Pulborough's Community Gardens

Pulborough’s Community Gardens

Some of Pulborough’s best kept secrets are the five community gardens dotted around the village. Maintained by volunteers, these spaces are havens for residents, as well as providing habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies, birds and beneficial insects. Yes, we live on the edge of one of the most significant nature reserves in the world, but these gardens are a small part of building a connected landscape where wildlife can move freely from the High Weald to the Sussex Coast.

If you are interested in joining one or more of the volunteer gardening teams, or if you’d like to create your own community garden, please contact Bev Nobbs, the Pulborough Parish deputy clerk:

Community gardening is a great way to get some moderate exercise, spend more time outdoors, improve your mental health, build friendships and enhance your community. No gardening experience necessary!

Pulborough Memorial Garden – East Side of the Pulborough Village Car Park, across from the Library

First proposed by a member of the Pulborough Parish Council in 2012 as a way to mark the 100^th anniversary of the start of World War II and the 75^th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, Pulborough's first community garden was created as a place of remembrance for both military personnel and civilians connected with the parish. Rather than being solely a war memorial, the garden is intended to honour everyone from the parish who has served their country. This includes James (Jay) Brynin, a local resident who sadly lost his life in military service in Helmand, Afghanistan in October 2013.

The Memorial Garden was deliberately intended to be inclusive. During planning for the opening ceremony, councillors agreed that it was not just an Armed Services memorial garden, but an all-encompassing memorial garden, reflecting its role as a place of remembrance for the whole community rather than exclusively the armed forces.

Today, the garden, with its three benches, serves as a quiet public space where residents and visitors can reflect on the sacrifices of past and present generations while also commemorating members of the wider Pulborough community.

The site, on the east side of the Lower Street Car Park, was chosen because of the spectacular views across the Wildbrooks to the South Downs, which provides an inspiring backdrop for those coming to visit the garden. It was not chosen for its soil, which was basically sandy rubble, or its light, as much of the garden is shaded by large trees. The land is owned by Horsham District Council but leased to the Pulborough Parish Council.

The central feature is a sculpture designed by the children from St. Mary’s School, Pulborough, of an open book mounted on a plinth with two simple inscriptions: the first recognising the sacrifices made by all those from the Parish who have given service to this country in times past and present; the second a short poem that sets the tone for the purpose of the garden.

The garden was designed by students from Brinsbury College, with a brief to create a peaceful, tranquil place for rest and contemplation, which they admirably fulfilled. The garden was built by S.R. Brierley Groundwork Services.

The original planting plan, pictured below, included lavender (unknown type), Salvia officinalis, Nigella damascene, Pennisetum alopecuriodes, Viola odorata, Myosotis, Thymus serphyllum, Parahebe catarractae, Rosemary, Ribes Sanguineum ‘Pulborough Scarlet’.

Researchers discovered another plant list from that time which included some of the above plus Astilbe Chinensis ‘Vision in Pink’, Hosta ‘Aphrodite’, Astrantia Major ‘Roma’, Helleborus x hybridus ‘Red Lady’, Iris ‘Butter and Sugar’, Geranium Iberica ‘White Zigana’, Rosa ‘Madame A. Meiland, Stachys Byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’, Allium Christophii, Salvia guarantica ‘Black and Blue’, Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Blue Barlow’, Digitalis, Bergenia, Dicentra spectabilis, Dianthus Rasberry Sundae, Dryopteris filix, Euphorbia amyglaloides robbiae, Lupinus ‘Band of Nobles’.

Sadly not many of these plants survived and unfortunately, like so many laudable projects, there wasn’t any provision for maintaining the garden other than an annual grant of £100 from the Parish Council.

From 2014-2020, the garden was well looked after by volunteers from the Pulborough Garden Society who weeded and planted daffodils but ultimately struggled with time and resources.

In 2020, a new team of volunteers joined in to assist: Colin and Dee Morley, Mike Gradden and Elizabeth Hunt. They began meeting Sunday mornings at 10:30am to work for an hour or three. The initial task was to clear out the 1000s of oak and acer seedlings that were threatening to turn the garden into a forest. These seedlings remain the biggest weeding issue, especially in mast years.

Once weeds and tree saplings were cleared, there were large bare areas in the garden. To ensure volunteers didn’t spend all their time weeding while attempting to establish new planting, newspapers were spread over weeded areas, then these were covered with Puckamuck, a composted manure, donated to the garden effort. This had the added benefit of improving the soil dramatically once the newspapers had disappeared.

Over the years many plants have been donated to the garden, but the volunteer team also managed to propagate plants like replacement lavenders. In March 2022 a donation of 5 roses from Harness Roses and the RHS was received, which are doing very well.

There are five main beds plus the area under the large oak. Most of the beds are shaded for at least part of the day so plant choice has to reflect this. The volunteer team is also trying to use plants that won’t require watering as there isn’t any water source on site.

Originally, lavender was used around the inner circle and down each of the walkways to the benches. This didn’t work terribly well due to the varied light conditions so lavender is now restricted to the circle with volunteers regularly taking cuttings to ensure the border is kept in good shape.

The original viola odorata and the Euphorbia robbiae had become invasive so have been removed wherever possible.

The Allium Christophii bulbs have spread all over the garden, ensuring a lovely purple phase in the spring, when the alliums, the nepeta and the geraniums are all blooming. The garden then turns more multicoloured with the orange and red Crocosmia, rudbeckia and the roses.

