Watermans Park - Community Garden

This survey closed on 14 March 2024, please see the report under 'Community Garden Responses Report' for details. In total there were responses from 36 people. The Council would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your participation in this process.

All responses have been read in detail and will be taken into consideration as part of any future plans for the site. If you have any further comments or questions regarding this site, please do feel free to contact us directly. 

You can also email parks@hounslow.gov.uk for any comments, questions, or repair requests regarding the site. 

The FoWP's vision is to create a beautiful space in the park that promotes health, wellbeing, sustainability, and community friendships.

The aim of the garden is to:

• Help social integration through interaction and inclusion
• Develop partnerships and networks with local schools, organisations, businesses and the Council
• Increase environmental awareness through gardening and growing skills
• Offer enjoyable green, open spaces in a sustainable, accessible and adaptable area
• Focus on sustainability of programmes and initiatives over the longer term

Some benefits of community gardening include:

• Providing important habitats for wildlife
• Creating opportunities for community growing to support local charities
• Workshops for school children and adults to promote greater understanding, new skills and inclusion all-year round
• Increased social interactions and community cohesion
• Improving residents’ and visitors’ physical and mental health
• Enhancing the park’s status as a destination space

The community garden could include:

• An open area; not fenced and/or gated
• Accessibility for all
• An outdoor planting area boasting raised beds and tubs for planting
• Encouraging vertical planting, use of pergolas, and flower beds
• Informal seating for everyone visiting to enjoy the garden
• Space for artworks, or heritage assets from the river to be displayed
• A potential mosaic / artwork to be incorporated into the pavement
• Compost, wormery, insect hotels, water storage, tools storage

Summary of results

The local community expressed a strong preference for supporting a community garden, recognising that it would enhance the park.  London Borough of Hounslow will support the Friends of Watermans Park in creating a community garden subject to funding.

• Out of the 36 respondents, 34 expressed they would support creating a community garden in Watermans Park and 35 agreed with the preliminary (draft) vision.   
• In the survey, respondents were asked to rank potential features in terms of preference. Notably, space for artwork and heritage features emerged as the favourite, receiving 30 votes. The second choice was for raised beds and vertical planting.  The majority of respondents had a preference for the community garden to be fenced for protection.
• 44% of those who responded would like to be involved in establishing a community garden in the park.

Alongside the online survey pupils from The Green Dragon Primary School were asked to share their ideas and submitted some wonderful drawings of what they would like to see in the garden.

Next Steps –  Message from the Friends of Watermans Park

'We are really pleased with the overwhelming support for the creation of a community garden in the park from those who completed the survey.  We also have strong support from children at Green Dragon Primary School who shared their wonderful designs full of ideas of how to creative a beautiful garden with us which will also be an important additional resource for the school.  We will now be able to gather a group of people together who are interested in getting involved and apply for grant funding with the help of Cultivate London to make the garden a reality.

 We have also taken note of the comments in the survey about what people like about the park and how it could be improved.

We will maintain a mailing list of those who expressed an interest in being involved with the community garden. This data will only be used for the purpose of contacting you regarding the community garden as a result of this survey.'