Walthamstow Flower Triangle

Aim

Transform unloved prominent patch of land from grass monoculture to biodiverse, colourful, meadow-style, pollinator-friendly flower bed

We’d love your support to help us bring biodiversity to an unloved corner of Upper Walthamstow.

NOVEMBER 2025 UPDATE:

🐞🐛🌱🪻🦟🪲🌼🌷🦋🪰

Hey everyone, we’re finally almost ready to get planting the ‘Flower Triangle’ that you kindly donated to our crowd fund quite a while ago!

If anyone would like to help out this Saturday 15th November there’s going to be plenty of jobs to do. Anytime time between *10-2pm* would be amazing. Just bring some gardening gloves, trowel and secateurs (if you have) we will have some tools to give out.

We have some really cool insects habitats being installed to the main planting area to boost biodiversity, as well as planting the main beds with a ton of flowering perennials and grasses, we’re also going to be maintaining the street to keep it from being sprayed with pesticides, tidying up the tree pits and seeding with wildflowers and bulbs for next year.

There’s also litter picking, chalking for the kids if it’s stays dry and helping to fill the habitats.

Look forward to seeing any of you there! 😍

OCTOBER 2025 UPDATE:

Dear Supporter

Great news! We finally have a community planting date for the Flower Triangle - from 10:00 onwards on SAT 15 NOV. As you know this has been a long drawn out process as our project has been delayed for 18 months due to major road works by Thames Water and TFL and then this summer’s drought and heatwave would have seriously threatened the survival the plants.

So it’s finally happening and it would be great to have some volunteers to help with planting of Laura Hogg's design to support pollinators (which has been agreed with the council). We will also combine with bulb/seed planting tree pits and a Bee Street weeding which should all have a very positive impact on our area.

As the council are providing most of the plants a significant proportion of our crowdfund budget has been allocated to bee hotels and other invertebrate habitats which will be installed the week before and also include the new bed at Avon Road. Meristem, the council garden design company will also be on site beforehand as they are responsible for Avon Road and also the new beds in the south side of UWR.

We very much hope this will be a great community event to help support wildlife and enhance the area.🌱🕷️🐝🐞🌳🌻🌼🌱🕷️🕸️🐛🦋🍁🍀🪶🪲🌸

SEPTEMBER 2025 UPDATE:

Dear Supporter

We just want to let you know that our project is on hold for just a little while longer. Thames Water carried out extensive work along Fyfield Road and Waltham Forest council which delayed our project. They originally stated that they hoped for the work to reconfigure the road junction and extend the flower bed will commence in January 2025. However there were delays and work was not finished until the early summer when we had both a heatwave and drought, which continued thereafter and would have made planting futile.

As you can imagine we can't wait to get started but have to hang on in there a little while longer and will post an update once we have a final decision from Waltham Forest Council which we believe should be very soon..

Thank you once again for your patience and support.

Bisterne Avenue Park & Surrounds Residents Association

AUTUMN 2024 UPDATE:

Dear Supporter

We just want to let you know that our project is on hold for a on hold for a while longer as Thames Water are carrying out extensive work along Fyfield Road and Waltham Forest council have stated that they hope for the work to reconfigure the road junction and extend the flower bed will commence in January 2025.

As you can imagine we can't wait to get started but have to hang on in there a little while longer and will post an update once we have a final decision from Waltham Forest Council.

Thank you once again for your patience and support.

Bisterne Avenue Park & Surrounds Residents Association

SPRING UPDATE:

Dear Supporter

We just want to let you know that our project is on hold for a while longer as Waltham Forest council and TFL are currently considering alterations to the junction of Upper Walthamstow Road and Fyfield Road with the possibility of significantly increasing the size of the Flower Triangle. If this plan goes ahead it will be amazing as our planting will be much more extensive than originally planned. If it doesn't then we will do what we set out in the crowdfund. All of this means we have to wait for the final decision, probably in a few weeks time, which means planting will need to take place in the Autumn to give the best chance for everything to survive.

However we also said we would use part of the fund to bring pollinator-friendly plants to other patches of land and we have just planted up two adopted flower beds, one of which is an edible herb garden, in nearby Bisterne Avenue Park which we hope the local community will be able to enjoy over the coming months.

We will give another Flower Triangle update once we have a final decision from Waltham Forest Council.

Thank you once again for your support.

Bisterne Avenue Park & Surrounds Residents Association

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What? The plan is simple: residents have joined forces to transform an unloved, prominent patch of land from a grass monoculture with a single tree into a biodiverse flower garden with a range of colourful, meadow- style, pollinator-friendly plants for butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects - see visualisation photo. It will provide a succession of flowers all the way through from spring to summer and autumn. During the winter months seed heads and grasses will be left to provide food and habitats as well as interest during the dormant season.

Where? Bisterne Avenue Park & Surrounds residents’ association has adopted this large (35sqM) raised bed from the Council at the junction of Upper Walthamstow Road and Fyfield Road in Upper Walthamstow. It’s just up the road from Wood Street train station, on the way to Epping Forest.

Pollinator-friendly planting The local community, with the help and advice of our resident Garden Designer, will work together to clear the grass and prepare the ground for planting with native, shade-loving wildflowers under the tree canopy and sun-loving flowers outside of this area. These will be low-maintenance and drought-resistant to maximise their chances of survival in our climate-changing weather.

Bee Friendly Street The project will really help local wildlife to thrive, especially as Upper Walthamstow Road is already designated a ‘Bee Friendly Street’ where 16 volunteers (plus children) have signed up to remove weeds in the pavement to avoid the use of herbicides (that are detrimental to insects) in the road - see photos.

Wildlife Corridor Walthamstow Flower Triangle in conjunction with the Bee Friendly Street will also help towards forming an important corridor to Epping Forest at the top of the road, connecting food and habitat stations in the area. As if all this wasn’t enough, the transformation will also give residents opportunities to make a deeper connection with nature whether by volunteering or enjoying the colourful displays and wildlife benefits ... Hopefully all of these!

Money Whatever you give, thank you so much for your donation. It will be very well spent. Resident volunteers will do the gardening, so your money goes on seeds, plants, bulbs, soil and a water roller carrier. And every £1 donated is match-funded by Aviva Community Fund... So if you can donate £10, we get an incredible £20!

Stretch goals With the surplus funds raised we hope to expand this Flower Triangle planting space. We’ll also engage more community members to help us roll-out this approach to brighten up other disused and unloved patches of land nearby and add planting to the already-adopted flower beds in Bisterne Avenue Park. In addition we would like to offer wildflower seed packets to residents in the area to create their own colourful habitat and food stations, all contributing to creating a pollinator-friendly mosaic effect which hopefully will expand and connect over time.

Thank you! Thank you so much for your support! You can find out more about BAPS at www.facebook.com/groups/ bisterne