MetGrow STAGE 3: The Wildflower Garden!

There is a way that nature speaks; that land speaks.
Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough,
to pay attention to the story.

Linda Hogan.
American poet, environmentalist and academic.

Yesterday I built a raised bed to use as the container for the Metgrow wild flower garden. Originally I wanted the bed to be placed on the area where the greenhouse installation was for the last three months. However, on consulting the manager of the building, I decided that it would not be an appropriate location due to the fact that it may be too exposed to accident (see "Disaster" post) When the greenhouse was damaged, it was simple to fix, however I want this garden to stay in one piece so as to not disturb the plants as they fill the raised bed in the next few weeks. The small wildflower garden can be found tucked in a sunny corner which people can enjoy as they sit on the tables surrounding it.
I really like how small it looks in comparison to the rest of the surrounding buildings. It looks so fragile, which is indicative of their 'story' so far, to quote Linda Logan. It was amazing talking to the participants of the event who were so surprised that anything had grown in the greenhouse. The raised bed has been filled with the forty plants and looks great so far. I hope that over the coming weeks and with the right weather conditions, the wildflowers will begin to fill out and bloom. At the moment the garden looks very new and the plants look so small. It acts as a metaphor for hope and a reminder that nature and life will find a way to manifest itself even through the most unusual of circumstances. Linda Logan's quote above speaks of people not being 'patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story' of nature. I hope now that this garden will act as a reminder to the people in the building that the process of a seed germinating and becoming a fully fledged plant takes time, but it will happen. You can't control it like we can with so many other aspects of our 21st century lives. We have developed a culture of being used to immediacy: fast food, the Internet, convenience products etc, that this wildflower garden serves to remind us that the simplest of acts, planting a seed, takes a slow, natural pace. This project is entirely time based. Its such a simple process, and so many people did not think that the seeds would grow: which indicates how perhaps people who live in a city are unfamiliar with growing things and being in touch with nature.
Mohandas K. Gandhi once said "To forget how to dig the earth and tend to the soil is to forget ourselves."
I want to encourage more people to remember themselves through this process of planting. To not forget the small pleasures in life whilst working so hard in an office surrounded by deadlines, quotas and meetings. There is more to life than that. If I can hold an event where people simply rip up a metro newspaper embedded with seeds, house the pots in a greenhouse on a rooftop in the middle of London, then getting back in touch with nature can be done anywhere, with or without access to a garden space.

Metgrowth (week 7) - photographs

Here are some recently taken photographs of the wildflowers which have successfully grown from the seed infused Metro newspapers whilst in the greenhouse installation in Knightsbridge. On Tuesday 26th May, I decided to take the installation down, and move the plants onto a sheltered area on the roof where they could ajust to the change in climate, and become more hardy. In gardening terms, this is known as "hardening off."
My camera has gone missing with the origional photographs of the taking down of the greenhouse so I am afraid I cannot show you that. However, I hope these images will give you an idication of the final wildflower garden which I will be putting up later today with a tribute to David.
More photos to follow shortly.

MetGrow Garden will be dedicated to a dear friend.

On Monday 25th May 2009, a dear friend of mine, David Douthwaite, tragically passed away. Not only was he a wonderful and talented person whom I looked up to enormously in the agency, but he was also the one person who organised for me to obtain permission to put my Metgrow greenhouse on the roof terrace of JWT. He always believed in me and my work. Any time I had doubts about my project or concerns about people's responses in the building, which was frequently in the beginning, (see 'The only thing growing, is doubt.' post,) he was always there to reassure me and boost my confidence again, telling me not give up on my ideas, and to just give it time. He was the man who motivated and encouraged me on through this whole experience and was the driving force behind it's success.

I have therefore decided to dedicate the wildflower garden to him. My sense of loss will never go away but I will always be able to look back with happy memories of a dear friend who wanted me to succeed and always went out of his way to help me. I count myself truly fortunate to have known such a man who gave his time freely without any wish for personal gain. He was so very special.
The flowers which have grown from my seed infused newspapers are a testament to his never failing optimism and belief that my project would succeed.
He was right, and I couldn't have done it without him.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake

David you will be so missed.

