Dropped off a trailer-load of globe thistles (Echinops ritro), yellow-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium striatum) and giant yellow scabious (Cephalaria gigantea) to start off the new gardens at the entrance to Oliver Close off the Thames Road.

A passerby stops and asks that we create a path with stepping stones through the new bed, as the cars parked across the pavement block the way for buggies and the disabled. I look at her in astonishment, and point out that the disabled couldn’t use the stepping stones anyhow, and wouldn’t the obvious solution be to stop the cars parking across the pavement? She agrees that everyone, including schoolchildren do have to walk in the middle of the road around the parked cars and that it’s very dangerous. It seems to me that now she looks at the situation as though the scales have suddenly fallen from her eyes.

The residents, who have spent many weekends over the summer preparing the new beds – clearing away rubbish, weeds, old membrane and gravel from the area – will finally start planting this weekend.