Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days

Although the photos make it look like a brilliant summer's day it still managed rain more than once during today's tasks. These included more weeding of the War Memorial beds as we finished soiling up ready for planting. The weeds are becoming quite a serious problem here actually and we may need to tackle these in a different way before adding new plants. A small contingent from the Stockport Youth Offending Team also joined in to help trim the shrubs around the Infants Play Area. Adrian and Mark had a tidy up around the Tree Sculpture and it was fantastic to see how many people stopped to look at this and talk about it or take photographs.

No action photographs this month due to the horrendous weather but despite all the rain the Friends of the Park did manage to do some litter picking and tidying up of the park ready for the Locks Festival the following day. In addition, the Youth Offending Team braved the wet weather and joined us to plant up the flowerbed nearest to the library. We'll perhaps add a photograph of this if it ever stops raining for long enough to take one!

The Friends continued work to improve the War Memorial flower beds by adding new topsoil around the rocks placed during the last couple of task days. The site where the locks display had been was also soiled over and the old plants removed from the main flower beds around the stone bird bath in front of the Council Offices.

A beautiful sunny April day saw the Friends continue their work to improve the War Memorial flower beds. The remainder of the old rockery stones were returned to the beds and the existing shrubs cut back to accommodate them. The stones were arranged under the artistic direction of Community Parks Officer Bob Wilson and to be honest looked pretty good when we'd finished. Next task is to soil up around the stones ready for planting. The Friends also mulched about 50% of the flowerbed near the Sun Dial to keep down the weeds.

A group of the Friends also had a look inside the Park Cottage to get an idea of its size and to think about a possible use for it. The building is structurally sound but has been neglected badly and it is going to cost a lot of money to return it to a usable condition. Funding the cost of this work is currently the biggest stumbling block to overcome.

A good turnout saw the Friends working in a number of areas. The large flowerbed between the Bowling Green and the Council Offices was mulched with wood chippings to keep the weeds down. The hedge bordering the Bowling Green was cleared of leaves and tidied up and around 50% of the original rockery stones were returned to the flowerbeds surrounding the War Memorial.

In addition, a new notice board was installed by the Parks Team near to the Infants Play Area, so that hopefully the Friends can reach a larger audience with details of their Task Days and other activities.