News

Two amazing gardens in Lee will be open this Sunday as part of the National Gardens Scheme.

Silvia Marciante-Green, a well-known and successful local garden designer, will be opening her remarkable garden at the Basement Flat at 110 Burnt Ash Hill (SE12 0HT). She has created it over the last 10 years . It is enclosed by mature trees and features Mediterranean raised beds, a rain garden, and a cool woodland area where roses mix with hydrangeas and acers. A large collection of over sixty roses, along with specimen plants and perennials, creates a biodiverse garden teeming with life. Silvia will also be selling plants.

Developed over 25 yrs – and open for the National Garden Scheme for over 20 years – the garden at 41 Southbrook Rd (E12 8LJ) features a formal layout with wide, mixed herbaceous borders full of colour, surrounded by mature trees that frame sunny lawns, an immaculate central box parterre, and an Indian pergola. Ancient pear trees are festooned in May and June with large clouds of white Kiftsgate and Rambling Rector roses. Discover fish and damselflies in two lily ponds.

Home made teas will be available at both gardens. They will be open from 1.00 pm to 5.30 pm, and you can buy tickets on the door or in advance via the National Gardens Scheme website. map. The website has full details of the scheme.

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By Dan Griffin

There are plenty of things growing nicely in the Lee Manor Community Garden as we approach the end of May. Garlic, runner beans, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, lettuce, courgettes, potatoes, strawberries, gooseberries and rhubarb are all making an appearance. 

Saturday 9th May saw us open as part of the annual Lee Manor Society Plant Mart and it was a great success. We had various seedlings grown by LMCG volunteers and kindly donated by various other people, and we sold out in under 45 mins! Money raised will go towards maintaining the community garden, and the other LMS aims: tree-planting, graffiti removal, helping to resolve Conservation Area planning issues and more. 

The LMCG is open to all and we always welcome new recruits – no experience of gardening necessary! Whatever we harvest we share between us. 

The summer dates are below – please just turn up and introduce yourself and we can add you to the WhatsApp group if you are interested.

All Sundays, 2.30 – 4.30

May 24th

June 14th

June 28th

July 12th

July 26th

Aug 9th

Aug 23rd

Sept 6th

Find out more on the Community Garden page.

London Square is inviting the Lee community to suggest names for the new buildings being put up on the old Leegate site, now being marketed as Lee Green.

Vanessa Joyce, London Square’s Senior Development Manager told the Lee Manor Society they are looking for names for nine building entrances, and the internal roads, so are keen to get as many suggestions as possible. She has asked the Lee Manor Society to coordinate with other groups and societies in the area to get as many ideas as possible.

The important guidelines are:

• They prefer names with local historical significance
• You can’t have names which already exist in the borough (it confuses the postmen)
• Names should be easy to pronounce and not awkward to spell
• You can’t have a building or street name starting with “The”
• Building names should use one of these suffixes: House, Court, Lodge, Mansions, Apartments, Point (residential only). Tower or Heights should only be used for high blocks (residential or offices).

If you have suggestions, please put them in the comment box below or email them to leemanorsociety@gmail.com

Vanessa Joyce says the final decisions will rest with London Square, Lewisham Council, the Post Office and Clarion Housing association (for Block B).

Meanwhile London Square has told us it has moved the hoarding line adjacent to Carston Close to make access easier.

Residents , please let us know if it is better now.

This article has been updated

Volunteers have begun a crowd-funding effort to renovate the playground in Manor House Gardens.

They say the play area has outdated grey surfacing installed over 20 years ago, unsafe flooring, and several pieces of broken equipment and it currently offers very limited activities for younger children.

Tima Jam, from Art Voyage which is behind the project, says they want to transform the playground into a colourful , more inclusive and inspiring space for local families and young people. She has the support, she says, of Arts Council England, Lewisham Council, Friends of Manor House Gardens, and Glendale Services.

As part of the project the team is conducting a survey of people who live or work in Lee. The feedback from the survey will help them campaign for new funding.

You can find the survey here.