Shakespeare Avenue Planting
Bringing new colour, wildlife and community pride to Western Podsmead
The Shakespeare Avenue Scheme is part of the wider Neighbourhood Nature project activity within Podsmead. It focuses on improving small green spaces and overlooked public areas across Western Podsmead through new planting, themed gardens, wildlife-friendly features and community-led ideas.
This portion of the project has been made possible thanks to National Lottery Funding.
The project has been shaped through local conversations, resident consultation events and practical site visits. Rather than treating green space as empty grass to be maintained, the scheme looks at how small spaces can become more attractive, useful and nature-rich places for people who live nearby.
The planting proposals include a series of themed garden areas (Pollinator Garden and Orchard Garden) with a number of public realm improvements along Shakespeare avenue.
Masterplan:
Project timeline so far
Early discussions with Blackbridge Community Group
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust met with Blackbridge Community Group to identify local opportunities for smaller planting schemes and public realm improvements.
Through these early discussions, the Shakespeare Avenue area was identified as a key focus for the project. A major theme from Blackbridge was the importance of food, healthy eating and positive lifestyle change in the area. This helped shape the direction of the project from the beginning.
Developing the first project ideas
GWT then developed plans around three connected elements.
The first focused on public realm beautification, using blossom trees, seating and wildflower patches to make everyday green spaces more attractive and welcoming.
The second was a pollinator-themed garden, including features such as bee towers, wildflowers and raised food-growing beds.
The third was a mini orchard garden, with fruit trees, food-growing beds and an edible hedge.
Each part of the project was designed with potential for future community expansion. For example, the pollinator garden could support future ideas such as honey production, while the orchard garden could become a stronger local food-growing space over time.
Workshops and stakeholder feedback
The early plans were presented to a range of stakeholders in Podsmead through workshops and discussions.
This included important feedback from Gloucester City Homes and Gloucester City Council, who are the main landholders for the project areas. Their involvement helped test what could realistically be delivered and how the plans could work on the ground.
Public consultation
Public consultation was then carried out by Blackbridge Community Group and Gloucester City Homes to understand local feeling about the proposals.
These conversations helped identify what residents supported, what needed adjusting, and how the project could better reflect local priorities.
Finalising the plans
Feedback from stakeholder workshops and public consultation was used to shape the final version of the planting scheme.
The final plans bring together public realm improvements, wildlife-friendly planting, food-growing opportunities and themed garden areas into one connected local project. The goal of which is to create spaces that residents can take pride and ownership in, whilst delivering food and nature options for the wider community.
Orchard Garden
This will see upwards of six fruit and nut trees to form a small orchard. Rows of edible hedging (berry shrubs) will planted along side some food raised beds. Future community driven options could be based around fowl (chicken, quail etc) in the small orchard for egg production and the development of a micro silvopasture system.
Pollinator Garden:
This space will be dedicated to pollinators. It will see the creation of a wildflower strip, placement of up to four bee towers. Raised food and flower beds, seating and the planting of a blossom tree. Community options going could be the use the of Flow Hive bee hives as way to create options for locally created honey.
Planting begins
The project is now moving into delivery.
On 13 May and 15 May, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust will be planting the public realm elements of the project, including new planting to help improve the look and feel of the Shakespeare Avenue area.
Keep an eye out for future social media posts about upcoming planting days and ways to get involved!