Homes and Gardens / avonmouth
The secret garden tucked away in a train station
Tucked away on platform one at Avonmouth train station is something few commuters would expect: an off-grid, self-sustained community garden.
Designed to fill a blank slab of concrete left behind from a disused train line, the project began in 2017 when Edible Bristol set out to transform the area into a space that would feed, enrich and grow community spirit in Avonmouth.
Almost a decade later, the garden continues to evolve in response to the people around it.
Head gardener and community grower Luke Murray told Bristol24/7 that the local community is involved in almost every process and decision.
“The space really becomes a reflection of the people who volunteer, use and interact with it,” he said.
The project began in 2017
As he walks through the garden, Luke highlighted the many personal touches, decisions and systems that bring this ethos to fruition.
The broad beans shooting up from a raised bed are Elsie’s favourite, while the rosemary topiaries in the shape of hedgehogs were the work of a volunteer keen to learn a new skill.
Even the wooden shelter, constructed from pallets and scrap wood from nearby merchants, is the handiwork of a volunteer as part of his community payback scheme.
“We have some people who come and work with us every week,” Luke said, “and some who stop in as they get off the train, have a browse and go about their day.”
More than a reflection of the community, the Avonmouth Secret Garden is a masterclass in purposeful, closed-loop system gardening.
From using plant waste to ensure the green corridor of the train track remains intact to cleverly engineered thermodynamic ponds, hand-built wormeries and strategic planting of rotating crops, every element of the garden is carefully thought out.
“We’re pretty tight on space,” Luke laughed, “and so I want everything that’s here to serve a purpose, to be useful and to create that system with other plants.”
The garden feeds Avonmouth residents throughout the year
The garden’s closed-loop philosophy extends well beyond its soil.
Every week, Luke takes fresh produce to the nearby community centre where, alongside cook Mike Oldrieve, he helps prepare home-cooked meals for local residents.
From foraged blackberries and currants to leeks and herbs for steeping in tea, something from the garden finds its way to the centre almost every week of the year.
Then, after every meal, the food and plant waste is returned to the compost bins and worm farms in the garden so that “nothing at all goes to waste,” as Luke puts it.
“There’s an amazing relationship between food, gardening and memory,” said Luke.
“With the garden, people can eat and grow produce they may not have had since they were children, or can try something left-field like kohlrabi and be pleasantly surprised by it.
I really see with what we grow here that it connects people not just with each other, but with themselves.”
Above all, Luke wants the garden to nurture and strengthen Avonmouth’s local community.
“I come once a week and feed the soil, feed the plants,” he said. “And, in turn, we can work together to feed our community.”
This article originally appeared in Bristol24/7’s March/ April 2026 magazine
All photos: Susie Long
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