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 28 August 2010
A miserably wet morning didn't bode well for our French Boules Tournament in the afternoon and all we managed was a bit of weeding around the ornamental flowerbeds in between the showers before getting set up for that. By 12.30 pm we had gazebos up but it was lashing down and looking very bleak. Typical August weather! Thankfully as people started to arrive things started to look a bit better and as it turned out it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. To read more about the tournament visit the French Boules Court Project page.
Task Day 31 July 2010
A damp summer day but thankfully it didn't chuck it down until after we'd finished. The Pear sculpture was returned to its rightful place next to the apple at the back of the library. The ornamental beds are looking lush and bright after plenty of rain and now look even better following weeding and dead-heading. We also managed to do some more lopping and pruning in a couple of the shrub beds. A productive day!
Task Day 26 June 2010
Proper June weather at last allowed us to get on with the job of sanding down and treating the sculpture behind the library, which we'd put off from the May task day. In addition, more of the Friends joined in with pupils from Marple Hall to weed and mulch the shrub bed nearest the entrance and also to do part of the bed alongside the cinema.
Sadly Marple Hall will miss the next two task days due to the school holidays but we look forward to welcoming them back in September as they have been a huge help in maintaining the park already this year.
This month, as well as our normal task day on the last Saturday, two members helped to plant up the ornamental flower beds in coalition government colours (we're assured it's a coincidence) before Carnival Day.
Task Day 29 May 2010
Despite the miserable weather we still had a couple of Marple Hall pupils and their teacher turn up, which is fantastic! The old die-hards were there too and between us all we managed to get the ornamental beds weeded and ready for the summer bedding to go in, which will start to make the park look much brighter and sunnier even if the weather doesn't play ball.
We had been planning to sand down the sculpture in the Breathing Places area but that was scuppered by the rain and put off until next month. Will it rain in June too?
Task Day 24 April 2010
We were very pleased to welcome back pupils from Marple Hall School on an absolutely perfect day for working in the park. They made a fantastic job of re-planting the Oldknow Shuttle Stone flower bed with new plants and also did some weeding of the ornamental beds ready for summer bedding, which will go in soon. Thank you Marple Hall!
The Friends of the Park tackled another of the large shrub bed and treated the tree sculpture and ground sculptures with preservative. We also weeded the War Memorial beds, which are looking very dry at the moment and - dare we say it - could do with a bit of rain!
Task Day 27 March 2010
We were delighted to be joined by pupils from Marple Hall School this month, who worked hard on tidying up and re-planting the sensory garden. They seemed to enjoy it and we hope that they will want to come again. The Friends of the Park tackled the first shrub bed nearest the entrance to the park and gave that a good pruning and cleared it of litter. The old log bench near the entrance has long been past its best and we had arranged for it to be chopped up into sections so that it could be transported to the Breathing Places area behind the library, where it will create happy homes for hundreds of creepy-crawlies! Whilst in the Breathing Places Area we also conducted a limited amount of pruning to encourage new growth. Sadly Bill and Ben are no more, but they were fun while they lasted and they too will now rot down for the insects.
