The team behind a community art project that attempts to brighten up a patch of roadside grass are fundraising to continue their work.

Trees on the Green, run by 59-year-old Joe Grossi, is made up of three wooden structures in Rushey Green, Catford, that are decorated by schools and community groups to mark various holidays and causes.

The structures were created in 2015 when Mr Grossi, who lives in Rosenthal Road, applied for a grant from Lewisham council but the initial grant has now run out.

Mr Grossi said: “In Catford people dump things on the street corners, and we thought, we can recycle some of this wood.

“The idea was to build three trees right in the middle of Catford and Rushey Green, a big tree had fallen down there so there was a space.

“The idea was that there would be recycled trees on the site where the tree had fallen down, and we would decorate the trees to make it like a calendar.”

Mr Gossi, alongside volunteers, community groups and school classes, has decorated the trees for a wide variety of occasions.

News Shopper:

The trees have been decorated for Valentine’s Day, St David’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, World Water Day and World Cancer Day to name just a few.

They have also become a symbol of the community in Catford and Rushey Green, Mr Grossi said: “We get so many positive responses, there was an older guy and he said ‘bless you, I love it when I come past and I see all the stuff, all these people helping'.

“I thought I would cover it with flags to mark a United Nations day, that's when I discovered how many countries there were.

“One woman came up and she said I think it is wonderful, you've even got my country there.”

Mr Grossi, who says he has pumped a lot of his own money into the project, has been trying to raise £3,597 on Spacehive, with the understanding that Lewisham council will match what is raised.

However they still have more than £600 to raise, and according to Spacehive’s terms and conditions they will not get any of the money unless they raise the full amount.

Mr Grossi said: “If we don’t reach the target we don’t get anything.

“It would just mean taking the whole lot down, it will just be back to dying grass and it used to be somewhere a lot of people drink, they just sit there and sometimes it gets a bit rowdy.

“When we first built it, it was a pretty ugly structure, but it all makes sense when you start to decorate it.”

TOP STORIES