The kindness of strangers

When life is shit, the only thing that you can be sure of is that there is no knowing what is around the corner. Sometimes admittedly it's just a second helping of shit, and that's not good. But there's also the possibility that there may be something good around the corner. When that turns out to be the case, enjoy it, celebrate it, and remember it. When you hit the next mound of shit, it might be what keeps you going.

The garden in full bloom

I have been nurturing a guerrilla garden for the last two years, but last weekend when the poppies and cornflowers and nasturtiums were in full bloom, the council came and 'tidied' it up, pulling the flowers off the roots and basically reducing the majority of the space back to mud. They never plant anything in this huge bed, so it remains empty apart from the roses in one end that flower only once a year. Thankfully they left most of the sunflowers in the centre, and a couple of other plants that I had put in, which softened the blow somewhat.

Local blog Deptford Dame took up the case as a result of which it seems that there might be a story in the local paper next week; outrage via twitter prompted one of the local councillors to table a question for the council meeting in September and the issue has been raised in profile.

But it was the reaction of a total stranger that touched me the most. Anne-Marie is a keen gardener in Hither Green, who recently set up the Lewisham Gardens website and who was in touch with me a couple of months ago, interested in arranging to get a tour of Deptford parks and gardens.

We only knew each other via the internet, and although we'd talked about doing a tour of Deptford, we hadn't yet managed to arrange anything. When she heard about what the council had done to the guerrilla garden, Anne-Marie immediately committed to come over and visit. She arrived on Sunday morning laden with cuttings, plants and seeds for me, and more importantly, with a huge dose of optimism and the unspoken attitude that you should not let the bastards grind you down.

I hadn't really felt ready to return to the decimated scene of the crime, but with Anne-Marie behind me it didn't seem like the massive issue it had been. Her indomitable spirit of generosity and enthusiasm drove me on to see this for what it was - just a temporary setback. The seasons of the natural world come around so quickly that there's no point being disheartened by such things, you'll always be just around the corner from the next growing spurt.

Planting next year's flowers

To be honest I was totally overwhelmed by Anne-Marie's enthusiasm; we planted out the shrubs and cuttings she'd rooted herself, and she even collected a few more from the Buddleia growing nearby to fill in the gaps. We broadcast great handfuls of seed across the bed, no doubt some of which would be enjoyed by hungry pigeons but hopefully some would come to fruition this year or next. She greeted each passer-by with a cheerful hello and a genuine smile, and her optimism was infectious. Thanks to Anne-Marie I'll be going back soon to plant a few more things and I won't be put off by such a minor hiccup!

The sunflower diaries part II

So, it's been nearly a month since these little babies were planted. It's been a hot old month; the rose bushes down the other end of the flower bed have done well, proving that it's not all barren ground. About half of the very unpromising-looking clumps came out in a huge flourish of colour for a week or so but they are going over now.

I've been down there every few evenings with my watering can, prompting glances from the mechanics along Edward Place who all seem to work very late. A few times I've managed to persuade the Curse to accompany me carrying a big containerful of water, to give the parched ground a good soaking.

After a week or so they started peeking their little heads through the dry, dusty ground, but yesterday's torrential rain seems to have prompted them to shoot up a few inches overnight!

This is very exciting, makes me believe that they will really grow and flower. When I was examining them this evening a middle aged Chinese lady stopped for a chat, I think she was wondering what I was doing trampling around on the flower bed in my size 7 boots. I told her what they were, she was interested and surprised to hear that I had planted them, and quite delighted too.

There are various weeds also taking a hold in the flower bed, some of them quite pretty including some tiny poppies which are already flowering. Given the rate at which poppies spread in unpromising conditions, I suspect I'll be digging them up in a couple of years' time!

Since my last sunflower post I also met up with one of my commenters, who writes local blog londonslostgarden. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting about gardens, local blogs and local issues, and I had a tour of her allotment in Windlass Place on the edge of Lewisham borough, and the lovely Evelyn Community Garden which is right next to it. She has volunteered use of her mattock to break up the compacted soil of the flower bed, and we are tentatively planning a bulb-planting event in the autumn.

Meanwhile any more volunteers for watering, planting and tending will be welcomed with open arms...!

International sunflower guerrilla gardening day

Just along the road from my house is a very unloved flower bed. It sits in the middle of a small gyratory, next to the railway viaduct and a car mechanic's yard. It was obviously built with care; it is a large flower bed, surrounded by stone walls and taking a prominent position on the roundabout.

But years of neglect have left it far from its best. The few scrubby rose bushes that remain, fight for survival in the dry, compacted earth and the litter that surrounds them. I cycle past this rosebed every day and feel sad that it's not being maintained, so today I resolved to join international sunflower guerrilla gardening day and try to bring about a little change.

Guerrilla gardening is a movement which was set up about eight years ago by Richard Reynolds who lives not far from here, in south east London. He got fed up seeing unloved bits of ground like this one, covered in litter and with nothing growing in them, and resolved to do something to improve his immediate environment - regularly setting out with seeds, plants, tools and water to try and coax flowers to grow in the most unlikely places.

My daily cycle ride also passes some of the roadside beds tended by him and his team in SE1, and it's always an inspirational reminder that there are other people out there who care about these things too.

So I set out at 7.30am today - international sunflower guerrilla gardening day! - to do a bit of digging on stony ground. I took my trusty garden fork, two two-litre bottles of water, some fertiliser, a packet of sunflower seeds, and a fluorescent vest just to make me look a bit more official!

The ground was pretty solid and it took some effort to break it up. While I was doing the digging a couple of people passed by - one said hello and looked a bit quizzical but the other didn't say anything. After breaking up the top level I expected the soil below to be a bit easier. It wasn't!

So I contented myself with digging about a metre in diameter, breaking up the soil sufficiently to get the seeds in. I scattered some fertiliser over it and turned it into the ground, then planted the sunflower seeds randomly across the earth, and mostly in pairs. At one point a beautiful green parakeet watched me from a treetop - this was during the digging though. I do hope he didn't see the sunflower seeds going in and think it was lunchtime :-(

With the seeds planted, I watered the ground and took a few photos.

There is plenty more space on this flowerbed. If anyone in SE8 is out there reading this and is interested in getting this bed looking like a living feature rather than a depressing swathe of compacted soil, please get in touch via the comments! (and if you've got a mattock, so much the better!)