Springwatch

By Quetta Kaye

Watch the flowers spring up in your neighbourhood (squirrels and the weather permitting) because before Christmas hundreds of bulbs were distributed by stalwarts of the Forest Hill Society. The bulbs were donated by Energy Gardens and the Forest Hill Society, but the majority came from a Metropolitan Public Gardens Association grant. They went to the Sydenham Society, Kilmorie and Horniman Schools, the Library gardens, planters at Kirkdale, in and around Forest Hill station and nearby street corners, around the trees in London Road opposite the Horniman Museum, as well as to some neighbourhood guerrilla gardeners.

Other hopefuls for Spring viewing will be a white climbing rose newly planted to overhang the underpass, and a new clematis to cover the blank wall on platform 1 at Forest Hill station, replacing those plants cut down when tarmacking of the area took place last year. Wildflower seeds have also been scattered on the waste patch behind the nearby passenger waiting room in the hope of attracting more bees and other insect life to that area.

2022 will see the Forest Hill Society’s Clean Air group pressing forward with acquiring important air pollution data and progressing the plans to limit car parking in Forest Hill station forecourt in order to provide safe pedestrian access and to green up the area. Talks have been held, measurements taken, and things are moving in the right direction − at last.