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.
Task Day 08 June 2024
Mixed weather but we're ready for Marple Carnival!
This weekend's task day was punctuated with showers but also lovely sunshine. We wanted to get the park in good shape for next weekend's Carnival, so we did some weeding and edging on the flower beds, and trimmed some hedges. We also did our normal litter pick and tended the allotment beds, which are now showing some good growth. Some of the slats on the play park fence needed to be replaced too. Meanwhile, we were pleased to see that the Council has repaired the roof of the former Bowling Pavilion after we spotted a damaged ridge tile.
Task Day 25 May 2024
Could it be true that the sun shines on the righteous?
A glorious sunny day for our task day. The recent warm wet weather had meant rapid growth of weeds as well as growth of the flowers and shrubs in the flower beds and the allotment beds. An excellent turnout of volunteers did much hoeing, weeding, edging and careful hedge trimming as well as planting the new bedding plants.
We tidied up the wooded area by cleaning tree trunks, pulling up saplings and doing some pruning. The grass in the band garden was mowed and the area tidied up. Litter picking, clearing round the main park entrance and a major snail hunt within the hostas in the flower beds were other tasks successfully carried out. A really good and enjoyable task day.
Task Day 11 May 2024
Beautiful weather for our regular task day and it was great to see the Park being used to the full.
Our jobs included getting the beds ready for the summer flowers bought from the Scouts and Guides, which will go in next time. We also trimmed edges and hedges and actually needed to water the recently planted allotment area. We also tidied up some fallen branches in the woodland area.
Task Day 27 April 2024
Dry at last for a really good task day!
Some dry weather at last allowed us to have a concentrated attack on the weeds in the flowerbeds and to tidy up and prune the bushes near the Band Room. The wildflower bed is developing well now but as some will know this is a longer term project that takes time to give a colourful result. We were delighted to have four new volunteers to join our band of regulars. This meant we had over 20 working away in the park, so thanks to everyone and to those passers-by who put some much appreciated change into our collection box.
Just a note for those who have read the great article in Marple Review. We have, since this article was written, decided to keep with the pattern of two task days a month during Summer.
Task Day 13 April 2024
April showers don't stop our volunteers caring for the park
Despite a showery day lots of volunteers worked through the rain, concentrating on weeding all the flower beds.
We also planted seeds in the vegetable and fruit raised allotment beds, so we hope to get some produce growing later in the year.
Task Day 30 March 2024
End of an era for Friends of Marple Memorial Park
A fine sunny day and an excellent turnout of volunteers marked a changing of the guard for Friends of the Park. This was supposed to be the final task day that Mark and Gill would lead but unfortunately Gill had to be elsewhere due to a family illness and it was left to Mark to handover her trowel and his keys to incoming chairman Malcolm Allan.
Although Gill couldn't be there, it's great that Bob Wilson could, exactly 10 years to the day after he retired as the last fulltime Park Keeper.
