Planters on Sydenham Road and Venner

[poppy]

This is in response to a message from Chris Best on the assembly thread but it really needs a thread of its own, also ties in with the Kirkdale Village plans...

I have said on this forum before that we need to use some imagination when dealing with the planters, which are in a desperately neglected state. Others are complaining about Mayow park's flower beds and are saying something 'so public' requires something with more impact.

Well, you can't get any more 'public' than the planters along the high street. (the ones in Lidl's carpark, have had lots of attention I believe for some bizarre reason).

Please Chris Best can you bare these points in mind if anyone does get round to dealing with them.

1. Please can we steer away from seasonal bedding and roses which only look good for half the year, and are costly to maintain etc (the bedding).

2. Instead can we please have some quality, architectural shrubs and grasses, which would have far more interest and texture? You could then plant pretties, ie bulbs, which come up year after year and some perennials for spring and summer colour in between if wanted.

3. The bowling club in Alexandra rec has a brilliant example of how lovely these low maintenance plants can look. In one of the three beds that are inside the enclosure (which are visible from outside) has some Rosemary plants, some which look like Cordylines but are a burgundy colour (medium sized spiky architectural plant) and some giant and smaller clumps of grasses. It looks stunning and was planted up about a year ago and still looks good.

4. At the moment the only decent planting on the high street is on private land. Hexagon Housing Association have made a real effort as has Kwik Fit (of all businesses) and some private flats down near Bell Green, near Sydenham Green surgery.

5. and when doing Venner Road, could the one outside the council flats be tackled too?

Please, please Lewisham Council, this one effort would make such a big difference to the people who live and work in Sydenham and certainly would not cost as much as the mosaic project which is I believe in the region of £50,000 (much of it from other sources) but the money it's had from Sydenham's community fund could have done so much to address the shabby state of these planters.

[Tim Lund]

Poppy:

Are you labouring under the impression that for anything to happen in Sydenham, it has to involve Chris Best?

[georgemichael]

[love-sydenham]

Dear Tim,

Would you please advise, on who shall we get involved to make this happen?

Thank you ahead

[Tim Lund]

Dear Tim,

Would you please advise, on who shall we get involved to make this happen?

Thank you ahead

Well - the first thing to think about is whether you are able to do anything yourself to make this happen. The basic elements are:

• people who know what they're doing when it comes to planting up planters, and a sustained interest in doing so
• shop-keepers who actually want to have planters outside their shops, and will take some responsibility for them, e.g. popping out to do some watering, dead-heading, etc.
• some probably modest amount of financial support
• maybe somebody or bodies to catalyse it

There are any number of ways this could happen, but we have an example elsewhere in Lewisham which could perhaps be visited by anyone interested - as I have.

From reading that thread, you'll see that up there in 'Kirkdale Village' there are interested traders, hoping to find a group of volunteers with some actual gardening knowledge. This is a start, and I and others are working on it, but it doesn't happen by magic, and any gardeners will have to 'own' the project as much as the traders.

Down here in Lower Sydenham, we don't have a similar group of traders - yet. I believe there is still a series of quarterly Town Centre Management meetings organised by Chris Best, which used to involve our Town Centre Manager when we had one, attended by a few members of the Sydenham Society and one or two traders - but sometimes none bothered to turn up. Also, at the last Sydenham Assembly, £2,000 was allocated to "Sydenham Town greening – hanging baskets, Xmas tree and lights" - but no traders were at that meeting either, and the person presenting the proposal admits to not knowing much about gardening. In this Assembly proposal, it's interesting that hanging baskets are mentioned, because there are considerable practical problems with these. It feels as it those who put this proposal forward just hadn't thought it through, and it doesn't inspire confidence that earlier schemes, e.g. for the planters outside the Dolphin involved the now bankrupt social enterprise Envirowork Lewisham.

There were two points in my question to Poppy. One was to find out if there was anything she was able to do herself other than post on the Forum, and the other to suggest that if she or anyone else were prepared to do something, then they should take the initiative themselves - as Jotbot, I and others are doing. So ask yourself - where would you look for someone who knows what they're doing gardening? How do you think they might get something out of looking after planters in Sydenham Road? If you can find these, then you might well be able to find some traders who are interested in working with you, and you might find them actually wanting to get together to discuss your ideas. I have various thoughts on the matter, and if you want to discuss them more, pm me to arrange a meeting.

[Chris Best]

Poppy - as you started a new thread here is my previous reply:

In terms of your comments on the planters, Iris included £600 in her bid from Grow Mayow for plants in the high street and previously this has included Station Approach - planter and bed, Venner Road planter, planter outside the Post Office and the two planters outside the Dolphin. The rose bed on the corner of Trewsbury and the bed on the junction with Kent House are part of the Council's contract with Glendale but I will see if Iris is able to add to these beds and whether anyone would like to volunteer to help plant up.

