Heading into 2026 the Committee intends to repeat it’s 2025 policy of modest, rather than past-ambitious, enhancements. This year’s lean budget not only reflects the rapid changes made to the Garden over recent years (see 2023 Outgoing Committee Recap and News section for more), but also the ongoing constraint of operating such a large Garden in central London (1.6) acres, with so few ratepayers (116).
We will continue to try and deliver all projects for the best possible price, and ensure where we do make structural change, there is a clear business case both in terms of improving ratepayers benefit/use/utility of the Garden, and reducing our ongoing maintenance costs.
The Committee would like to thank ratepayers for their ongoing support in these endeavours.
Yours Sincerely,
The Gloucester Square Garden Committee
Jump to a specific section:
January - Planning & Removal of Christmas Lights
—
February - Plant Orders
—
March - Planting and Irrigation Upgrades
—.
We hope that the irrigation system, which undoubtedly is the to Garden’s benefit, though required substantial investment during the 2010s, will finally start living up to its potential in 2026. Over the last 4 years substantial effort has been made to document the system, remove superfluous hardware, and train the gardeners and garden caretakers in how to control and maintain all aspects of irrigation.
The last problem that remains is blow outs along the drip pipes. Drip pipes are invaluable as unlike pop-up sprayers, they are approved for ongoing use during a Hosepipe ban, however they are vulnerable to blowouts whereby pipes split, or connectors are pulled apart. Such blow outs cause large volumes of water to flow out into the bed from the irrigation tanks, not only damaging that bed, but also causing the irrigation system to run-out-of water before it reaches the following beds.
This challenge is compounded by just how poor most Irrigation Controllers on the market are.
- They typical only allow up to 6 programmes , and do not allow for zones to be run in anything other than a sequential numeric basis (the order they are wired into the controller).
- The Garden has 22 zones, and the existing controller only allows programmes (meaning each programme must run 5-6 zones each)
- Under the existing controller, the higher-numbered drip pipe zones (forced to run later in any given programme) frequently do not receive enough water owing to blowouts
April - Irrigation Commissioning, Spring Planting, Bird Baths & Signage
—
May - Final Cutout and Other Tidying
—
June - Open Days
In 2024 we joined the London Open Gardens Event for the first time in over a decade. Our Garden was one of the more popular Gardens among the 100+ participating, with 300 visitors touring Gloucester Square. Last year we enrolled in the London Open Gardens once again, and too our pleasant surprise, drew a similar number of guests to the year before.
In 2026 we will be continuing our participation in the London Open Gardens event, this time on Sunday June 7th between 10am – 5pm.
A note on unapproved events and unaccompanied use of the garden by non-occupiers (i.e. not ratepayers or their assured tenants):
Unfortunately last year the Open Gardens weekend was detracted-from by both an unapproved resident event on the preparation day, and an unapproved non-resident event on the afternoon of the Open Garden Day itself (where the event hosts claimed to be family members of a resident who would be attending imminently, a manifest falsehood).
Whilst the committee have issued fines in both cases, and a final warning to the keyholder responsible for the latter event, we want to be clear that any unapproved events attempted in the days prior-to or during the Open Garden weekend will be immediately shutdown, and run a high risk of ratepayer suspensions / fines. Per the Rules and Events sections of this website (also signposted in the garden) any gathering of 15 or more people (18 months old or older) is considered an event and requires the advanced permission of the Committee.
Residents are also reminded that use of the garden is strictly for Occupiers (a defined term under the Estate Management Scheme / Leases, broadly meaning the ratepayer or their assured Tenant) and their accompanied guests. Facilitating the unaccompanied use of the Garden by non-occupiers (with no contractual right to use, nor paying for, the garden) is not only a breach of contract, but could fall foul of Section 11 of the Fraud Act (2006): Obtaining Services Dishonestly.
July - Some Peace and Quiet
—
August - Nutrient Recylcing Facilities
Ladbroke Square Leaf Mulch – © Garden Square News, Fall 2024
Those who read the latest issue of Garden Square News may well have seen an article on the Leaf Mulch Pile maintained by Ladbroke Square with commentary from their highly regarded Head Gardener – Nevil Capil (formerly head Gardener for the equally exceptional Eccleston Square).
As Nevil eludes-to in the article – a lot of squares get leaf-mulching wrong, especially with regards to the primary source of leaves – Plane Trees. These leaves are large, thick and resistent to decomposing. Piling them up as they fall simply creates a pile of leaves that fail to decompose, and attract insects/vermin.
The solution is to blend the leaves before attempting to mulch them. This not only significantly reduces the volume of leaves (up to 10-to-1 reduction), it also greatly speeds up the decomposition of the Plane Tree leaves, and reduces the propensity for vemin to nest in the pile.
If done correctly, mulching a significant proportion of the gardens leaves would provide us with c.3,000 litres of leaf mulch ready for each spring. That would go a long way to arresting the annual decline in soil nutrients that we are currently experiencing, and allow us to reduce and eventually perhaps even eliminating the cost of buying-in the make-up nutrients.
Locations for (non-permanent) Leaf Mulching bins around the Garden are currently being reviewed, as is the ability to purchase an electric leaf mulching machine capable of handling the volume of Plane Tree Leaves we experience.
September/October - Bulb Planting & Targetted Leaf Collection
As we move into the fall the focus of the Gardeners and Caretakers will be planting for the following spring, this will mainly be focused on bulbs around the trees and in the central bed. We will not be removing and storring bulbs between seasons as it is not economically sensible given the labour costs. Instead bulbs will be replaced on a bed-by-bed basis where they thin out over time.
To free up Gardener and Garden Caretaker time, we will be continuing the successful policy of reducing leafblowing during the winter, especially during good weather, where we focus energies on horticulture rather than maintaining a neurotically-tidy space.
Leaves are only collected from the lawn (where they might cause browning), and (albeit less frequently) from the path. Leaves falling in the flowerbeds are left in position for less frequent bulk collections.
November/December - Festive Lights
In November we will be focusising efforts on preparing the Garden for our seasonal Festive Light display.
