POCKET PARKS

We have some great news (we said it was coming).

Home Park to receive funding for new piazza

A consortium of community groups in Sydenham has been granted funds from the Greater London Authority to create a new literary piazza in Home Park.

The literary piazza will see the currently under-used area next to Sydenham Community Library and the entrance to Home Park redeveloped into a welcoming, attractive and usable public space. The consortium includes; the Friends of Home Park, the Friends of Sydenham Community Library, Beep Studio Ltd, Rich Regeneration, Eco Computer Systems, Sydenham Society, Glass House Community Led Design, SEE3 Town Team and Lewisham Council.

They were successful in obtaining a grant of £37,500 from the Mayor of London’s Pocket Parks Programme which gives grants to communities to improve streets, squares, parks, and canal and riverside spaces. Lewisham Council will match fund the grant, meaning the project will now have a total of £75,000.

The funding will be used to cut back overgrown shrubs and install new plants and new seating for people to sit and relax. Old pathways will be rebuilt and a new cycle path will be created. Sydenham Community Library will be able to use the piazza as an ‘outdoor classroom’ for educational and cultural activities and the proposed Sydenham Community Library café will expand into the piazza so that food and drink can also be enjoyed outside. The group also hopes that the new and improved piazza will attract the interest of farmers’ and other specialist markets and encourage more people to shop locally.

Councillor Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: “Lewisham Council does not underestimate the importance of investing in our borough’s public spaces, as doing so makes our neighbourhoods safer and more attractive to use. We have longstanding plans to improve Home Park, and this funding gives us the opportunity to upgrade a vital green space earlier than previously planned for our Bellingham and Sydenham residents.”

Anthony Scully, Chair of the Friends of Home Park said: “We’ve worked hard over the last few years to turn around the perception of Home Park with the support of local residents, library users and our partners. We’re very pleased about this funding and we are confident that this will enable us to really open up the space and make the entrance to the park and library much more attractive and accessible for everyone to enjoy.”

Lots is happening in Home Park and the library. It’s a very exciting time.

GARDENING TIPS FOR MARCH 2013

This weekend is our Community Garden Stakeholder Weekend so don your wellingtons and dig your beds to get them ready for Tomatoes, Runner Beans, French Beans and Sweet Corn.

Start your seeds off indoors. It’s easy to give seedlings a head start by growing them on the windowsill.

If you want to start your crops off a couple of weeks early, then cover your beds with horticultural fleece to trap in the warmth and raise the temperature of the soil.

EARLY CARROTS
Sow the seed in a groove made in the soil which is roughly 2cm deep.  Sow thinly to reduce the need of thinning the seedlings out later. The seedlings should appear in ten days time depending on the weather conditions.

GARLIC
The very best time to plant garlic is in late autumn but it will still produce a crop if planted up to early March.

LETTUCE
Start to sow lettuce from the second half of march. Sow a few seeds each week so that they don’t all  mature at the same time otherwise you will end up with a bumper crop, too much to eat over a ten day period and then nothing at all.  You can continue to sow lettuce right up until mid August.

ONION SEEDS
Mid to late March is the best time to sow onion seed. Sow thinly in rows which are 2½cm apart. Cover lightly with soil and gently water them in. The seedlings should appear in roughly three weeks.

ONION SETS
Onion sets are far more reliable compared to onion seeds and they establish quicker.  Simply make a small hole in the soil with your fingers, put the onion set into the hole and cover round with soil so that only the very tip of the onion set is visible on the soil surface.  Water the onion sets after planting to settle them in.

PARSNIP
Just before sowing, scatter a good handful of blood, fish and bone over the soil. Gently work it in with a trowel. Don’t apply any other fertiliser at this time and especially no manure.  Parsnip seeds take three to four weeks to germinate.  Sow the seed about 2cm deep and about 5cm apart.  If you are sowing more than one row then the rows should be 30cm apart. Cover the seeds with soil and lightly firm down.  Water if the soil is dry.  Parsnip seed should be sown over a month or so rather than all together.

STRAWBERRIES
Strawberries can be planted from the end of the month or early to mid-April so prepare the soil now to a spades depth and add 2 handfuls of bonemeal per square metre.  A few days before planting, apply the recommended dose of general fertiliser.  Feed the soil with liquid tomato fertiliser every two weeks during the growing season.

Don’t plant strawberries where peppers, tomatoes, aubergine and potatoes  have been grown – these plants could pass on verticillium wilt, a serious strawberry disease.

