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.
A productive spring day for volunteers in Marple Memorial Park
A couple of early-bird starters did some tidying work around the library and on the Jubilee Flowerbed before heading off for other commitments. Those able to stay got stuck into clearing ash saplings along the canal-side woodland perimeter, worked on the allotment beds we've recently taken over, split and replanted Snowdrops all around the park, picked litter and began a spring clean-up of park benches and fixtures and fittings like signs and noticeboards. We rounded off with a clear-up of the Sensory Garden and a tidy of the Scout Hut bed.
Thank you to our supporters who popped a total of £29.50 into our collection bucket!
Spring is in the air with Snowdrops and Crocuses putting on a great display!
Today we worked on clearing the flowerbeds ready for new growth plus some hard pruning of shrub beds before nesting season begins. We also replanted behind the Toilet Block after receiving replacement plants from the council because one of their contractors trashed the planting we established back in 2015 while they were clearing out the gutter last year.
Thank you to park visitors who placed over £10 in our collection bucket.
Great to get our volunteers back in the park after such a long break!
We were last in the park on 12 November, that's the longest break we've had for many years and it was great to get back and get stuck in!
We got an early start to install our new sign at the skatepark while the majority of our volunteers piled onto the War Memorial beds. Others started tidying the woodland and creating wildlife habitats where we've had a few large branches come down. We did some work on the shrubs around the back of the Play Area and planted bulbs around the hard-standing of the Roundels Art Project too. Last but not least, we also got started on our project to overhaul the allotment beds now that we've accepted them back from Marple Allotment Association.
Thank you to members of the public who placed over £21 in our collection bucket during the day.
Time to take the decorations down!
Installing and removing the Nativity Sculptures on Market Street has become our traditional task for the end of each year and start of the new.
This morning we had to chuckle at the aviator sunglasses Mary was wearing when we turned up to take them back into storage.
The Park is ready for Remembrance Sunday
We had a great turnout of volunteers to help put the final touches to preparations of the park for this year's Remembrance Sunday Service.
Thank you to the park visitors who deposited over £25 in our collection bucket!
Thanks also to Hollins of Marple for the donation of a wheelbarrow full of perennial plants for the park flowerbeds!
Getting ready for Remembrance
Over the next couple of task days we'll be focussed on getting the park ready for Remembrance. Our volunteers were busy on the main flowerbeds this task day but our regular cameraman was absent. So we are delighted to share a couple of photos taken by one of the Totally Local Company operatives recently on an atmospheric early morning.
This is a great opportunity to say thank you to the operatives at the sharp-end whose efforts often complement our own!