Metgrowth (Week 7)

The plants are looking great, and with instructions from Paul the JWT gardener, I decided that they were big enough to be moved out of the greenhouse and into cooler air, ready to be planted in a raised bed later in the week. The reason I did not do this sooner was to ensure their survival by making sure there was no chance of frost as it is now late May, and also to allow them to have grown to become substantial enough to survive the transition.
The pots which have not sprouted any seedlings have also been moved as well. I did not want to throw their contents away, but instead, gathered all of the soil and newspapers from each one and put them in a larger plant pot. Who knows, maybe they will still grow!
I think the reason why some of the pots did not grow anything is partly because early in the project, I moved the few pots with small seedlings in (see post 'Metgrowth week 1') onto self-watering trays. These pots were placed in trays filled with water to ensure that they were continually moist, a perfect environment for small seedlings. I was trying to preserve them as best as I could, knowing that they might not get as much water as they should due to people in the building forgetting about them. I did not think that people would actually want to come and water the seedlings!
Therefore, the other pots which had not shown any sign of life, were subsequently forgotten about and dried up because the people from the office who came and looked after the greenhouse only watered those which they could see were showing signs of growing in the trays.
It is a shame that the whole greenhouse was not filled with seedlings, but there are fourty pots which are doing really well and I am alreadt looking forward to planting them together to form Stage 3 of the project: the display of the wildflower garden.
Originally, I had intended to plant the seedlings in around 50 individual decorative vases and place them where the greenhouse has been standing. I wanted to completely cover the concrete slab in the center of the lawn in wildflowers. However, during the project's development that this original idea for 'Stage 3' cannot come to fruition, because the agency needs the space for another event coming soon. Besides as a student I cannot afford 50 ornamental garden pots!
So, bearing in mind the changes in the original plan, I have had a rethink about what to do with the seedlings now that they are out of the greenhouse.
I did not want to leave them in the fragile signed pots as they could be easily damaged and may even blow away! I have decided to plant them all together in a raised bed which I ordered last week. This will unite the seedlings and look more like a garden area, and will give the piece a real unity. I also have a plan to put named plant tags next to the seedlings, each name corresponding with the name on the pot so that the participants from the event can see whose plants survived this 3 month project! In uniting the plants like this, I still want to maintain a sense of individual endeavour where one pot represents one person in the agency. I intend to achieve this though tagging the seedlings - a named pot will be replaced by a named tag!
I will post my photographs of the removal of the greenhouse and the week's growth progress as soon as possible. It seems someone has taken a shine to my camera and I appear to have misplaced it...
I will be going into Knightsbridge as soon as the raised bed is delivered and I will of course be taking more photographs (hopefully when I am reunited with my camera!) of the seedling's transfer from pot to raised bed.
I will keep you updated.

Metgrowth (Week 6): Recontextualising weeds.

Here are some photos, taken today, showing the progress of my MetGrow installation on the roof top terrace of 1 Knightsbridge Green, London. I am really pleased with the progress and happy to report that the plant pots seem to be being taken care of by people who work in the building during the week. I spoke to the gardener last week who mentioned that by the end of May we should be thinking about moving the seedlings out of the greenhouse and either into a raised bed or larger pots, to allow them to continue to grow and develop their flowers. A lot of the seedlings seem to be wild grasses and people who have talked to me about the progress of the seedlings seem to think that they are weeds, and not wildflowers at all!
The reason I chose wildflower seeds to embed in my Metro newspapers was for that exact purpose. It seems apt that these plants which, when found growing wild in an urban environment, and considered 'weeds', are nurtured and sheltered in a greenhouse. Greenhouses to me bring to mind the growing and careful monitoring of precious plants which are not used to our British climate, such as Tomatoes and Orchids. To now be carefully growing what these office workers are calling "weeds" adds another element to my installation, as well as another juxtaposition. In the countryside, these flowers grow wild on the road side, but of course, modern city life dictates that these plants are unwanted and disrupt clean smooth urban forms. In fact, when faced with a 'weed' poking from your flagged garden, you would pull it out to restore the design. I enjoy the whole notion of human interference with nature; you see an unsightly plant, you pull it out.
But what is a weed?

Wikipedia defines weeds as such:
A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and is normally applied to unwanted plants in human-made settings such as gardens, lawns or agricultural areas, but also in parks, woods and other natural areas. More specifically, the term is often used to describe native or nonnative plants that grow and reproduce aggressively.

Generally, a weed is a plant in an undesired place.

Weeds may be unwanted for a number of reasons: they might be unsightly, or crowd out or restrict light to more desirable plants or use limited nutrients from the soil. They can harbour and spread plant pathogens which infect and degrade the quality of crop or horticultural plants. Some weeds are a nuisance because they have thorns or prickles, some have chemicals that cause skin irritation or are hazardous if eaten, or have parts that come off and attach to fur or clothes.

The term weed in its general sense is a subjective one, without any classification value, since

a "weed" is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted.

