Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days
The Friends hold regular task days in the park on the last Saturday of each month in the winter and the middle and last Saturday from March to November. Everyone is welcome to join in for as long or as short they wish during the specified times. Please note that children and young people under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
If you are interested becoming a volunteer with us please get in touch and we will add you to our Task Day notifications.
We like to keep a record of what we get up and here are details of past task days.
Summer work in the park
We were blessed with another fine day for our work day on Saturday, although it was very close and warm and therefore tiring for all our volunteers. We managed to do a lot of things that are priorities at this time of year. The recent rain, added to the warm weather, has given the weeds in the flower beds an unwelcome boost so that was one of the main jobs. We also cut back some of the lavender, got rid of some bamboo and planted the remainder of the bulbs very kindly donated by Dobbies. The grass has grown quickly too, so we did as much edging as we could; along the flower beds, around the flagpole and along some of the paths. We also tended to Danny Winter's planters which are looking very colourful.
At last we managed to make a start on the renovation of the boule court. Despite having done some trial digs a few weeks ago we found that when we got down to it, the under layer of wood was also rotten as well as the top layer. Not to be deterred we excavated both layers and use the wood delivered to build a completely new boundary edge at the top end of the court. This was hard work but we had a really skillful team on the job and made tremendous progress. There's obviously much more to do, but having figured out what's involved, the rest will be much easier.
Thanks again to all the support and donations from the passersby in the park.
Sunny Saturday at the Flower Beds!
We were blessed with good weather again at our latest task day. The rain had helped to get everything growing again, including the weeds! We had plenty of things to plant too. Firstly some more of our volunteers brought some of the cosmos they'd grown at home from seeds we'd supplied. We also had a very generous donation of bulbs from Dobbie's in Otterspool. It's a bit late for some of them but even if they don't flower this year, we'll see them next year.
Other jobs include tidying the beds including the memorial bed and those around the clematis at the bowling green fence, some sapling maintenance, general tidying and mowing work at the Band Room, litter picking, edge trimming and plenty of weeding, both on the beds and on the pathways.
Thanks for all the well-wishers' comments as they passed by. It is always appreciated!
Watering was the priority!
We started the session with very pleasant cooler working conditions than we've had lately but the sun came out later and got it back to being warm for working. Given the very dry weather lately, we spent a lot of time and effort watering the beds. We're also making sure our emerging grass seed is getting enough water. We also weeded the flower beds and memorial tubs, put in some new bedding plants (bought via our local Scouts and Guides) and tidied up the edges round the beds. We also weeded and tidied up around the war memorial and under a lot of the benches. The cup of tea at break time was very welcome!
A good number of volunteers undertook a variety of tasks
We had a big focus on the shrub and flower bed by the band room entrance, cutting back a little and generally tidying up. We did all our usual weeding and tidying jobs in the flower beds, and the other normal activities; litter picking and re-treating some of the benches with preservative.
There's often handy tasks to do and we repaired the broken stake around our wild flower bed. This week, we needed to water our newly seeded bare areas by the football pitches - not something we normally would have to do this time of year. We also watered some of those plants we've retained in pots which will go back into the bed after the construction.
It was good to be out in the welcome sunshine on Saturday!
Quite a few of our volunteers are away at this time of year but we still had a good turnout and got through a lot of work. We weeded and tidied up the flower beds which are looking nicely colourful now. We also did some watering! In April!
This is a good time of year to sow grass seed so we have seeded the two large bare patches in the old football pitch - we filed them up with soil last year. The areas are covered by tape at present mainly to keep off the birds. We also did some tidying up at the Band Room. Always a litter pick too! We went round all the older planted trees which are outgrowing their supports, replacing the ties where necessary and getting rid of the stakes where they are no longer helping support. Yesterday was also the start of our annual Little Growers event where we give our younger (or young at heart!) gardeners a pot and seed to start growing a flower at home, and eventually bring it back to us for planting in the beds.
People might like to note that a dozen trees have been planted temporarily in the corner between the Bowling Green and the football pitch. These will eventually be replanted around the new Hub building but can't be put in yet due to the construction work.
Lastly, a huge thanks for the donations placed in our collection bucket. These contributions are really appreciated and people were especially generous this time - thanks so much!
A fine, sunny morning on the last Saturday in March saw an intrepid band of fifteen volunteers cheerfully helping to maintain our park as the splendid place it is.
The flower beds are looking especially attractive at this time of year with spring flowers in full bloom. We continued weeding and generally tidying them up. The snowdrops have now finished flowering so bunches of them were split and replanted, ensuring that there will be twice as many spread around the park next spring.
Other tasks included pruning the roses and hawthorn around the band-room garden, cutting back brambles on the woodland walk, removing docks from the wildflower patch, examining and loosening the ties around saplings that were planted three years ago and trimming the shoots from the bases of mature trees. And, of course, the on-going litter-pick which doesn't seem to be so needed at the moment.
Thanks go out to all members of the public who support us in various ways and especially to the two young couples on a passing canal boat who insisted on giving us biscuits to enjoy with our tea and coffee at break time.
