Friends of Memorial Park Task Days in 2007
Here are details of our task days in 2007.
A cold and wet Saturday morning saw Marple's Beaver Scouts planting hedgerows in the Breathing Places woodland behind the library, see the Breathing Places page for more details of this event. We didn't manage to catch Adrian leaning on his spade this month as the Beaver had them all! We were also joined by Wayne Bardsley, Warden of Etherow Country Park, who came along to give us advice on birds boxes, bat boxes and wildlife habitats for the Breathing Places area.
The ground sculptures produced by Andrew Frost were positioned around the Tree Sculpture in order for the Friends to agree exactly where they will be installed. Five acorns and beech nuts will be sited around the Owl Sculpture and two others, an apple and a pear, will be sited in the infants play area.
The task day was also attended by the Stockport Youth Offending Team, who planted bulbs in the grassed area at the north of the park near to Garth Road and some members of the Friends also planted bulbs in the wildlife area near the canal. We apologise for not including photos of the YOT or the bulb planting, but it was just too wet!
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The park was looking spectacular in its autumn colours for our Tree Planting Event sponsored by £100 from the Woodland Trust's "Tree for All" scheme. We were pleased to welcome a small band of guests to the park to plant 121 trees provided by the Trust and a collection of Horse Chestnut trees provided by schools as far away as Scunthorpe! The Chestnut trees were planted in the north of the park alongside Garth Road. The trees purchased with the money provided by the Woodland Trust were a mixture of Mountain Ash, Silver Birch, Bird Cherry, Hawthorn, Field Maple, Ash, English Oak and Hornbeam. These were planted in the wildlife areas running down from the back of the cinema towards the canal and on past the skate park and teen area.
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A great turn out by Marple Locks Heritage Society, the Friends of the Park and Churches Together saw short work made of planting approximately 3,000 pansies in the new "Lock 17" flower bed display at the entrance to Marple from Strines. The display is based on the council's 2006 Gold Award winning Tatton Show entry and was recreated in partnership by the Friends, the Locks Society and the Parks & Recreation Department. It will be dedicated to the late Gordon Mills and was funded by Parks & Rec, The Marple Website and Marple Area Committee. For more photographs visit the Lock 17 Project page.
Whilst we were all having fun with the relatively easy work of planting pansies in Oldknow Gardens the Probation Service were working harder on our behalf to remove the bark chippings from the former boating pool in the infants play area in preparation for installation of new equipment and safe surface in the very near future.
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A quiet Bank Holiday task day with several of our regulars away on holiday saw us hoeing and weeding the main flowerbeds, the War Memorial beds and the path edges to make sure the park looks its best for the Merchant Navy Day ceremony on 2nd September. Our numbers were bolstered for a while by several of our local councillors, who joined us to celebrate the fourth successive Green Flag Award by hoisting the 2007/8 flag for the first time. The flag was raised in tandem by Cllr. Shan Alexander and Cllr. Sue Ingham whilst Adrian supervised. Note how he has perfected the art of leaning without a spade.
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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.
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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!
