OUR ENVIRONMENT

THE GATEKEEPERS GARDEN

Located on Jacobins Chare, to the side of The Gate, the Gatekeepers Pocket Garden provides a quiet and relaxing space for visitors to enjoy and take time out of the busy city environment.

Planted with insect and bee friendly plants to encourage biodiversity, the garden is also home to the first bio graffiti wall. A living wall planted with moss and ferns which changes and evolves with the seasons.

While you visit you can discover more about the plants in the garden and how they help to encourage pollinating insects and we hope one day that we might even be lucky enough to spot a Gatekeeper butterfly, after which the garden was named.

Launched in April 2019, the Gatekeepers Garden was developed in partnership with the charity Streetwise, the Northumbria Wildlife Trust and the National Trust GAP Project and the garden continues to flourish with the help of volunteers from 'Moving On Tyne and Wear'.

Things you might see in the The Gatekeepers Garden:

Daffodils

Look out for our bright and beautiful daffodils. The early daffodil blooms attract early pollinators to the garden. This helps other plants, like our dwarf apple tree and gooseberry bush, set more fruit by increasing pollination. Daffodils also spread their roots, which helps prevent or minimize soil erosion.

Dwarf Apple Tree

Our dwarf apple tree is a lovely addition to the garden. As the tree has not been part of the garden for very long, it has not yet produced fruit but we are hopeful we should see fruit developing once the tree has become established in the next 2-3 years.

Gooseberry Bush

Gooseberries are an easy-to-grow soft fruit and they can thrive in many kinds of soil, although they really like a sunny site.
Our gooseberry plant at the garden has been thriving!

Lavender

If you've ever been around when lavender is blooming, you know how well it attracts bees! Besides bees, it also attracts butterflies, hoverflies, and other beneficial insects.

Solitary Bees

The Bio Graffiti wall at the garden is specifically designed with small holes to attract solitary bees.

THE GATEKEEPERS GARDEN

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