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Dear friends and neighbours, courtesy copy of letter I just sent to Renata by PM The worry is less about the loss of the rough land which was over along the Wood Vale side, and no doubt will improve gradually once the rawness wears off its newly installed trees and earthworks, and more about the timing of undergrowth cutting and the severity of turf shaving, the destructiveness of strimmers. Until you have seen at close quarters what these machines do to amphibians, harmless snakes and voles, you cannot grasp what the 'right kind of regime' means. Almost anything is better than the timing and harshness of present methods. But I am glad you have been to look. I understand the 'tidy' ethos and am not at odds with it, in the context of a cemetery it is to be expected. The council has spent possibly millions on the commercial turf and hundreds of nursery-garden seedling ivies, and other industrial supplies, with which the landscaping firm 'reinstated' topsoil cover. Saturated in nitrates, it is now demanding more frequent mowing and if left will turn into waist-high sileage-style rye grass, totally not conducive to restoring the wildlife. A fairly basic study of the 'wild lawn' and 'meadow' literature on the internet could have prevented this mistake. Then we would have short, slow-growing grasses which have the effect of providing space for wildflowers, and only need mowing gently once, towards autumn. Saving man hours and petrol. In addition it was unnecessary to go far to find rooted bits of baby ivy plants, they were growing in the wild woodland itself, and the gardeners could have been taking delight in propagating them during the wintertime.

Further tree and shrub clearance this week at Camberwell Old Cemetery causes all of us a shock. Noisy machinery hacking down the under storey of the wild woodland section, has been keeping local council staff busy. Can understand the logic of efforts against Japanese Knotweed + certain kinds of Rhodedendron, & opening up "forest glades" will eventually be good for butterflies, several years ahead. However these Council Works are undertaken at the very most inappropriate time of year, when we had masses of time in the winter, while the Cem was being re-landscaped, to get on with hefty tidy-up jobs. Right now, every wild creature is in the midst of raising its young and every wildflower is trying to set its seeds. The shrinking pot of taxpayer's money is being used to harm to the very biodiversity on which depends our landscape's health. Greenery at turf and shrub height in a big urban environment needs wise, gentle and protective management. It is not a plentiful habitat. Few council gardeners have a training in natural history, botany, entymology, zoology, or other specialisms and if their orders are to do irreparable damage it's not their responsibility, it's the council's. Therefore the best thing is to make the council AWARE. Hardly anyone is an all-round expert on biodiversity; we are all learning all our lives, through a time of extreme threat thanks to destructive farming, chemicals, etc. I repeat my request that there is a proper biodiversity survey, by a trained ecologist, as a matter of urgency. I see a thread's arisen about tree surgery in our district generally. It is great that everyone cares so much! Add to the general discussion our awareness that tiny changes in the seasons permit certain fungi & insects to boom. Trees will reflect this, when for decades they were reasonably healthy, and well chosen species by the original town planners, now we can observe them steadily losing strength a little more each year, if the diseases keep getting their ideal conditions for multiplying. Eventually the tree is totally unsound & at this point it becomes an insurance liability. I think nobody wants the environment further polluted by lavish spraying programmes, & would rather Tree Surgery companies and their estimators dodged the enticements of Big Pharma and were straight with local authorities. There is a professional body for the tree surgeons, with ethical guidelines, if you want to look them up. More resilient species are being sought by Southwark Council, for example moth-resistant Chestnuts are being tried. Rather than screaming about every logical change, it is the illogical timing and apportioning of council money & workforce that benefits from scrutiny. Look closely and you can see that we NEVER NEED money spent on smashing down the biodiversity; there is always a better option. For example: In the cemetery a close turf strimming practice is constantly underway, on the basis that its topsoil is full of holes and 'people might trip up if they cannot see them'. Far from spending time filling in these pockets, the gardeners are using all their hours petrol-guzzling and creating a desert, a short back & sides, which is terrible for invertebrates and all the wildflowers. No wonder there are so few butterflies and other pollinating insects. In suitable corners some unevenness should be left as it increases the range of habitats and offers better foraging, especially for birds. Furthermore the chaps know their jobs are threatened, so are not likely to argue, but there is always other work that can be done at this most beautiful time of year. There are sapling sycamores to get out of stonework, paths and fences to repair, mowed areas to be raked, plastic and other litter to collect up, formal flowerborders and hedges and proper compost systems to get flourishing again. None of these traditional tasks would hurt the biodiversity and they would all give the job back its pride.