Indeed, a number of "weeds" have been used in gardens or other cultivated-plant settings. An example is the Corncockle, Agrostemma, which was a common field weed exported from Europe along with wheat, but now sometimes grown as a garden plant.^[2]

Who is to say if nature should be subjected to being wanted/not wanted? It seems that we have an uncanny need to want to control and contain nature in picking and choosing the plants which suit our situation. I want to restore value to these "weeds" in my greenhouse. Hopefully people who have seen their slow and steady growth in the greenhouse and who have noticed their fragility, will realise that they are not weeds at all. It is interesting to note that if any of these plants growing in my greenhouse were found poking from the paving slabs on the roof terrace, the gardener would also most probably pull them out. By putting these plants in a different context, I am giving them a heightened value. I have recontextualised weeds!

To quote the article above, "A weed is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted" and I certainly want these wildflowers to continue to grow in my greenhouse on the roof terrace of JWT!

So, weeds or not, whatever your view, they are wanted in my installation.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet:

"What is a weed?
A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered"

My Website!

I have decided to design and produce a website to work alongside my project. This will include all of my photographic documentation from start to finish as well as a live web feed directly to the greenhouse so visitors will be able to monitor the seedling's growth on a daily basis instead of just relying on my weekly visits.
I hope that this will make the installation more inclusive and will use the internet as a way of making the work more publically engaged. I will also be setting up a seedling orphanage, where members of the public who did not participate in the event will be able to adopt a seedling in a pot without a name. They will be able to offer advice and suggestions concerning their adopted seedling's maintenance and also suggest what they would like to see happen to it once it is out of the greenhouse.
I am really looking forward to seeing the final product and hope you are as excitet about this new addition to Metgrow as I am!

www.metgrow.co.uk

Check it out and in a few weeks, you can get involved!

Metgrowth (Week 5)

I saw the gardener today to talk to him about the progress of my little seedlings' . I was not sure how long they needed to be inside the greenhouse before I will be able to combine the plants in larger more substantial pots which will form my wildflower garden. Hopefully once the plants are in a larger pot, they will continue to grow into stronger and more weather resistant flowers, ready to be enjoyed throughout the summer months on the roof terrace.
The gardener informed me that to ensure best results, planting the seedlings in to larger containers should be done at the beginning of June. To wait until this time means that we give the plants the very best chance of survival in a warmer time of year. If I were to put them outside now on the 11th May, there is still a chance of cold weather which would instantly kill them. So, for another few weeks, I will be monitoring the greenhouse and preparing for the third stage of my installation - instating the wildflower garden on the terrace! I am really looking forward to seeing all of the plants together and out of the greenhouse which I am pleased to announce, is still standing. (Unlike last week!)
Here are some photos of the seedlings taken today:

Metgrowth (Week 4.) The survivors

Through all of the drama of my last visit to the greenhouse in Knightsbridge, I almost forgot to post some updated photos of the seedlings which survived the accident. They are doing extremely well and I am very pleased!
I just hope they remain that way to be brought out of the greenhouse and planted in a final display on the terrace in a few weeks time! Let's hope so, I will keep you posted!

Making a Mend.

There was a rather positive outcome to the incident which occurred in week 4 in which the greenhouse was badly damaged and a third of the plant pots were disturbed/broken.
It served to comment on the incompatibility of office life and nature. It also represents a struggle - the struggle of survival through adverse conditions. The greenhouse seems to have become a metaphor for the environment. Not only is it the protector of my little seedlings, but the fact that it was so easily damaged could represent the fragility of nature itself, and how we must protect and preserve it, so as to avoid chaos.

Therefore, the duct tape which I found to fix the polythene should be noticeable. I thought that to emphasise the accident would be to emphasise the newly found concept behind this installation. The tiny strips of tape could be seen to echo the visual language of stitches.

I love that this project keeps changing and developing as the weeks go on, like a mini Eco system or life cycle. I think these changes and new developments which occur, whether positive or negative, are what makes its process from seed to full wildflower garden so interesting.

DISASTER.

Happy that all was going so well with the growth of my plants, I arrived for the fourth time that month to check on their progress. I had a niggling feeling in the back of my mind about the installation though. Last week, the pots were completely dried up and the greenhouse was looking rather weather-beaten from the wind.

I arrived on Tuesday morning and having seen the manager to say hello after the bank holiday weekend, I went outside to see the installation. I always knew that Friday nights were very popular at JWT's bar and roof terrace, but fortunately, my greenhouse had not been affected by any accidents during it's time there...until now.
I arrived to this:

The greenhouse cover was completely ripped, and therefore wasn't keeping the plants safe from the elements nor at an appropriate temperature. I am not quite sure what happened. The wind had really battered my little delicate greenhouse. It was really sad to see.

