Barbican Living
Speed Garden
Speed Garden, which is the smaller of the two main Barbican gardens is at the eastern end of the lake, opposite Speed House.
The large tree is an Ash; the tree with the white trunk is a Eucalyptus. There used to be many more trees in Speed Garden but the shade was killing the grass so some were cut down.
In the colonnade next to Speed Gardens, the big vine-like bush is a Kiwi Fruit (excellent with German rye bread apparently).
The grass is ordinary grass. In the past it has always tended to die off under the larger trees during the Summer because of the lack of sunlight, so the gardeners have planted shade-tolerant grass in recent years in the hope that it will do better.
The City contracts out the grass cutting. The grass has to be kept no less than 10 cm and no more than 20 cm high, which means it is cut once a week in the Summer.
Ten years ago, they put 25,000 crocuses into the lawns of the two gardens. I imagine they have mainly been eaten by the birds.