The bid for Sydenham Town greening included 14 x hanging baskets for the core shopping area.

The paperwork is being sorted out so Iris should soon have the money to work on replanting - and I am sure will take on board your comments.

Leiwsham have started putting up the hanging baskets around Cobbs Corner and Mayow Road and will continue to water them.

I have contacted Lewisham's Head of Green Scene to look at the list of all the small planters as we do have quite a few outside blocks of flats and I need to see if they are part of Lewisham Homes or whether the Council has retained the responsibility.

[Annie]

Hi Chris,
Whilst on the subject of plants etc to make the place look brighter and greener,
when will we be getting our lovely flowers back on a decent roundabout at cobbs like we used to have?
and who exactly allowed the idiots to change it?( not you i'm sure)
Regards

[love-sydenham]

Dear Tim and Chris,

by Tim Lund » 24 Jun 2011 20:48

love-sydenham wrote:
Dear Tim,

Would you please advise, on who shall we get involved to make this happen?

Thank you ahead


Well - the first thing to think about is whether you are able to do anything yourself to make this happen.

I have a day off on Wednesdays and I can also help on week days after 7 p.m. (if that's any good) plus Saturdays?...

I am not a professional planter, but I'll try and do my best!

You can count me in

Regards,

Love-Sydenham

[Tim Lund]

Dear Tim and Chris,

by Tim Lund » 24 Jun 2011 20:48

love-sydenham wrote:
Dear Tim,

Would you please advise, on who shall we get involved to make this happen?

Thank you ahead


Well - the first thing to think about is whether you are able to do anything yourself to make this happen.

I have a day off on Wednesdays and I can also help on week days after 7 p.m. (if that's any good) plus Saturdays?...

I am not a professional planter, but I'll try and do my best!

You can count me in

Regards,

Love-Sydenham

I've just pm'd you

[poppy]

Dear Cllr Best

It's good to hear that the main planters on Sydehnam Road are 'at last' going to get some attention as well as some less obvious ones.

I fear £600 will not go far though, particularly considering the size of the one at the top of Kent House.

This question is to you and Tim Lund: If people want to help that's great. But does Bromley council rely on volunteers to plant up and maintain their planters? I doubt it. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The fact that we are discussing the planters and that they have been in such a sorry state for so long shows that really planters should ideally be kept to a minimum, because they (in some areas anyway) inevitably become neglected and end up as unofficial litter bins. If they are neglected they make an area look even more rundown than if they weren't there in the first place.

If I had a choice for greening a high street it would always be trees, because they can pretty much look after themselves.

I can't remember if more planters have been included in the Tfl scheme but I really hope not.

[Tim Lund]

Hi Poppy

Your point about planters turning into unofficial litter bins is well made. Planters should only ever be where the traders nearby want them, and are prepared to make some contribution to their maintenance, which as a minimum I would suggest consists of

• Being part of a group or network which includes at least one experienced gardener - preferably qualified and paid - with facilities to store the planters out of season, or work on planting them up when they need refurbishing
• getting out there with a watering can if necessary, or doing a bit of dead-heading, as advised by experienced gardeners in said network
• ready to alert such experienced gardeners when the planters start to look manky

We don't have the rest of this in place, and until we do, offering £600 is meaningless political box-ticking. Of course if it could have been the £12,000 so far allocated for the Mosaic, that would have been a start - but it would still be necessary to ensure that workable structures were in place, involving traders, experienced gardeners and the community.

[JeeBee]

I'm sure that a few posts on a urban guerrilla gardening website will get enough people along to tend the things for free.

In the meantime if you want them planted up and there's no budget, then maybe it's a good time to take some cuttings, or set aside some roots for plants that are split up. That doesn't solve the problem of watering them however.

I agree planters that are empty/dead look worse than no planters. New Cross Gate station had a load of dead planters and it looked terrible.

[Tim Lund]

I'm sure that a few posts on a urban guerrilla gardening website will get enough people along to tend the things for free.

In the meantime if you want them planted up and there's no budget, then maybe it's a good time to take some cuttings, or set aside some roots for plants that are split up. That doesn't solve the problem of watering them however.

I agree planters that are empty/dead look worse than no planters. New Cross Gate station had a load of dead planters and it looked terrible.

Urban guerrilla gardening is great, but as with anything involving volunteers, you cannot presume, and even the whiff of businesses or the Council trying to get something for nothing is a bit of a turn off. It's nice to romance anarchists, but better to understand how structures work.