Besides this as I walked in, I noticed that at least a third of the plant pots had been knocked over. A lot of them were broken, there was soil all over the ground and some plants were missing. Someone had obviously caused an accident and had left a complete mess. I could see that they had tried to quickly put things back in place again, but it really ruined the whole idea of my installation. The origional event had been held so that the participants could follow the progress of their individual pots, from start to finish. I was really upset that someone had almost ruined my project.

I understand that accidents happen, and I am flattered that people were curious enough with the progress of their plants that they wanted to enter the greenhouse randomly, but that hadn't really helped...
Oh well. I took a deep breath and sought to rectify the situation. I was not prepared to let a small hitch like this ruin all of the hard work and effort I had put into this installation and project.

Metgrowth (Week 3)

It's the third week into the growing process and the plants are looking great. There are about 30 plant pots which are growing and about 30 which are not... it is interesting to note this 50:50 ratio that has resulted. I arrived to take more photos of their progress to a greenhouse which was beginning to look a bit dishevelled and wind swept. The polythene cover was beginning to rip at the seams so I patched it up with some tape and hoped it would hold...
The plant pots had also not been watered when I arrived, which was a shame. I hope that the person who had been taking such care of my plants has not given up. It would be awful to see the plants die at such an early stage.

Metgrowth (Week 2)

Having been given a new confidence from the previous week's discovery of the little seedlings in my greenhouse, I arrived a week later to document their progress. As before, someone from the office was still watering them well and I was excited to see what a week's time could do!

The stuff of life

In Bill Bryson's book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', he makes a poignant point about life and living matter which I think is really relevant to my project. I thought I would share it with you:

"Every living thing is an elaboration on a single original plan. As humans, we are mere increments, each of us a musty archive of adjustments, adaptations, modifications and providential tinkerings stretching back 3.8 billion years. Remarkably we are even quite closely related to fruit and vegetables. About half the chemical functions that take place in a banana are fundamentally the same as the chemical functions that take place in you.
It cannot be said too often: all life is one. That is, and I suspect will for ever prove to be, the most profound true statement there is."

MetGrowth! (Week 1)

"The day I see a leaf is a marvel of a day." Kenneth Patton

As I arrived at JWT, I was ready to let people know that I was going to move the greenhouse. I didn't want to leave it there if nothing was growing. I couldn't find the manager so decided to go and check on the plant pots one last time with my camera. As much as I was doubting the progress of the installation, I still had hope. Maybe it was just taking longer than I thought because the paper that the seeds was embedded in needed to decompose to release them...? I was not sure.

As I unzipped the door and walked into the greenhouse I noticed a change... In about 30 of the 60 pots, there were tiny seedlings. The Metgros had sprouted!
Thank goodness for that! I was elated! All my hard work was paying off! All they needed was time. It was interesting that I had nearly given up... I should have had more faith in my work, but it is difficult when you are waiting for something which you cannot control. The seeds might not have sprouted for any number of reasons which I would never really understand.
Perhaps I too am now so used to the city way of life; this instant, convenient way of living where I can order anything that I need quickly, that I was not prepared to wait for Nature to take its course.
To quote Frank Lloyd Wright, a 20th Centrury architect who was coined "the greatest American architect of all time" by the American Institute of Architects and who famously promoted organically inspired architectural design;

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.
It will never fail you."

"The only thing growing, is doubt."

Three long weeks came and went, with no sign of life from inside my greenhouse. Oh dear. Perpaps the people who doubted my project were right! What if nothing grew?

However, I was very pleased to see that every time I visited, with camera in hand, the soil was moist and the greenhouse was well maintained. Obviously, someone was keeping an eye on the installation for me, which was really lovely to see. The anonymity of this individual was really interesting too - I didn't know who it was, I never saw them, but the process was perfect. Someone was taking the time out of their busy day to nurture the seeds.
It gave me hope!

It was a really optimistic aspect of this seemingly barren installation...nothing was growing. Nothing! It was great to see that someone had faith in my project.

A lot of people who had initially been so excited about the event had given up on the installation once they had seen that after a week there was no visible growth. This was another unforeseen interesting point about this project. These people did not have the patience to wait for nature to take its course. Everyone is so used to having things 'now-now-NOW!' that they had quickly become bored and had begun to not believe that the wildflower garden growing from my Metro newspapers would never materialise...

