Hedgehog Highways of SE23!

Did you know there are hedgehogs in Forest Hill that need your help? Tim Lund (Friends of Dacres Wood Nature Reserve) provided us with news about the plight of local hedgehogs.

This hedgehog was found in the daytime in August in Dacres Wood Nature Reserve, but hedgehogs are active mostly at night when they travel 1-2km in search of food. A neighbour of the reserve, who had seen hedgehogs with their young in her garden in the last year, first realised they were about when she heard a persistent scraping coming from one of her flower pots. Since then she has made sure her pots are kept upside down and, with the help of neighbours, made holes in fences to help them access other gardens.

In light of how the UK’s hedgehog population has fallen 30 percent in the last 10 years, this year’s Wild About Gardens Week — which is run by the Royal Horticultural Society — is focusing on hedgehogs’ neighbourhood needs. Making ‘hog holes’ between gardens is one of the best things we can do to help.

Our local nature reserves, together with the railway embankments and the gardens backing onto them, provide valuable habitats for wildlife that sometimes goes unnoticed. To support the plight of hedgehogs, the Forest Hill Society and the Friends of Dacres Wood Nature Reserve (FoDWNR) are asking local people to do what they can to help — whether by growing a diversity of plants, leaving wild corners alone, creating water sources with safe access (i.e., ponds with beaches or ramps), creating log piles (to attract hedgehog prey) or building shelters, and by avoiding the use of pesticides.

As for the hedgehog shown, sadly it was injured and did not survive. If you happen to come across any during the day, there are local charities that will try to help and then release them back into the wild.

 
• For more info about Wild About Gardens Week (26th October-1st November), visit www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk.
• For more info about the FoDWNR, visit dacreswood.org.uk.

Think Globally, Plant Locally!

Quetta Kaye (Chair, Environment Committee) provided information for this report.

Are you concerned about the environment — globally, nationally, locally? If so, you should join the Forest Hill Society!

Think globally

On the global front, the Society organised a public meeting in June when local author, Dr David Cotton, alerted us to the dangers of climate change (as published in his recent book, ‘Climate Change — A Wake Up Call’). Some of the questions that he has been researching for the last eight years and posed in his presentation were: What role has the human race played in climate changes? What will happen if we continue burning fossil fuels? Will we be able to produce enough renewable energy in the future? 

...but plant locally

Locally, our work on improving the environment in Forest Hill’s town centre has continued with the planted areas in the forecourt and on the platforms of Forest Hill station, and with the tubs of trees and flowers for the Edible High Road project. These planted areas attract lots of attention and many pleasing comments from passersby and commuters, but they need volunteers to keep them looking healthy, attractive and ‘doing their bit’ to freshen the air that we breathe. Watering plants during the summer months is one of those tasks that needs to be done regularly. Following the Climate Change meeting, Dr Cotton and his wife, Gail, volunteered for mid-week watering of the station’s planters — which they continue to do. You, too, could contribute by pouring water from your bottle onto a different planter each time you pass by — or by contacting the Forest Hill Society with an offer of help.

Despite the vagaries of the British summer, the efforts of our very dedicated (but small) group of volunteers have succeeded in bringing colour and greenery to Forest Hill’s town centre. The station and street planters have looked really good with different combinations of colourful plants, which included sunflowers generously donated by Horniman Gardens. This idea seems to have worked well and, with any luck, a good proportion of the plants should survive to bloom again next year. The Edible High Road tubs, too, should last through the winter and beyond. We will learn the decision of the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘London In Bloom’ judges on 15th September. [We were awarded 'Outstanding' -Ed]

However, it never fails to amaze me that — while many people stop to tell us how pleased they are with the work we do, and how the flowers brighten their way to work and shop — other people think the planters are really rubbish bins or the plants are there for the taking rather than community enjoyment. In the spring I actually saw someone pulling some bulbs out and popping them into a shopping trolley!

For those of you interested in volunteering, a work afternoon at Forest Hill station is being organised for Saturday 19th September (meeting at 2.30pm) for trimming the station’s lavender bushes, and generally cutting back and tidying up the planted areas. Please look at the Forest Hill Society’s website for more details on how you can help with this or, if you see people snipping away, please don’t be shy, join in — if only for half an hour. If you have them, trowels, secateurs, gardening or other protective gloves — along with a spare plastic bag — would be very useful to bring along. Without volunteers, we are not able to try and make Forest Hill a brighter place in which to live and work, and to do our bit to protect our natural environment. 

...and brew locally!

After distributing hop kits for Forest Hill Society’s Community Beer Project in the spring, we decided that Platform 1 of the station was not a suitable place to grow hops as originally thought; instead, a number of individuals have been nurturing hop plants in their gardens. We hope to harvest everyone’s hops this autumn and brew our very own ‘Forest Hill Pint’, and will soon know how successful this venture has been.

Mayow Park: Summer 2015 Update

By Alona Sheridan, Chair, Friends of Mayow Park. Alona updated us on activities at Mayow Park — a much-loved, 7-hectare public park located between Forest Hill and Sydenham.

Park receives Green Flag Award!

Fourteen of Lewisham’s parks were each awarded a Green Flag in July this year and Mayow Park was one of them. This was the 19th year of the awards, which highlight the value of parks and green spaces for their local communities. We must commend Glendale Lewisham for working to the standards demanded for achieving these awards.

In addition to general maintenance such as grass cutting and repair to facilities, Glendale has responsibility for maintaining the cricket square to a suitable standard for weekly matches during the cricket season. Cricket in Mayow Park looks set to stay and the most active home team, Caribbean Mix, is doing very well. The fixtures’ list is posted on the notice boards around the park.

For those who have not visited the park in a while, an outdoor ‘gym and trim’ trail was installed in January 2015. The equipment appeals to all ages and not only to fitness enthusiasts. An extensive range of fitness facilities now exists if we include the children’s playground and older children’s area, and tennis courts.

Having such a busy park requires a quality café, and Mayow Park has just that. Brown and Green opened in August 2014 and has proved to be an invaluable addition to the park.

Community group activities

Friends of Mayow Park’s (FOMP’s) gardening volunteers look after plant beds at the Triangle (near the café), which consist of a fruit garden and herb garden. These beds replace the original roses and bedding plants that were costly to maintain. Now, park users can pick leaves of herbs or taste the raspberries, admire the tall cardoon plants that bumble bees love, meander along the two woodchip paths or relax on the grass by the magnificent dawn redwood  tree. The orchard of eleven fruit trees, near the tennis courts, is now in its fourth summer and, with Lewisham Council’s approval, will receive additional fruit trees. Lewisham’s Nature’s Gym conservation volunteers visit three or four times a year, working alongside FOMP, to help maintain these areas (photo, below). Their blog recently featured our very own Mayow Park — see natureconservationlewisham.co.uk/category/natures-gym.

Mayow Park is also the home of Grow Mayow, an independent community garden, situated behind the café. Their activities and events have a great focus on gardening and the environment. A measure of their popularity was evident when £1,890 funding for beekeeping activities was awarded at the Perry Vale Assembly last November (2014). Congratulations to Grow Mayow for this success!

Special events

The bowling green of the former bowls club — which closed a couple of years ago — can be hired for special events, including parties and open-air film screenings. As part of Sydenham Arts’ Summer Festival, the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was screened on a Sunday evening in early July. Other summer events included Lewisham Council’s dog micro-chipping event, which was well attended by dog-owners, and Perry Vale Assembly’s successful ‘Lark in the Park’ community event.  

For more info, visit friendsofmayowpark.blogspot.co.uk