The Memorial Garden was entered into the Royal Horticultural Society’ South & South East in Bloom – It’s Your Neighbourhood competition in 2023, 2024 and 2025, improving its score every year and last year winning a Level 5 Outstanding Award which was presented to the volunteer team at RHS Wisley in October 2025.

Please contact the deputy clerk if you would be interested in helping with this lovely garden, you would be very welcome, with no gardening experience necessary. Projects for 2026 are installing a hazel and willow arch, continuing to enhance the planting and always weeding!

Lower Street Trees in Troughs

Pulborough has seven trees in Corten steel troughs along Lower Street which are very kindly and helpfully maintained by the businesses near them, along with some additional volunteer assistance:

The Oddfellows Arms (2 Hawthorn trees)

Cubitt & West (1 Hawthorn tree, 1 Cotoneaster tree)

Mary How Trust Charity Shop (1 Rowan tree)

Batcheller Monkhouse (2 Cotoneaster trees)

The troughs are underplanted with mainly wildflowers to help serve as a conduit for pollinators like bees and butterflies, birds and beneficial insects, which was a requirement of the funding.

The trees in troughs were funded by Horsham District Council’s Welcome Back Fund, part of a UK Government-funded COVID-19 recovery programme designed to help town and village centres recover after lockdowns. The fund, launched in 2021 as businesses were struggling to recover from the lengthy shutdowns, was financed through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Pulborough Community Partnership won funding and used it to design and develop a project that would make Lower Street more environmentally friendly, more attractive for shoppers and help slow vehicles speeding through the village.

Rather than implementing traffic calming that would impede vehicle movements or reducing speed limits which would be unenforceable, both of which would be very controversial, the trees were a relatively easy option to trial slowing traffic and enhancing one of the village’s main shopping centres

A ceremonial handover of watering cans to the businesses was held in May 2022

The project involved:

Liaising with the Parish Council, shop owners and local residents – a full size cardboard model was made to show those involved what the planters would look like and the locations were chalked on the ground for approval.
Commissioning six large square corten steel planters W 800 cm x L 800 cm x H 600 cm and one custom-made planter/bench W 1000 cm x L 1500 cm x H 650 cm to be strategically and safely installed on Lower Street
Liaising with a tree supplier to select the appropriate trees for the area, to fit the size of the planters. The trees are large, single stem trees with the canopies high enough not to block any sight lines
Arranging for the donation of sufficient compost to fill the containers
Marshalling qualified volunteers to donate shards to ensure drainage, help place the containers and plant the trees
Ensuring volunteers were available to maintain the planters

Lower Street Tree Proposal - Pulborough Community Partnership

West Sussex Highways approved all locations
None of the trees block sight lines and they are on the pavement, not in the roadway, so no danger to vehicles
The planters were only installed at locations wide enough for pedestrians and motorised mobility vehicles
Village social media sites and posters were used to notify residents about the new planters so they were aware
Residents and shop owners were recruited to tend to the planters and provided with advice on watering
The planters are heavy enough to withstand storms
Almost 200 local residents signed a petition in support of the trees
Around 20 volunteers were involved by donating shards, supplying labour
Suppliers included Architectural Plants (local), Travis Perkins (local), Taylor Made (Coventry)

The trees are maturing well although the first Mary How tree was replaced due to vandalism and one of the Batcheller Monkhouse trees will need to be replaced in the autumn. The troughs bloom with bulbs in the spring and with a variety of wildflowers and some perennials all summer long, including Birds foot trefoil, Knapweed, Corn chamomile, Corncockle, Cornflower, Cowslips, Scabius, Garlic mustard, Oxeye daisies, Red Campion and Red clover among others.

BT Garden

The BT Garden is a small volunteer-maintained green space bordering 75 Lower Street, opposite the entrance to the Royal Mail sorting office, on land owned by BT Openreach and leased to Pulborough Parish Council.

Unlike the Community Allotment, which focuses on growing produce, or the Memorial Garden, which is a place of remembrance, the BT Garden, like the Skeyne Drive garden, is primarily an ornamental public garden that enhances the village streetscape.

Begun in 2021, this narrow strip garden required an immense amount of digging over to eliminate brambles, alkanet and to enhance the soil. We also had to install large stones to stop cars and trucks from parking on the garden.

This garden faces due west and is a very hot, dry site so the planting is designed to be low maintenance and to survive drought. Plants include Echiums, some roses, hollyhocks, rudbeckia, and a variety of herbs, making it a viable community herb garden.

This garden needs a team leader and more volunteers. Please do contact the deputy clerk if this would be of interest.

Skene Drive Garden

This garden, on the west side of the Batcheller Monkhouse drive entrance, is maintained by Skeyne Drive residents and helps to provide a striking entrance to the Lower Street commercial area, along with the lovely private garden opposite.

Community Allotment

Located on the Cousin’s Way Allotment site, this is a relatively new community garden initiative (2024) focused on sustainability and community wellbeing. Supported by the Pulborough Parish Council, it is intended to be more than simply a place to grow vegetables. Anyone who would like to grow fruit and vegetables but can’t take on or doesn’t want the responsibility of their own allotment, is welcome to become part of this merry band of garden volunteers.

Aims include:

Bringing residents together through shared gardening.
Providing opportunities to grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Supporting learning and gardening skills.
Encouraging biodiversity and environmental stewardship.
Creating an accessible green space that people of different ages and backgrounds can enjoy.