Wansteadium

After our post about the peril of Canadian Fleabane, gardening heroine Marian Temple answers the query about what to do after you’ve pulled the weed out of the ground.

For goodness sake, don’t just leave it there. If it’s in flower (they just look like little buds – very inconspicuous) or it’s already making seeds (fluffy seed heads) and it’s left to dry, it will be in seventh Heaven. Seeds will develop and float off. Yippee for it, but not for us. Put it in a plastic bag and get rid of it. If it already has seed heads, cut it from the base and handle it gently so that the seeds don’t fly all over the place.

And to show she means business, she’s arranging a Wanstead Community Gardeners’ Fleabane Bash.

Next Week on Tuesday 26th and Thursday 28th July, meet outside the public toilets on Woodbine Place at 6.30pm for a trundle around the outskirts of Christ Church Green to hoik out unsuspecting Fleabane. It’s beginning to flower so needs dealing with asap. Good opportunity for identifying this weed. Once you’ve taken part in a Fleabane Bash, you will always know it. Meet me, Marian Temple, there… and what do I look like???? Simple. I’m part of a clone, the 60-somethingish, short grey hair and glasses clone. There are about 30.000 of us in Wanstead alone but this particular one will be lurking by the public toilets next week, Tues and Thurs 6.30. BRING YOUR KILLER INSTINCT!

…now you don’t. Wansteadium tries to pay attention to matters big and small around Wanstead, but confesses the removal of two trees outside Sumo Fresh/Zoology/Long Horn passed it by.

They were there when Wansteadium last looked (and the metal cage was actually used as an impromptu bike rack) but now they’re not. It’s as if they never existed. Except Google Streetview tells us we’re not going mad.

Any intelligence out there, please report it below.

• Incidentally, while on the subject of this part of town, congratulations to Zoology which earlier this month was named as one of the finalists in the Salon Business Awards.

Reader Gug Kyriacou writes: “Just to let you know. Redbridge council has been in touch to say, “They we’re removed as there was some construction that needed to take pace underground because the trees on that location kept dying. This work has now been completed and the trees will be replaced closer to the winter.”

Guerrilla gardener Marian Temple writes: “Now that the council have run out of cash and have stopped spraying our tree surrounds and pavement cracks to death, there are all sorts of delights popping up in cracks, poppies, linaria, even lavender seedlings. There are the usual wayside weeds but one in particular will probably take over Wanstead and the world.

I have to admire its sneakiness. It’s quite a strapping looking thing and as most people assume that weeds are weedy looking and garden plants are legal looking, it escapes attention and sends its thousands of seeds to populate any crack in the pavement or unsuspecting garden.

From its leaves, it looks like a tall wallflower, or maybe a golden rod. It goes from bud to fluffy seed head with amazing speed. The flowers are totally unnoticeable. It can be a mere 6” high or a strapping 3 foot mini shrub. I would suggest that people get rid of it as soon as they see it. Once it is covered with fluffy seed heads, it’s much more difficult to deal with and needs to be carefully cut from the base and put into a plastic bag to prevent the seeds flying to pastures new.

We are into a new era now with money being in such short supply. Things that were automatically done by the council in the past are no longer being done. So maybe we have to readjust our thinking, keep an eye on our public spaces and be more proactive if bodily condition allows. Hoiking out Canadian fleabane on sight would be a good start, not too arduous in fact probably good exercise.

There is a silver lining to the Canadian fleabane cloud. Perhaps in a strange way, we owe our much-loved Corner House Garden (the one on the High St opposite the Coop) to this particular weed. Some years ago I had been watching with sinking heart the demise of this garden. Not only was it full of take-away rubbish, but had spawned a harvest of Canadian fleabane loaded with fluffy seed heads just waiting for the first breath of wind to send seeds all over Wanstead. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and had me reaching for my secateurs. All was cut and carefully put in plastic sacks.

Something more long term was needed for this prime garden patch on the High Street. The Wanstead Society approached the council with the idea of taking it over as an honorary Wanstead flower bed. All was agreed and hey presto! We have had 13 years of that lovely High Street cottage garden. Many thanks to Canadian fleabane, but please rip it up when you see it.

• This is repost of an article we originally published last August. With the weed sprouting all over Wanstead again we thought it timely to give it another airing.

Sultan Road’s vinyl giveaway continues – piles of old LPs stacked on a wall for anyone to help themselves to – including for the first time in a long time, Bombalurina and Timmy Mallett. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Wansteadium loves to catalogue instances of Wanstead appearing on film. We’re not sure what the filming in Warren Drive at the end of last week will turn out to be, but any suggestions are welcome. Thanks to spotter Mike Withnall.

Update: Wansteadium reader Charlotte writes:

They were filming the Hatton Garden Heist in and around the Cricket/Tennis Club on Friday. The crew and location trucks (food, makeup etc) were set up in the car park of the cricket club and they were filming inside Linkside clubhouse and down by the lake. I am not sure if it’s a movie or for TV but it stars Larry Lamb, Phil Daniels and Matthew Goode (Downton). Matthew Goode was spotted a few times preparing for his scenes whilst we watched the cricket! Looks like they may also have been filming the same thing in Warren Drive too. I hope this solves the Mystery.

Best
Charlotte