Did you have a comment to add to that, Blackkat?

I have just PM'd Renata, because I think she and anyone else concerned in an official way should see for themselves what is actually being done, on the ground. Nearby, many people are horrified. There is NO good reason to be doing maintenance in this destructive manner, at this time of year.

and while all this dawdles along, the noisy chainsaws and strimmers continue ripping the heart out of the understorey to this wild woodland, just at the worst possible moment in the seasons from the wildlife's viewpoint. Make it pause at the very least, please just use your clout until there's been a better consultation.

alice Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > so flower, someone sat next to you on a bench then > got up and walked away. > > scarey Yes Alice, please don't write scornfully on this as the person I described had an obviously intrusive manner and shaky nerves. Any one else, including you and your children I trust, would have instinctively sensed trouble.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/25/gatwick-second-runway-heathrow-expansion

Someone with a dark brown skin and speaking accented English as Indian people do, but otherwise similar to the above, suddenly came and sat next to me on a park bench at the Horniman last Friday evening about 8.30 pm. I had been enjoying the evening sunshine and the fagsmoke and attention was unwanted so I fled. He was very nervous and jumped up and went away too, I was worried he might follow me home but he did not. I assumed he was after a pick-up. I think it most likely this is someone with mental health going awry, lonely rather than a sex pest, but the two go together sometimes.

If you wish to be starting a separate thread, please be our guest.

Don't anyone bother with a stringy old mallard. Leave'em be. They are part of lakeside life cycles and we do have plenty of other places to get our food. Pigeons and rabbits, people would be welcome to forage those everywhere across the country and town, but cognescenti wait for the right moment, i.e. respectful. The best time to get a pigeon is just a day before it flies the nest (while its still called a squab) and the time for rabbits is when they are quite young and not very fast. I wouldn't be wanting to eat them because of the amount of agrichemical trash in their diets. They are traditionally domestic animals though, popularised through capacity to breed prolifically and docile enough to accept humans raising them for the pot.

KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Really ? > Are jumbo jets used to fly-in vegetables and meat > for UK consumption ? > I'd like more detail on which of my groceries > arrive by jet. All you need do is look for 'country of origin' on the packaging, e.g. in the Spring I bought some watercress and once I got home and put my specs on saw it had come from Florida, well, that can't have been sent by boat, can it. Cut flowers present more of a problem to trace back to country of origin. Mixed bouquets use supplies sent through a central Dutch hub, assembling and distributing worldwide....by plane. More shops prominently label UK grown things now, so we can choose.

Sick to death of the planes again here, isn't the rota ever going to move them off? Late Sunday afternoon/evening the airport must be totally stuffed with arrivals. Extra noisy Jumbos growl in with the red-eye flights from USA, and this morning's skies are packed again. Have been enduring one every minute and a half. Surely humankind can organise less wasteful systems for lots of this stuff is perishable food, which could be grown closer to home.

If anyone is interested there was a good comment posted here http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/22367623 a few months ago. Sorry - that link does not take you to the exact bit - here's the salient paragraph: "People need to know that there might be specific rules or by-laws against picking wildflowers in publically accessible woods. In other words if people are seen collecting Ramsons by those who manage the woodland, they could get in trouble for breaching rules or by-laws....In many publically accessible woods picking wildflowers is strictly forbidden." So, would it be better if Wild Garlic was grown in kitchen gardens? Its seeds could be collected, but getting colonies to increase in size takes many decades, hence their association with old woodland. Taking the green top part off bulbs reduces strength for next year, the one big leaf needs to harness sunlight and build up for the flower phase. Hence the 'design is wrong' for cutting regularly.