SUMMER RADISH
Radishes are one of the earliest vegetables to be sown. Make a shallow drill into the soil and place some seed in a row. The seed will be very fine so try not to sow too many. Cover the seeds with a small layer of soil and water them in gently.  They take four to eight weeks to mature and do not keep well in the ground so should be eaten soon after harvest.

Redesign for the front of Home Park/Sydenham Community library

 

THE LITERACY PLAZA

 Friends of Home Park (FOHP) http://www.homepark.wordpress.com/

Friends of Home Park (FOHP) was set in 2008 up by local residents because: we wanted better play areas for kids, we want better sports facilities, better integration of library and park and a safer, better maintained park for all. Since FOHP was formed it has actively sought to work with local services/agencies to make improvements to Home Park. FoHP has developed collaborative workingwith local services and agencies to make improvements to Home Park, and to build a sense of community and develop a positive “sense of place”.

FOHP now acts as a voluntary community group that champions Home Park and acts as a strategic hub to link together the stakeholders who aim to develop the park for the benefit of the community.

2010 Hard work by FoHP secured funding from the following Playbuilder Fund and Lewisham Council for the installation of an outdoor gym the ; funds from Lewisham Council Antisocial Behavioural Team for an outdoor classroom and a community garden (on the site of a former mulch pit). The community garden is managed by FoHP and the Sydenham Community Library is one of the stakeholders in the garden. FoHP also work with Sydenham Arts Festival and the Bellingham Ward asssembly to fund and arrange the annual Home Park Arts in the Park Family Funday.

Friends of Home Park had an idea of improving the park frontage FoHP developed the idea and opened up dialogue with Lewisham Greenscene and local ward councillors to see if this could be achieved. The idea of the FoHP proposal is that our plan will open up the front of the park to allow passers by to see into it, to increase its use and improve people’s perception of the park, and create an open square for people to sit and relax, with the possibility of holding farmers’ or crafts markets in Lower Sydenham, increasing footfall to the benefit of local retailers. The area of the park next to the road will be replanted and improved. This will complement the refurbishment of Sydenham Road from Cobbs Corner to Mayow Road, funded by TfL and Lewisham, and the planned continuation of this scheme from Mayow Road to Bell Green. There is also potential synergy with the Portas Pilot scheme known as SEE3 and local housing developments

The proposed changes to the footway and the frontage of Home Park will improve accessibility by providing a wider, level and well lit footway. Re-lighting the area especially around the library entrances and its footpath through the park will reduce the fear of crime and make the park and the library more accessible. FoHP believe that improving this area of the park will provide a better setting for the library. The entrance to the library is poorly lit and surrounded by unkempt shrubbery, which can make it a daunting place to use in the evenings when the library is open late.

• Friends of Home Park, develop the idea of improving the park frontage-FoHP open up dialogue with Lewisham Greenscene and local ward councillors
• A planning workshop in conjunction with the Open University finds enthusiasm for the plan,andinvestigates
• Ed Holloway, local architect, develops a design. Friends of Home Park and The Sydenham Society provide financial support to commission a design of the proposal
• Applications to the Outer London Fund and others in 2011 and 2012 do not produce funding

• Friends of Home Park proactively develop local stakeholder engagement and support (includingLewisham Council, Bellingham and Sydenham Ward Councilors, Sydenham Society, Bellingham Safer Neighborhoods Team, Friends of Sydenham Community Library, Sydenham Community Library, Lewisham Homes, Amicus Horizon Housing Association, Hyde Housing)

FoHP hope that the Pocket Park is successful:This application put together by Anthony Scully chair-Friends of Home Park; Ed Holloway RIBA-architect and Tony Rich on behalf of Eco Computers.  This application was submitted to the Greater London Authority by Lewisham Council. The result of application will be known later this year.

By your parcipation and hard work in Home park you have all contributed tothe develpoment of this idea toopen up the park  We will post notice of the outcome of theis application on the blog in due course.

Anthony Scully Chair Friends of Home Park

BELLINGHAM ASSEMBLY 9th OCTOBER: Have your say

 

Tuesday the 9th October   7pm-9pm

The Bridge Leisure Centre

Kangley Bridge Road

London

SE26 5AQ

 

GARDENING TIPS FOR SEPTEMBER

Images from photopin.com

If you are anything like me and you haven’t been tending your allotment plot as regularly as you should have been this summer, then now’s the time to make a fresh start and get on with the following: 

EDIBLE GARDENS, HOME PARK 15th SEPT

Poster Designed By Good People

GARDENING TIPS FOR JULY/AUGUST

Image from photopin.com

There is still time to plant a variety of vegetables that you can sow in July, August (as well as one or two in September) and which can be harvested within weeks giving you some fresh vegetables throughout autumn, winter and into next spring.