Council contractors decimate wild flower garden

Yesterday I published the following post:

The Deptford guerrilla garden is now in full bloom - walk down to the roundabout at the bottom of Edward Street (next to the MOT place) and you will see poppies and daisies galore.

There's a scattering of nasturtiums, some sunflowers that are striving up towards the rather elusive sunshine, some little unidentified purple flowers and various other things that I don't know what they are, along with loads of tiny pansies and a scattering of weeds.

A welcome splash of colour in this bed where the roses (at the other end) are usually the only decoration, if you don't count tin cans and empty chicken boxes.

When I went past the other day, in a sunny moment, the flowers were awash with bees, making the most of a dry period to gather a bit of nectar. Great to see a new habitat for our poor honey bees.

Do take a look if you are passing, and enjoy the display while it lasts.

Little did I realise how short a time we would actually have in which to enjoy this: coming home from work on Tuesday I found this scene of devastation.

It seems the council's over-zealous grounds maintenance contractors - presumably Glendales, who don't have the best reputation locally - have been along and 'tidied up' the flower bed by removing almost everything of beauty.

They have not just removed the weeds, which admittedly could have done with a bit of attention, but also the poppies and daisies, which were in full flower, the one or two cornflowers, the nasturtiums around the edges which were just coming into bud, the small hollyhocks which had not yet taken hold properly, and a myriad of other plants that added colour and diversity to the flower bed.

Thankfully they left the sunflowers - although not all of them, there were many others dotted around the flower bed. The many bees and other insects that were buzzing round the flowers when I visited at the weekend were long gone. Another habitat, however small, destroyed.  

I got in touch with the local resident I know who gardens here, she was understandably upset. "I can't believe what they've done - how is this any improvement on the situation?" she said. "And what are they going to put in it instead? I've been living here more than five years and in that time the council has never spent any money on flowers or even seeds for this bed. It has always been empty, which is criminal really when so many people are waiting for allotments and don't have gardens.

"Me and my friends spent quite a lot of time trying to make it more attractive by digging up the weeds, sowing seeds and planting flowers here. After all this hard work it was looking so lovely, and now it's just a vast expanse of empty soil, which will be full of weeds and rubbish again within a few weeks. I really don't know what they think they have achieved.

"Proper gardeners would have had the knowledge and patience to weed selectively and would certainly not have pulled up any flowers, even poppies which can be invasive. They would have come back once the flowers were gone, removing most of the seed heads to keep next year's poppy growth manageable.

"What they've done here is just vandalism."