OK, let's get problem solving. Would be heartbroken if Woods had to be locked, security cameras installed, and footpaths closed to prevent this kind of pillage. A new & welcome enthusiasm has been swept in by TV programmes like Springwatch, and Fergly-Wergly, and now it needs to promote better attitudes. Learning to respect the natural world is crucial for people to live and work more ethically, and for coming generations. The National Curriculum has been allowed to squeeze this topic out to the edges. High % of people have grown up blind to the harm being done all around in industrialised farming and local council green space work. When everywhere we see flail machines, strimmers and chainsaws smashing the verges & hedgerows all at wrong times of year and for the wrong reasons, how is that different to spoiling the canalside eldertrees by wrenching off all the flowers? Another problem about foraging is set to worsen in the recession. It's likely wild garlic plants were taken by people thinking 'money' regularly supplying restaurants and posh greengrocers. Fungi are getting picked from Epping Forest more than ever before, and plenty of wild-caught venison enters the moonlight economy as well. A bit of lucrative poaching is just as logical to some people as it ever was, but there'll be new desperation and ruthlessness when folk have to tighten their belts. I wish that the Sydenham Woods Warden didn't have to worry about the wild garlic and other flora & fauna in his care. It feels like a greedy, hurtful crime to take these things here, in the middle of a great urban environment, where only small pockets of wildlife keep hold. But all over SW England the garlic grows alongside rivers by the acre, where HF-W is living and writing from. So one perspective on this: is the general abundance or otherwise of a species part of the debate?

One thing you might be glad to know about that's free, spacious, and nice for young children - play and picnic areas are nearby in Peckham Park. Harmony is preserved by keeping the dogs out of these sections. Horniman Museum gardens are free too - there are gorgeous outdoor musical instruments to try....your son can see plenty of birds and animals and food plants + lots of green, run-around space as well.

well spotted, bawdy-nan. The writer doesn't name the deli, I suppose for the newspaper's 'legal reasons'. A lovely hardy herb garden plant called Garlic Chives is really worth growing. It flowers late in the summer. http://www.floralencounters.com/graphics/Seeds/garlic_chives_whole.jpg Tastes milder than wild or clove garlic and its perennial leaves are perfect for adding to salads, omelettes, hummus etc.

My son and daughter are 2 years apart - in their late 30's now. I brought them up to be kind to each other, because that seems basic; you don't know whether you will love your sibling, and I think that is less the issue than parents ensuring each one learns to respect the other. I didn't load expectation on the older one to enjoy the baby when she was little, but worked hard to give each of them age-appropriate care and toys. As they neared 2 and 4 their own good playful friendship blossomed. When they got older and other pals came along to our house they would be friends with both, much to my relief, as at junior school all the boys and girls separate so rapidly. Being there for them and ready to help them shrink quarrels is still important to me, it will be all my life. I think you can read between the lines of this letter & guess at some failings of my upbringing that needed rectifying. But this is the part parenting plays in evolution - throw out what was bad and then improve childcare each generation. Some crippling bits of script are traceable to grandparents. If you are astutely helped in therapy you may locate them.

yeknomyeknom Yesterday, 09:16PM said: Has anyone noticed way more flies than normal? Also wood lice. Yes. The weather conditions make a 'boom', after weeks of shortage. It is often the way with insects. Many other creatures will line up to take advantage of sudden generous supplies, e.g. am hopeful for recovering numbers of amphibians, small mammals & insectivorous birds whose young need to feed just now. I heard that a swallow can gather 3,000 mosquitoes in a single day.

My confidence in local Councillors would increase, if they could get sorted out about Camberwell OLD Cemetery, and Camberwell NEW Cemetery please. These issues matter far too much for everyone, to allow 'blind spots'. It must be costing a great deal to hire tree surgeons and pay grass cutters; I want to see that taxpayers money stops going on ill thought out, untimely things that harm the biodiversity. Mr Barber, last time I looked you had not read either of my PMs to you. Can the discussion get moving along, for the sake of the environmental health of the borough, please.

People who are fond of taking pics might like 'Abandoned Places' theme - 18 days to send in your contributions https://witness.guardian.co.uk/assignment/51bf1439e4b08f0b0eb201ae

Dear Shaila, please leave them outside your front gate for a day, you might find a grateful gardener picks them up.

Seen yesterday, exquisite tiny Mint Moth, Pyrausta aurata. Territory an area of front doorsteps with herbs in crates & pots.

'Ere, you speak for yourself, darlin'

My research went as far as this forum in 2012, so if you were in touch with the council more recently, ladyinred, then it's either a newer development or I was misinformed in the 1st place. wee queenie, making dry hedges is only going to suit gardeners who have the space. You make an undisturbed "hedge" of dry brushwood and prunings, it will soon be a nest site for garden birds, safe from predators for a few years. Gradually the hedge breaks up & is absorbed into topsoil. This is much less harmful than fires.

I'd like to know what's happening to 'Golden City' at the corner of Landcroft and Whateley Rds. Such a sad sight, almost derelict....