Zen and the art of pond maintenance

[OpinioN8 Administrator]

Here is a truly lovely suggestion from one of our LibDem councillors. I saw the workmen, brutally, as I thought, removing the growth from this pond, but as the start of a refurbishment perhaps they were doing the right thing. I take immense pleasure in my own pond and would love to see this one revitalised.

The Hornsey Library Zen Garden - Can you help?

One of the hidden gems of Crouch End is the Zen Garden that nestles in the middle of Hornsey Library on Haringey Park.
 
The library was opened in 1965 and this courtyard garden was created as an ornamental centre piece with the potential for community and educational use.
 
Over the years it has been seldom used and has become rather neglected. Recently the Library Service tackled the massive job of clearing out the pond, thus revealing the shape of the original structure.
 
The Garden has the potential to be a place of relaxation and reflection, for story telling sessions for children, for low impact exercise and yoga classes, poetry readings and lots of other activities.
 
Then there is the gardening: we will need volunteers who fancy the creative opportunity (and exercise!) of getting the garden back into shape and maintaining it.
 
I have been visiting the Garden to meet Tony Wilson, the senior librarian at Hornsey, and both of us would like to set up a group to bring the space back into use and run it for the benefit of library users and the wider community.
 
We will be holding an informal meeting to show the garden to those interested in contributing time to the project and discussing how best to get this started.
 
We will meet in the library at 6:00 pm on Thursday 15th August 
 
If you would like to talk about this in advance, give me a call on 020 8292 5509 or email [e-mail]. Please drop me a line so I can know what sort of numbers to expect.
 
Regards,
 
David Winskill
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Crouch End

[Adrian Essex]

An update from Councillor Winskill

Dear All

 

 

We had a really good turnout last night with a dozen people coming along to share ideas and thoughts about the garden. There is a great deal of enthusiasm for the project and, clearly, some talented designers and able gardeners in the group.

 

We even came up with a working title - Friends of Zen!  But, as I said in my previous email, nothing is yet cast in stone so the project is just at the starting point of deciding what we want to do to and with the space.

 

There was a general feeling that we want to preserve the Zen feel, but that the space needs a really good tidy up and weeding .

 

To get this going, we agreed to meet next Saturday week -   24 AUGUST AT 11.00 AM - to get stuck into a clean up day: everyone welcome. We're going to shift some weeds, pull up some dead plants, power wash the paving stones and collect rubbish.

 

This will give everyone the chance to meet and chat and also try make some decisions about the way forward.

 

I hope you can come - please try and bring some gardeners' gloves, an old screwdriver, a trowel and perhaps something to kneel on.

 

 

 

David

 

 

PS Local website Opinion8 is carrying some really good photographs  http://opinion8.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=2xgptnznjjdvi