Riga here! Great stuff! (I do apologize for previously saying it was in Russia!)

Living Streets

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In Today’s intermittent sunshine Rabea, Fred and Magnus joined me on my latest dig, well digs – we planted 3 little numbers. I don’t want to reveal all the pics from the digs just yet – but I did want to post a taster below, just snapped on my iphone.

In many ways, this blog is about bringing the streets to life. If you enjoy this blog and the photographs, why not think about donating to Living Streets? It’s a charity who work to create better streets and whose campaigning and policy work relies strongly on individual donations. I’m sure they’d be grateful for any amount of money people can contribute. You can learn more here, or donate directly here.

Dig 10

Dig 11

2 new digs, 8 & 9!

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Yesterday was quite a busy day and I managed to complete 2 new digs, both with some company! It seems that my blog has caught the attention and imagination of the press…it’s been a little overwhelming to say the least.

A BBC news crew joined me on Dig 8. I headed up past Old Street to dig this small pothole. Here’s the finished pothole with the cameraman…

Dig 8 with BBC cameraman!

And the finished pothole about to meet it’s destiny…

Dig 8....almost run over!

Dig 9 was back in my old favourite pothole just off Commercial Street. I was joined by Sally, a lovely journalist from ITV.

Dig 9

These photos aren’t as good as Al’s work, but I’ll keep trying!

If you’re into guerrilla gardening (and into pothole gardening) check out some of my contemporaries work, including 2 more pothole gardeners I’ve come across here!

Dig 6

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Dig 6…

So in today’s wonderful, wonderful sunshine I came across this little pothole in the middle of Seward Street.

Seward Street

Here are some pictures from the dig…(I was alone so no work in progress shots!)

Dig 6...

Dig 6...One lone purple Aubrieta 'Kitte' brightening up Seward street

On my way home, I found this beauty just off Commercial Street. Stay tuned for my next installment…

My next victim...

5th Dig – North View Road

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Here’s some pics from my 5th Dig, next to North View Road in North London.  Design by Al!

I used some more delicate plants on this dig, as we hoped our little garden might survive a little longer on the footpath!

5th pothole garden in progress...

5th pothole garden in progress...

5th pothole garden in progress...

5th pothole garden almost complete...

5th Dig - with props!