Climb the cast-iron steps to the roof garden at the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC) and you can almost forget that you’re in the heart of the city. Just 30 by 6 metres, the garden manages to fill every vista and the breeze through the trees drowns out all but the loudest city noises.
The cherry tree reaching for the sky, the mature fruit bushes and the exuberant range of groundcover plants all belie the fact that five years ago there was nothing here but a leaky roof. The garden contains more than 160 varieties of plant, and all of this has been achieved with only a foot of soil.
Each plant here was chosen either because it has multiple uses and illustrates our continuing reliance on plants, or because it has a compelling history.
In spring, the medlar tree is a magnet for insects with its large white blossoms. The fruits are left on the tree until October, then harvested and stored on straw to ‘blet’ (a more enticing word than ‘rot’!) until the softened flesh can be eaten with a spoon. There is no place in our commercial world for a fruit that needs so much processing, but the medlar was a popular tree in times gone by.
A shrub that was commercially grown in Victorian times, but has since fallen out of favour is the Chilean Guava. An excellent hedging plant with the bonus of tasty fruit in October, the Chilean Guava deserves a renaissance.
The crab apple ‘John Downie’ would also make an excellent addition to many gardens. A good pollinator for other apple species, it is useful in its own right – producing sweet crab apples that make delicious crab apple jelly.
Climbing plants cover all the vertical surfaces. The golden hop, known for its role in flavouring beer, has flowers that can be dried and used in pillows
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