Sydenham Guerilla Gardeners?...

[owlwise]

Is there a local Sydenham guerilla gardeners group? Or is there anyone thinking of starting a group? I would like to join.

List of locations that are desperate for some guerilla gardeners :

No.1 - Station Approach corner.
No. 2. - Cobbs Corner Roundabout in need of some huge sunflowers in the summer (and a Christmas tree in the winter).

Please feel free to add to list...

[Gaddison]

Count me in too! Hopefully someone can shed some light, otherwise we may get a quorum on here to form one

[Tim Lund]

We've talked about this before

Re: The roundabout's got some soil!!

and here

Re: Station Approach Square

A tree is due to be planted where the tarmac is - in the late autumn/early winter. This gives the tree a chance to get its roots down and to thrive. Planting a tree (or trees as in other areas in Sydenham Road, and low hardy shrubs in the Cobbs Corner roundabout) at this time of the year means continuous work watering them before they are established, as NEMO is quite correct in pointing out.

And, yes, the toilet block is going to be replaced by a modern "no touch flush" system.

Rineys are doing a great job and are, we understand, ahead of schedule. Let's all try to exercise a bit more patience. Nothing is ever going to be perfect but it's a darn sight better already than previously

My last post on that thread was

Nigel - you're right; year-round interest is what could make such a prominent planting location something further to be proud of about Sydenham.

...

Personally, I'd like to see someone with the capacity and a long term commercial interest in providing year-round interest being given responsibility for the planting and maintenance, which could either be a business such as Shannon's or Alexandra Nurseries, or group of independent professional gardeners, working together. To make it worth while, they would have to be able to use the space to promote their business. This may not be what people first think of as 'community', but I think such local businesses are as 'community' as anyone else. And if they can engage amateur gardeners like you and me to help them, maybe offering discounts at their businesses, all the better.

I'd still say that - but it wouldn't actually work for Shannon's or Alexandra Nurseries. I still cherish the hope of local independent gardeners being able to own such a venture, and use it to promote their business. However, it would probably also need the buy in of local shop keepers, who would be most interested in keeping an eye on things, even if they did not have the gardening expertise. There's something similar in Hither Green,

FUSS AT HITHER GREEN

although I don't think there's a commercial element to the gardening there. If you follow that FUSS link, you will see this

This year we have a few committee members standing down after several years of amazing work. Thanks to them, and so many others over the years, FUSS has grown and evolved.

The Way Forward. Now is the opportune time to rethink the best way forward. We are looking to restructure our organization and how we operate, taking account of changes in the environment around us, and looking to better utilize the specific skills and expertise of our members (with a view to balancing the workload). With this in mind, we urge as many of you as possible to join us at our ‘social’ AGM so that your ideas can be heard/incorporated into the go-forward organization.

which tells you that even the best community organisations (of which I think FUSS is an example) struggle to keep things going.

I'm not saying that my idea of involving a commercial incentives for local professional gardeners would not also have problems, but I think it should be explored.

[JRobinson]

on Friday at work we were all given 5 packets of summer flower seeds (approx 30 seeds per packet), which we were told could be planted anywhere we liked. I think they wanted us to put them in window boxes, or front gardens or mostly at home, but on my way home I scattered one of them in the scrubby bushy area opposite the new sports shop at Bell Green, between the new convenience store, and Perry Hill/Rise.
a lady passing the other side gave me an odd look.

hopefully they'll grow and flower this year, late summer, and reflower next year too. No idea what varieties but all are native wildflower species.

[Tim Lund]

hopefully they'll grow and flower this year, late summer, and reflower next year too. No idea what varieties but all are native wildflower species.

It's a nice idea - and wildflowers generally have the advantage of not needing much maintenance - at least those which survive. The problem is that that sort of planting is not what everyone wants - and actually, people want these sorts of spaces to look cared for. It's why, without going to the expense of bedding plants like these



there is scope for someone to use this space as a way to advertise their ability to care for gardens to people passing by, but with more natural - and easier to maintain planting such as this, which I'd guess is what your wild flower seeds are meand to lead to.

[JRobinson]

I recall a section of a TV show a few years ago where they planted one border in a park garden with bedding plants like usual (lots of expense getting new plants each year, lots of time spent planting, looks good for several months), and one border they planted up with wild flowers.
They asked the park users opinion, and more importantly they counted insect, bird and butterfly species visiting.
The wild flowers were a lot better recieved by most age groups, and there was a vastly higher number of different species visiting the native wild flowers. children were more interested in the wild flowers, and the insects, and it was considered educational. Only the pensioners group favoured the planned, planted out, designed bedding plants, which had only a few insect species visiting.
The wild flowers were easier and cheaper to maintain.

[Tim Lund]

I recall a section of a TV show a few years ago where they planted one border in a park garden with bedding plants like usual (lots of expense getting new plants each year, lots of time spent planting, looks good for several months), and one border they planted up with wild flowers.
They asked the park users opinion, and more importantly they counted insect, bird and butterfly species visiting.
The wild flowers were a lot better recieved by most age groups, and there was a vastly higher number of different species visiting the native wild flowers. children were more interested in the wild flowers, and the insects, and it was considered educational. Only the pensioners group favoured the planned, planted out, designed bedding plants, which had only a few insect species visiting.
The wild flowers were easier and cheaper to maintain.

That's pretty well exactly what I would expect, although the local politics of disregarding pensioners is never easy.

I'm not sure that insects' opinions are more important than human park users', but there's scope for wild flowers to satisfy both. How do we align incentives so that it happens?

[leenewham]

The one with wildflowers looks beautiful.

The other one looks like Hyacinth Bucket's garden.

[gillyjp]

Is there a local Sydenham guerilla gardeners group? Or is there anyone thinking of starting a group? I would like to join.

List of locations that are desperate for some guerilla gardeners :

No.1 - Station Approach corner.
No. 2. - Cobbs Corner Roundabout in need of some huge sunflowers in the summer (and a Christmas tree in the winter).

Please feel free to add to list...

We were only saying the other day funnily enough, the roundabout at Cobbs Corner looked in desperate need of some flowers - we were thinking of getting some wild flower seeds and sowing them in dead of night (we are only a stone's throw away). Can't understand why LBL are a bit underwhelming with their planting. I love the idea of a Christmas tree too - Where better for that than the Sydenham Gateway! Keep us posted on the Sydenham Guerilla Gardeners Group. We are happy to contribute (labour or plants or both).

[owlwise]

Thanks for your mutual interest. I am going to pursue some sponsorship and might take you up on your offer to help with planting. Watch this space!

[leenewham]

Seedball had a stall at the Fun Day in Home Park a few years ago. Sustain are worth a shout too,although they owe me some favours as we did some work for them a few years ago for gratis (The Capital Growth Logo which seems to be everywhere these days) so I might be able to get hold of some seeds.

[alburt.c]

wow if this gorilla in my garden i vary fast to run. ha ha.

[sydres]

I think this is a great idea - in my opinion the High Street generally would benefit from further planting, which could be raised planters (now the paving has been finished) and localized low level shrubs and plants.

Although forming a Guerilla Gardening group is worthwhile, I wonder whether it is worth considering crowd funding for further long-term investment in the area - look at the example of the Thames Baths Lido recently:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th ... nav_search

[The Clown]

Lovely initiative