For years, a small dead-end section of Sandrock Road, between Ladywell and Hilly Fields, was a persistent fly-tipping hotspot, writes local resident and community gardener Anna.
Mattresses, furniture, builders’ waste, shopping trolleys and bags of rubbish regularly appeared beside the pedestrian alley.
When the council cleared it, residents would enjoy a few days of relief, and then the rubbish would return. Eventually, the fly-tipping became so normal that it felt just completely hopeless.
Then, earlier this year, 18 rather unremarkable plants from a neighbour’s front garden unexpectedly provided the beginning of a solution: the plants needed a new home and residents realised they could use them to create a green barrier along the dumping spot.
A small fundraiser paid for some inexpensive planters and, within days, the amount of fly-tipping began to fall. That encouraged residents to keep going.
We collected second-hand planters through Facebook Marketplace and received donated plants from neighbours and local businesses.
A greenhouse cabinet became a community book swap; we added a bench, children’s chalk and toys, a mud kitchen, bird feeders and gardening tools.
Fruit, vegetables and herbs were planted for children to discover, alongside pollinator-friendly planting. The more the garden grew, the less rubbish appeared.
he final breakthrough came when Lewisham council removed a public bin which had continued to attract occasional dumping. Since then, fly-tipping has almost completely disappeared.
Today, Sandrock Road Community Garden is no longer an experiment: it is an established little community space, with neighbours looking after it, children stopping to play and people exchanging books, plants and conversations.
You can follow the garden and its progress on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sandrockroadcommunitygarden/).
There are plans to develop it further, and we are currently fundraising through Collectiv (https://pay.collctiv.com/sandrock-road-community-garden-94032?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio) to help make some of those ideas possible.
But perhaps the most important thing the garden has grown is a sense of possibility.
Fly-tipping remains a serious problem across Lewisham, and not every hotspot will have the same solution.
What we learned, though, felt worth sharing. We have now started Lewisham Community Gardens, a Facebook group where residents across the borough can share ideas, resources and experience, and hopefully help other neglected corners become something better.