Loveliest of trees (2)

Spring has sprung in our streets!

Excited sponsors have begun sending in pictures of their precious charges as they begin to flower and show some green. Here are two ornamental cherry trees (prunus accolade) which were planted only last year - and look how well they are doing! These are only two of the 81 trees planted this winter in Lewisham borough. All are due to fund-raising by residents.

One cherry is in Hawstead Road, Rushey Green, and the other in Tressillian Road, Brockley.

We are aware of over 50 people in and around Hawstead Road who want to see more street trees planted and we are working with them and our friends in the area to make that happen.

Please keep your pictures coming and we will, with great joy, post them here on the blog. And please spread the word as it is hard to think of a better way to spend some pounds!

A New Year, and our new name!

Spring has arrived and it’s the perfect time to officially launch the new name and logo for Brockley Society’s street tree programme.

The programme will now be known as Street Trees for Living. We believe it better reflects the committee’s partnership with Lewisham Council and its objective of planting street trees beyond Brockley.

Last month’s award of £18,000 to the campaign by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will fund a further 75 trees on our streets and was the final spur for a name change. Under the terms of the grant, the funded trees are particularly for low canopy cover wards such as Whitefoot, Downham, Brockley (north of Lewisham Way), Catford South, Evelyn and New Cross wards. Our old name was no longer a true reflection of the work we do and will do in the future.

Though still under the umbrella of Brockley Society, the new name is an exciting statement as to why these trees are fundamental to our community. At the end of this calendar year, 250 new trees will have been planted in the borough’s streets since 2012.

To go with the new name, we now also have a wonderful logo. Designed by Luke Merryweather of Rago Works in Deptford, we think it works as a simple but clever visual message and we love it! We hope you do too.

A London-based graphic designer & artist who specialises in design for independent businesses, Luke spoke to us about how he created the Street Trees for Living logo.

“I have a folder of scanned leaves on my Mac and zooming in I noticed how much the veins on each leaf look like streets,” he explained. “I then matched this with a section of a map of South London.”

He considered using the shape of a beech leaf instead of the circle but rejected it as too literal. The choice of the shade of green suggests bright, fresh growth. Luke’s design for the Street Trees for Living logo seemed to be just waiting for him to “find” it but some designs take longer than others.

“Usually it's trying to over-complicate things that causes problems,” he explained. “I work designs to a point and then strip the bark back - ha ha.”

Asked which well-known logo particularly clicked for him, he offered that of Penguin books - “I love that logo in all its historic forms”.

Luke can be found via his website: www.ragoworks.com

A Tale of Two Trees ...

Spotted early Saturday morning in at the bottom of Tanners Hill, this maple (acer campestre) was being lovingly tended by a nearby resident. Weeds removed, food given for the coming growing season and some colourful spring companions going in. Well done! It would be wonderful to see as many locals as possible doing the same for their street trees in the next couple of weeks (at least, the more established ones - younger plantings tend to like being free of competition). What a spring we would have in our borough!

At the other end of the spectrum and across the other side of the borough, a very sorry sight at Brockley Cross. Last weekend a car managed to wipe out bollards, signs and, more distressingly, a rowan (sorbus aria) street tree. 

Photo courtesy @BrockleyCentral via @masalawalacafe

It seems this tree location is cursed - the tree under there somewhere is the third tree to have been lost in that location. The first died through drought back in 2012, the second was wantonly destroyed by vandals in 2013 ...

... and now this. Fortunately no-one was hurt in this incident; the driver and occupant reportedly ran away after the crash, but what spell or chant is needed to keep the next replacement rowan safe?!