I must admit that after Week Three with no change, I was also beginning to have doubts myself .
I decided to go into Knightsbridge with a speech prepared for the manager, suggesting that we give the greenhouse one more week, and if there was no sign of growth, I would be more than happy to remove my installation from the space if they no longer wanted it. Obviously JWT would not want a little wind swept greenhouse and 60 dried up pots of compost on their rooftop terrace for long, and I did not want to outstay my welcome.

I was really devastated. I had always thought that my project would work - there was no reason why it shouldn't have! I had given the little seeds every chance; a warm environment and water, I even soaked them overnight to stimulate their germination.
In the train on the way to Knightsbridge with the speech prepared, I looked around the carriage at the crumpled up Metros on seats and on the floor and my heart sank.

What had I done wrong?

Your Metgrow germinates here. Hopefully...

Well, as you can see from the slideshow below, the event really went very well indeed. Around 60 people came and planted my Metgro newspapers, most thinking that it was such a kooky idea that it would just be a 'fad' and that the Metgros would never produce any flowers as I had assured them they would.
Understandably, it was a really odd but interesting process ripping up sections of newspaper and putting them in the plant pots, especially a paper with which everyone is so familiar. People were really shocked at how easy the process actually was, which just reinforces my concept.
It was wonderful to see people picking their football team news articles to plant, their horoscopes, photographs of celebrities, politicians and even adverts they had been a part of producing in JWT!
People wrote their names, funny phrases, telephone numbers and funny faces on the pots to distinguish theirs from others. I loved the uniformity of the plant pots which had been graffiti-ed by the participants.
Choosing to exhibit the greenhouse post event day in JWT turned out to be beneficial for another reason which I had previously not taken into account. In an Ad agency, it seems people who are used to working to deadlines, in a very stressful environment, demand instant results from their projects. Obviously, seeds take a few weeks to germinate. The participants which had taken part in the event on the Friday, told me that they came into the office the following Monday morning expecting to see fully grown and developed plants!
These things take time, I said... Have faith, and in a few weeks you will see little green seedlings, I promise!"
I was not able to return to Knightsbridge every day to check on the growing installation. Part of its second phase, post event, is to allow the participants and office workers to take responsibility for maintaining the little plant's wellbeing through watering the pots daily and making sure the greenhouse does not get too hot/cold.
I just hope people take the initiative and look after their plants properly! If they don't and they leave the pots to dry up, the outcome will still reinforce the concept that people do not have any interest/desire to enjoy nature as they are all too busy coping with London city life to find the time.
I will be returning to Knightsbridge on a weekly basis to check on the installation and to document the little plant's progress, but for now, their future is in JWT's hands! Will anything grow? Will the office unite and look after the plants and nurture the seedlings? Or will I be left with a blown down greenhouse and 60 pots of shriveled up compost with nothing to show for all of my hard work?
Only time will tell.

Let's Grow The Metro EVENT

As the event was on Friday evening in the JWT bar, I designed and produced four t-shirts for the bar staff to wear... Just to remind people my event is taking place if they hadn't noticed!
Here are some images from the Let's Grow The Metro event while it was taking place.
Enjoy!

EVENT DAY: Preparing the space

What a perfect day for my event - 20 degrees and clear blue sky! It would not be difficult to convince people to take part later because it seemed everyone was outside for most of the day enjoying the sunshine.
For the last four weeks I had been peparing doe this and now it was finally upon me.
Of course, the main worry for anyone planning an event outside in March is the more-than-likely possibility of rain. I could have worked as hard as I wanted, prepared everything to perfection but if the heavens opened, the event would be a flop - literally. No one would want to come outside and I could forget having a publically engaged installation/event. Luck was shining down on me that day thank goodness, and I felt really positive. Everything I had set out to achieve, I had done, and that was a great feeling.

The Metgros had been soaking in water all night in order to loosen the seeds from the newspaper. I had a horrible feeling that I would arrive on my event day and find that they had turned into seed-newspaper mush (flashbacks to trying to make the seed paper myself!) (See

'So, seed infused paper you say' post,) but as the paper was so heavy, the pages were still in one piece. The Glue binded spines had losened too which was rather sad as I had spent 2 days working on that... but I needed to stop worrying. In a few hours, these Metros would become the basis of my 'Let's Grow The Metro' event and would soon be torn up and covered in soil.
Preparing for the event during the day was straight forward. I had experimented with where to put the plant pots (See: 'Plantpot Takeover' May 5th post) and had organised for a trestle table to stand in front of the greenhouse on the lawn to act as a stall for people to use when tearing the newspapers up and planting them. The greenhouse had not blown away and the lovely gardener had given me two huge bags of compost to use! All I had to do was set everything up and wait for 6pm!
Here are some images of the preparation for the evening's event.